Runaway Bride’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #1)

20. Stella

20

stella

I watch the elevator light up for each floor as I ride to the twenty-fourth floor. With each number that flashes, I remind myself of everything I need to do as I walk back into Carter, Banks and Fairchild for the first time since the wedding that wasn’t.

20…Smile, no matter what.

21…Hold your head high.

22…Tits up.

23…Let’s fucking go.

When the door opens, I see the normal buzz of seven-thirty on a Monday morning. A few of the junior associates are already working, wanting to show the partners how dedicated they are to the firm. The assistants are zooming around, getting everything ready for the day and week.

Yet, with every step I take toward to my desk, I feel the eyes starting to drift my way. I hear the whispers growing louder. I wish I could say it’s all in my head, but that theory is quickly debunked when I make eye contact with two interns who work closely with Duncan. They can’t look away fast enough.

You knew it was going to be like this. The little bit of gossip is worth the peace of mind that your life is now Duncan free .

“Welcome back.”

I relax at the sound of Andi’s voice. I don’t sit down. I don’t turn on my computer. Instead I bring her into a hug that is long overdue. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“Same.” We give each other one more squeeze before letting go. “How are you?”

I shrug, because what else can I do? “Not ready to come back here.”

“I was going to call you.” Andi trails off as two of her fellow paralegals start walking slowly past my desk. Can they make it any more obvious they are trying to eavesdrop? “Actually, let’s go somewhere more private.”

The paralegals fail to look innocent as we walk past them toward the break room. It’s not exactly private, but at least there’s a door and full glass windows, so we can see who’s coming in. Or trying to eavesdrop.

“Okay, lay it on me,” I say as I lean against the counter. “How bad is it?”

Andi’s face immediately squinches up.

“That bad?”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Your face said everything.”

She slumps into a chair. “I didn’t mean to.”

I chuckle as I take a seat across from her. Andi is not a good liar. It could be something as small as she took the last donut, to something complex like parading around a fake boyfriend. No matter the scenario, her poker face is shit. In her defense, she did pull off the fake boyfriend thing. It worked so well he’s now her real boyfriend.

However, in this instance, she’s not hiding a damn thing.

“Let me guess,” I begin. “My former fiancé is saying that I’m an unfeeling bitch who left him at the altar. That he had no clue it was coming, and my sudden, and unexpected, choice to flee has caused him so much pain and anguish that the only remedy he can come up with is filing a lawsuit against me for emotional damages.”

“Pretty much,” she says. “Wait! How did you know about the lawsuit?”

I stand to make myself a cup of coffee. I have a feeling I’ll need one or ten of these to get through today. “Maeve called me while I was in Florida. She didn’t want me to be taken by surprise.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I knew and I should’ve called you.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I do. I’m a bad friend. When it came to the suit, at first a bunch of us thought he was bluffing. Or just trying to talk shit. Duncan being Duncan, you know? Then he went parading around, showing the filing like he had the winning lottery numbers.”

I roll my eyes at the image in my head. I’m sure he was puffing out his nonexistent chest thinking he was so smart. “Sounds about right.”

“I wanted to trip him every time he came back to our department. Especially knowing what I know. Which no one does, and that kills me. I’ve wanted to defend you, but it’s your story, you know? I’ve quashed what I could, but it’s been hard. He’s a piece of shit and everyone is taking his side. Please let me start dropping hints about the flogger. Or the money. Anything. Hell, it can be a lie or a truth. I don’t care. He doesn’t deserve the sympathy he’s getting.”

I had a feeling this was how it was going to be when I returned. Taking that time off was absolutely what I needed for my mental health, but it’s putting me at a massive deficit when it comes to damage control in the office. Especially since I don’t have my dad here to play defense for me. Not that I’d want him to, but it would be nice to have more than Andi in my corner.

Damn him for retiring.

“I knew it was going to be like this,” I say. “I’ll take a little office gossip and a few weeks of being looked at funny if it means I’m not married to that lying, cheating asshole.”

“That’s a very healthy way of looking at it. Though I’m going to warn you, it’s more than a little gossip,” Andi says. “I’m pretty sure one rumor I heard was that you actually rode away from the hotel on a motorcycle.”

I nearly spit out my coffee. “Can you see me on a motorcycle? Please. That helmet would crush my hair.”

I don’t know why, but at that moment I start smiling as I wonder if Emmett has a motorcycle. I’d battle helmet head to ride on a bike with him.

Oh…motorcycle sex…

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Shit. I didn’t mean to actually smile. Just do it internally. “How am I smiling?”

“Like you’re thinking about good sex.”

“Andi!” I gasp, though I can’t think of anything to say in rebuttal, because she’s not wrong.

“Stella Banks! Did you hook up on your little vacation? Oh my God! Did you fuck a cabana boy!”

This time I don’t even try to keep the smile off my face. I also wish I could see Emmett‘s reaction if he were to find out that in this version of the story, he was my cabana boy.

“Holy shit! That good?”

“Shhh,” I whisper as I sit back down next to her. “It was, and I’ll tell you more later, but?—”

I can’t finish that sentence as the break room door swings open so hard it rebounds off the wall. And that’s when I stare straight at the man who is responsible for everything.

“Hello, Duncan.”

His snake smile isn’t fooling anyone. “Stella. Welcome back.”

Andi looks to me, then to Duncan, before back to me. I give her a nod that it’s okay to go. Yes, I’d like a witness in case I murder him, but at the same time she needs plausible deniability .

Duncan watches as Andi leaves the room, shutting the door behind her, leaving the two of us staring at each other with nothing but disgust. At least that’s my view of him. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but if I were to guess, it’s mock arrogance and a bit of anger.

Because, you know, he’s the one who should be angry because none of this was his fault.

Oh wait…

“You look well,” he says, unbuttoning his suit jacket before sitting down across from me.

“You look like a lying asshole. Or an uncircumcised penis. Can’t decide which.”

“Oh Stella,” he says with extra slime in his voice. “Do we need to be like that?”

“Why? Is this causing you more emotional damage? You going to up the damages? Because I’ll take back the penis dig. But you are a liar, and I’ll scream that until I’m blue in the face.”

“Stella, baby…come on now.”

“Don’t baby me, Duncan Hughes.” My voice is growing louder. Judging by the eyeballs trying not to stare into here, they can hear me. I couldn’t give two shits. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to see if you’d have dinner with me tonight.”

I think my eyes jump out of my head. “Dinner? With you? For what, Duncan? What possible reason would I have to go to dinner with you?”

Is he serious? He can’t be. He’s either dumb or delusional if he thinks I’m going anywhere with him.

Oh, who am I kidding? He’s both.

“To talk. About us. We need to put all this behind us so we can make up and start fresh.”

I let out a laugh so loud even the people who aren’t trying to eavesdrop heard us. I know because a group of heads all popped up from their cubicles at the same time.

“There are only a few things to talk about. One is when I’m going to be paid back for your shady business dealings. Second, to schedule when I can come to the condo to get my things. Neither of those are getting back together, and it never will be. Going forward, when we have any conversations that aren’t pertaining to business at the office, it will be with my father next to me as my lawyer. And I’ll want Simon there simply so I can watch you piss yourself when he just stares at you for hours, thinking about how many people he’ll need to call in to hide your body.”

He tries to hide the gulp he swallows, but he can’t. The man is scared shitless of my brother.

“Stella, come on,” he says. Is he asking again? Does he not understand the word no? “You had your time away. I let you take the time you needed. You got to lay on the beach and get everything out of your system. It’s now time to get everything figured out.”

The fucking audacity of this man. He’s actually serious. I know because he’s leaning forward, his head tilted like he’s trying to show that he cares, while holding out his hand for me. I can now see clearly all of the times he did this to manipulate his way out of a fight, or to get his way.

Not anymore.

“You want me—the woman you lied to, stole from, and cheated on, on the day of our wedding, mind you—to just brush it all way because you asked me nicely? Because you think some time on the beach washed away all my issues, so now I can forgive you?”

Holy shit. His eyes say it all—that’s exactly what he thinks.

“Well yeah. Don’t you forgive me?”

“No the fuck I don’t!” I yell as I pop up from my chair. This is no longer a sitting conversation. “And even if I did, which I never would, you spent the last two weeks telling everyone here that I’m a bitch and you’re suing me. Why would I get back together with you when you have an actual lawsuit out against me?”

Judging by his reaction he didn’t realize I knew that. Did he think my family wouldn’t tell me? With every conversation I have with him, the more I realize that he’s a fucking idiot.

“Who told you about the lawsuit? Andi?”

“Yes, Andi. And my sister. And my father. You know, my lawyer? Who you served papers to. How would you think I wouldn’t know?”

“The suit was just something I did out of anger,” he says with a mock apologetic tone. “I’ll drop it right now if you’ll just have dinner with me. Talk this out. Give me another chance.”

I almost—almost—start to give in. Not fully, but I feel myself begin to say, “Fine, I’ll have dinner.” Because that’s what old Stella would’ve done. She would’ve given in because she didn’t want to fight.

That was the old me. The new me isn’t putting up with this shit.

No, I’m Stella 2.0. A little crazy, a little bold, and knows what she fucking wants. In the past two weeks since I figured out who Duncan was, I’ve also figured out who I am.

I’m not that needy woman who just wanted what everyone else had.

I’m not the woman who’s going to forgive to avoid conflict.

And I sure as shit am not the woman whose going to be with a man just for the sake of it.

I’m strong. I’m capable. I know my worth. I also know that no one is going to drag my name through court because his feelings are hurt. Nope, I’m going to countersue him for a dollar just to say on the record how much of a piece of shit he is.

And I want Nadia to testify on my behalf.

Actually, I want more than that. I want everyone to know what he did. I don’t want to sit back and just let the gossip die down. Why does he get to have the last word and use his status at the firm to win the breakup?

Fuck. That.

Before I can think about what I’m doing, I swing open the door of the break room and head into the bullpen of the office. As I march to the middle so everyone can see me, I’m remembering back to the night of the rehearsal dinner when Duncan told me not to cause a scene.

I didn’t then, but I sure as shit am about to cause one now.

“Hey! Everyone!” I yell as everyone turns their eyes on me. I’m surrounded by associates and interns, and even a few of the managing partners are making their way out of their offices.

Good. I thrive on an audience. I’ll even stand on a desk so everyone can see and hear me just fine.

“I’m assuming by now you all know that I left Duncan at the altar,” I begin as more eyes focus on me. “And I’m also going to assume that he, or someone in his circle of law bros, has told you that I’m a bitch. That I hurt him, and he’s the good guy in all this, and no one can fathom why I left.”

I hear low murmurs and see head nods. I also see glares from the law bros I just mentioned. I know they’re trying to intimidate me. Joke’s on them. Their presence is only fueling my fire.

“What I’d like to let you know is that he stole from me. Thousands of dollars. I’d rather not go into more detail than that because I’m sure if my father— you know, the man whose name is on your paychecks—were here he’d tell me to not talk about details of a lawsuit. And not just the bogus suit he’s filed against me for emotional distress. Which is horseshit. Because actual emotional—and visual—damage is the thought and memory of Duncan Hughes getting flogged on a bed by a dominatrix an hour before our wedding in nothing but his tie and dress socks while being called a good boy. Now that will give you nightmares.”

I hear a few gasps as I watch all the eyes turn to Duncan. I take a peek over to him just in time to see the color drain from his face. I want to stare, but I also need to keep going. I’m on a roll.

“So yes, everyone, please know that before you go believing everything you hear, that there are two sides to a story. One is from a woman who was going to give everything to the man she thought she loved, only to find out she was being lied to and cheated on. The other is coming from a pencil dick who fell for a Ponzi scheme and barely gets hard with his three inches paying a woman to flog him.”

It’s at that moment I see Stanley Carter, the most senior partner of the firm, walk into the room. I know I have about a minute before he says that he needs to see me, but I’m not quite done. I climb down from the desk because I have one more thing I need to make sure that everyone, but especially Duncan, knows.

“I was the best you were ever going to fucking do,” I say as I stare at him dead in the eyes. “Goodbye, Duncan. And go fuck yourself.”

I walk toward Stanley with my head held high, not looking directly at anyone as he opens the door to his office. I don’t sit down even though he walks behind his desk and does so himself.

I know what’s coming. So I’m going to do it before he can.

“Stella…”

“I know,” I say. “I’m resigning. Effective immediately.”

He lets out a sigh and hangs his head for a second. “I didn’t want it to be like this. You know how much I think of you. Of your father. You run this office better than anyone we’ve had in thirty years. I wanted to fire him. I know what he did to you—and not just because you announced it. Your dad told me.”

I wince for a second, hating that a man I admire knows about all the shitty things I let happen because I was too…whatever… to see what was right in front of me.

“Stanley…”

He shakes his head for me to stop. “Don’t. Whatever you were going to say, don’t bother. Personally, I’m on Team Stella. But unfortunately, professionally, I have to be neutral. And since Duncan didn’t do anything that was in direct reflection of the company or to harm his clients…”

“I know,” I say as the adrenaline crashes around me. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Name it.”

“Don’t call my dad right away,” I say. “Let me tell him.”

He nods in the fatherly way he has about him. “Done. We’re going to miss you around here.”

I look back to the office, where everyone is seemingly getting back to work. “I will too. Mostly.”

I leave his office, my head held high, as I go to my desk and quickly pack up my belongings. Andi helps me, but doesn’t say anything as she carries one of the boxes to my car.

“Call me later?”

“Of course.”

I’m in a haze as I spend the next hour driving to my parents’ house in Rolling Hills as I replay the last hour of my life on repeat.

And each time it finishes, I don’t regret a single second.

Except that I don’t have a job.

And I only have a place to live because Ainsley’s an angel.

Oh, and I’m getting sued.

Still no regrets. All of these are small prices to pay to avoid what would’ve been the biggest mistake of my life.

When I pull into my parents’ driveway, I see my dad sitting on the front porch swing. Does he know? Or is this coincidence?

“Stella?”

Surprise. Good. I can handle that.

“Hey, Dad.”

“What’s wrong?”

I wince a little before telling him an abridged version of the events.

“I might or might not have just told the entire law firm that Duncan likes to be flogged. And why I ran from the wedding. Oh, and I called him a pencil dick and then I quit. ”

Dad laughs. “Did you throw in that he’s a cheating asshole?”

“Of course.”

“Do you need a lawyer?”

“Probably.”

He throws his arm around me as he leads me into the house. “That’s my girl.”