Chapter 54

I waited for Sarah in the pastry shop an hour after it closed. The lights were off, save for two warm lamps on the tables, and the display fridge hummed.

It was spookier than I thought it would be. I actually jumped when the bell above the door chimed, breaking the eerie atmosphere that was created.

“Ava,” Sarah acknowledged as she sauntered into the dining room. I held my head up high, not wanting to reveal anything or seem suspicious.

“Sarah,” I swallowed. “It’s nice to see you again.”

No, it wasn’t.

“Likewise.” She looked me up and down, a sneer pasted permanently on her face. “What do you want?”

“Why’d you tell Dora to post the video?” I came right out with it. I didn’t want to dance around the subject or try to trick an answer out of her. I wanted her to know that I knew it was her idea.

“Because at the time I believed her,” She pouted slightly, faking sincerity. However, the more I talked to Sarah, the more I was able to recognize the little quirks that she did that revealed she was lying. Her eyebrows shot up high on her forehead as she pretended to feel bad.

“There’s no way you Dora came up with all that on her own, she told me you helped her come up with it.” I bluffed a little bit there, hoping Sarah would defend herself or actually accept that as the truth.

Her face was impassive. She wasn’t revealing anything, and that’s when I gave up. I wasn’t there to get information out of her. I was there to feed her a couple lies.

I could do this.

“Listen, Sarah, I get you don’t like me and that’s fine.”

She sucked on her teeth and rolled her eyes. As if she were saying, ‘Obviously’.

“I want you to stop hanging around Blue Moon Group, Ethan won’t be able to resist you if you keep hanging around.” That was a lie. Ethan hated her more than I did. “And he’s really trying to focus on his newest investment opportunity.”

“What’s the opportunity?” Sarah perked up, paying full and complete attention to my words.

Perfect.

“I shouldn’t say, Ethan told me it was supposed to be secret. It’s a big deal,” I looked away, biting my lip and trying my best to look the part.

“You can tell me,” Sarah shrugged, “Who am I going to tell? I work for Ethan’s company.”

I knew for a fact that she had never worked for Ethan, but I didn’t call her out on her lie.

“Okay, well it’s this up and coming company. It’s an emerging pack. It's very secret and lucrative. They are going to produce new supplements for alpha’s.”

I spouted lies about the made up company for nearly an hour. Sarah ate up the information. I could practically see her keeping track of every little detail I told her so that she could report it all back to Andrew.

Good, I thought once our conversation was over and she left the pastry shop. Go ruin someone else’s life.

I snuck out the back door of the shop, meeting Ethan in the back alley. He was waiting for me on a sleek, black motorbike. I didn’t even know he had something like that.

“Is it safe?” I asked as I approached him.

He laughed and handed me a helmet, “Not the way I drive it.”

“That’s not reassuring.” I scrunched my nose with a smile, and put the helmet over my heart.

Ethan got on the bike, revved it up a couple of times, and held a hand out to help me get on behind him. I was settling onto the bike when Ethan thrust it forward, forcing me to scoot forward into the seat and grab onto him for support.

“Settle in, come on,” He shook with laughter and I swatted at his shoulder playfully.

“You’re impossible.” I smiled.

When we got home, Ethan and I headed for the kitchen to have more microwave dinners for our meal. Apparently, he really enjoyed them last time. It surprised me since he’s absolutely loaded and I thought food made in a microwave would be too gross for him.

It wasn’t, though, he bought several boxes for us to try together.

We ate at the table together; something we did very rarely as of recently, and Ethan started looking at me. He was watching me eat, like he was trying to read invisible ink written on my face. I stared back at him with a frown.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“Are you happy here?” Ethan asked suddenly. It caught me completely off guard.

“Of course I am!” It was the truth. I loved living at the house with Ethan. It was the best living situation I’d ever had in my life.

“No,” Ethan shook his head, “Are you happy in this house?”

“Ethan,” I laughed lightly, humorlessly, “My other house would starve me and force me to clean up after them. They married me off to you and said if I didn’t marry you, they’d let my mom die. Of course I’m happy here.”

Ethan’s eyes widened at my bluntness, but he didn’t let up on the questions.

“I know your childhood was hard. I know you had a hard time just a few months ago,” He sighed. “I just want to make sure that you’re happy here. That, I don’t know, you like being here.”

“I like being here. Your house is safe.” I narrowed my eyes at him, “What are you really trying to ask me?”

“When I bought the house,” He explained, “It came with furniture. I never changed it, never thought about decorating. I figured I would have time to do it later.”

I nodded along with him, not really sure where he was going with his story, “Okay…”

“Well, I’m too busy to decorate the house anyways, I’ve lived here for almost a year now.” He continued, “I was wondering if you liked the decor and furniture it came with.”

I let out a little breath, smiling, “It’s a little cold and lifeless.”

Ethan let out a surprised laugh, “And you never said anything?”

“I didn’t know that I had an opinion on the matter!” I argued with a chuckle, “But yea, it reminds me of a dentist’s office in here.”

Ethan jut out his jaw, smirking and looking away while he held back a fit of laughter.

“Alright, will you do me a favor then?”

“Anything,” I giggled.

“Take this card,” Ethan took out the sleek black card that he used to buy my wedding dress from his wallet and placed it on the table between us, “And tomorrow get some good furniture and decor to make this house feel home-y to you.”

“Ethan,” I sighed, picking up the card. It was much heavier than I thought it would be. The bigger the credit limit, the heavier the card I supposed.

“Ava,” He mocked.

“I can’t do this. I’ll be out of this house once we’re divorced in a year, you won’t want all the things I like in here when that time comes.” I tried to slide the card back to him but he refused to take it.

“Ava, I want you to make this house a place you’d like to live for a very long time.”

I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he stood up and started to leave me at the table on my own.

“Ethan!” I called out as he retreated further up the stairs towards his room.

“Buy me some good furniture, I’m going to bed.”