Chapter dedication: jackie-l

Song of recommendation for the chapter: Stitches - Shawn Mendes 🎶🎧🎶.

*

Chris watched the sunset from his home. He glanced around at the luxury furnishings and the life that was full of the best things money could buy. But it felt empty. It felt the way it had before he'd met Ledia Arden and his life had changed.

Obsessions had a way of doing that.

But the thing was he no longer believed she was only an obsession. Her words that last night in front of the bakery haunted him. A million times he replayed them. Heard her say that what they had was a waste of time and that they were never meant to be.

He'd been heartbroken.

For a while he hadn't even contemplated on how to fix this mess they were in. He'd wanted to find another woman and prove to Ledia exactly how desirable he was to other women, how much it hurt to be dumped unceremoniously. But he'd been disinterested in any other woman.

Then this past three days he realized how much joy she'd brought to his life. Not just her presence in his bed, but the way she had helped him discover happiness again; helped him with his family. The effortless way she had of making connections between people and ensuring no one felt inferior.

The way she had four and a half weeks ago. In retrospect, he understood perfectly where he'd gone wrong.

His gut said to call her back and make her another offer. Have her take him back on her terms. Be her love slave or whatever else she'd have from him.

But another part, a bigger part, was still seething about her dismissal and was truly afraid of what she made him feel. He'd hurt this past three weeks in a way that he'd never felt before. His life had been a glided one of privilege where no woman denied him anything.

Until Ledia. His Lee. He wanted her back. He wanted her happy.

There was a knock on his study door before it opened. He glanced over his shoulder to see Maryann, his weekly cleaner, standing in the doorway. "Are you receiving sir?"

"Who is it, Ann?" He asked, hoping against hope that it would be Lee. If she came to him, he'd take her back,  dismissal be damned.

"Your brother, sir."

The last thing he wanted was to talk to his brother who seemed mad with him about that night with April. Even his sister refused to speak with him and his mother didn't call him like she did before, claiming that she would talk to him when he resolved things with Ledia and stopped mopping around. Chris knew that she was already upset about he and April, had her doubts about their relationship, which wasn't surprising after she ended things between them.

God, he was such a mess.

But he had also been a total ass to Lee. Deserting her when she needed him the most wasn't a stellar record on his part too.

Lee wasn't coming back, If what she said to him that night was anything to go by. It hurt like hell; her words he meant. They were like tiny needles piercing his skin deeply and he couldn't get them out. The thought of her responding to another man, the way she did when they made love, made his body boil with jealousy.

She loved him. That's what she said. But he wasn't so sure she really loved him. Maybe she said it to him in the heat of the moment, or because hearing it would make him feel better.

Chris rubbed his hands over his face.

I don't know what to believe anymore.

"Sir?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced around the study. His desk was littered with files and he'd closed more deals these three weeks than he had in a month. He'd been working nonstop, jacked up on coffee and adrenaline. Afraid to close his eyes because he dreamed of her in his bed and woke up aching and hungry for her.

Sending her sister's call to voicemail hadn't been easy. It was like driving a stake through his heart repeatedly, so he had no choice but to block her. It still didn't stop his heart from hurting every time.

"Yes, send him back."

Chris logged on to his e-mail while he was waiting for Caesar and saw that he had a message from Amanda. But before he could open it, his brother came into the room and headed straight to the bar, grabbing a bottle of Perrier. "Have you heard the latest news?"

"No. Why?" He asked, distracted from the message for moment by his brother. Damn, he should have refused to see Caesar. He somehow knew whatever news he brought had to do with Ledia.

"I got a call from someone who said she was Sutton. She. . ."

"She what?" He was surprised to hear that Sutton had his brother's number. How did she get it?

Caesar had spent two days telling him that just because Lee told him to go away didn't mean she meant it, after all she just lost her father; Chris shouldn't screw up by letting the right for him woman go without a fight.

"She said Lee looked like hell. She's barely functioning and isn't smiling anymore. I went around to see her myself, although she didn't see me. She's worse, Chris."

Dammit, he thought. He'd wanted to be her hero and protect her. Instead he'd left her and she was worse off for having known him. "Leave it alone, Caesar. I don't want to hear about anything that has to do with her."

His brother didn't respond to that, just scooped some ice from the bucket and poured his Perrier into a glass. "You're miserable, too."

"And your point is?" He asked, trying not to look at his inbox, but failing.

Why had Amanda e-mailed him?

"You've never been stupid about anything. Not business. Not money. Not women. Don't let her be the first. At least go and see her once more. You don't give up easily."

"Why is it so important to you?"

"I have watched you suffer after Silva left you. You refused to do anything but work, refused to come to the family house, and all it took was a girl who owned a bakery from Harlem to break down your walls." Caesar took a sip from his cup. "If you're happy, the family would be happy."

"I'll take that under consideration," he said, glancing at his computer screen again.

"What's so important on your computer?"

"Amanda sent me a message."

"Did you open it?"

"No, I'm waiting for you to leave."

"Are you sure you don't need me?"

Chris stared at his brother. He couldn't believe that Caesar went out of his way just to check in on him. When was the last time they spoke without fighting?  He asked his brother.

Caesar shrugged. "I guess we just let things get out of hand ever since I saw you kissing the girl I liked back in high school."

"She came onto me, Caesar, I told you many times."

"I guess I know that now." He sighed. "I am sorry for being an ass to you all this while. You matter to everyone in the family, even though it may not seem like it. We want you to be happy."

"I'm sorry too. It's just that these few days have been hard. I will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

Caesar walked toward the door. "I'll call you tomorrow. See that you call our parents too."

Chris watched him go before finally clicking on the icon to open the e-mail message. It was brief and to the point, along with a video attachment. There were several pictures of he and Lee, the ones that was taken at the party. Lee looked happy in all of them. There was even one that was captured when she flew out of the ballroom after that incident with the waiter.

He opened them up one by one and felt like he'd been punched in the gut. In front of him in full colour was the life he'd imagined for himself and Lee. A life that was full of love, friendship and family. One that they shared together.

And he knew that there was a small chance that she still loved him. A woman who'd go through all this effort for her lover wasn't someone who could walk away easily. He remembered the other things she'd said that night. Remembered that she, too, wanted a life together. Just not as his bed buddy.

He opened the video attached, and with his heart in his throat, watched Lee move around in her bakery, her face sunken and tired. The hollow feeling on her face made his heart clenched painfully. His head spun with dizziness. He pushed away from his desk and started to reach for his car keys when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Why was Amanda sending him this? There was no way her video was taken without Lee knowing. She should be one apologizing to him not the other way around. He wasn't the one that broke up with her without any warning.

He also remembered the way she  words she said. He remembered the way she left the car without a backward glance.

*

"Go home, Christopher. I have always been alone before I met you, there's no difference now."

"Stop being so difficult, Ledia."

"You're the one being difficult. Just go away, I don't need you anymore."

Chris reared back as if she struck him for the second time that night. His grip slackened enough for her to withdraw hers and climb out of the car.

"Goodbye Christopher. You should really go and be with April now. I told you this was a waste of time. We were never meant to be."

*

Jovon clenched his hands in his lap and shut his eyes tightly to fight away the tears that were threatening to spill out of them. His heart ached badly. He was tired physically and emotionally.

It was like Silva all over again.

His felt sick to his stomach.

Clenching his jaw, he forced his eyes open and grabbed the mouse. He hit the delete button and closed his e-mail. Then he reached for the half-filled glass his brother left earlier. He knocked back the drink in one single gulp before wiping his mouth with he back of his hand.

He didn't even know he was crying until he felt a tear drop on the back of his palm.

A/N:

My babies are hurting 😥. It's hurting me too.

I feel for the both of them even when they act like fools when they clearly loved each other. Poor, Christopher.

He is so blinded and hurt by his ego that he wouldn't reach out to the the woman he loved. I still can't believe that he is giving up just like that.

I just want to shake some sense into the both of them. 😡.

QOTC:  Do you feel that Chris is better off not reaching out to Lee after she told him to leave?

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