Ryan
I reread those last lines—“I know deep down you still have some form of love for me,” and “Your first”— and tried my hardest not to pick up the phone and put a hit out on this man’s life. My blood was heating to levels I never knew existed and I was seconds away from exploding.
I picked up my phone and called Greg.
“Mr. Statham,” he answered.
“Please tell me you know exactly where Claire’s ex-husband lives and you’re just keeping it away from me so I won’t murder him.”
“I do know sir.”
I thought so... “Do you know why he’s in town?”
“We’re still trying to figure that out. I will make you aware when I know. Is that all?”
“No. I want all of Claire’s mail screened from now on. Nothing from Ryan Hayes, R.H., or anything without a return address gets into her mailbox. And I want you to give all of those things to me so I can personally get rid of them.”
“Mail tampering is a federal crime, Mr. Statham.”
“I don’t give a f**k. Do it.” I hung up and glanced at Ryan’s letter one last time before stuffing it down my shredder.
I’m going to kill him...
My alarm for today’s board meeting started going off, but I was too lost to reach into my pocket and turn it off.
I sat still at my desk—stunned. Angry. Annoyed. I couldn’t believe her ex-husband’s nerve after all this time, couldn’t believe he would even attempt to contact Claire—my Claire.
I was about to cancel all my meetings for the day and go down to Corey’s office to do another round of investigating, but the special ringtone I had for Claire began to sound.
I pulled out my phone and read her text message: “I still can’t believe that you send me flowers EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! You are completely over the top, but I enjoy every second of it. The bouquets you sent today are absolutely amazing and I LOVE them. I love you so much, Jonathan...Your last, Claire. :-)”
And just like that, my blood temperature began to cool and the ache in my chest slowly gave way.
I’ll deal with Ryan later...
“How about this one?” Corey held a mannequin’s hand in front of me, slowly waving it so I could see how the diamonds sparkled in the light.
We were standing in the only jewelry store I trusted—Valenti’s, and the store owner had shut it down so I could shop for Claire’s wedding band in private.
I slipped the ring off the plastic finger and held it in front of my face, shaking my head. “Claire wouldn’t like it.”
“Any woman would appreciate a band with rare pink diamonds—any woman. Trust me, I’ve been with enough of them to know.” He smiled.
“Speaking of any woman, didn’t you mention a threesome recently? It was with two actresses, right? You never told me if it worked in your favor or not.”
“Couldn’t do it...” He shrugged. “Wait a minute. Why are you getting Claire another diamond ring? Her engagement ring is already eighteen carats. Isn’t that enough?”
“I want to do something special for her since she’s doing something special with mine.”
“Right.” He rolled his eyes. “I should’ve known that you would end up proposing. You were a goner the minute you told me about her.”
“That’s not true.”
“Of course it isn’t. You’ve always called me at one o’ clock in the morning to tell me about some random woman you saw at a party, some woman you’ve never even spoken to. And you’ve always made me track her down four hours later.”
“It was six hours later.”
“That makes it far less stalkerish doesn’t it?” He pulled out his phone. “When exactly is the wedding? I need to make sure I don’t make any plans that week.”
“We haven’t set the date yet.” I spotted two diamond bands in the case that spoke to me; separately they were appealing, but together they could be stunning.
As if he’d read my mind, he picked up the two rings and placed them on another mannequin’s finger. “You’re getting married in less than three months and you haven’t set the date yet? You had the IPO ball planned six months in advance and you didn’t even want to go.”
“We’re meeting with the wedding planner next week.”
He raised his eyebrow but he didn’t say anything.
“Is everything alright, Mr. Statham? Mr. Walters?” The store owner walked over to us. “Have you found something that you like?”
I slid the plastic hand across the counter. “I want the ring to be a mix of these two designs—not welded together though, it’ll be too thick. And I want the same engravings that we discussed before.”
“Of course, Mr. Statham. This should be easy.”
“Shit, I’ve got to go...” Corey’s eyes widened as he looked at his phone and started walking backwards. “Firewall breach for the second time today. I’ll call you later.”
I watched as the guards let him out of the store before refocusing my attention on the rings.