I pulled away and got up from the couch. “Don’t touch me.”
“I couldn’t tell you because if you knew, you would have acted differently, and we couldn’t run the risk of him catching on. It was bad enough he was suspicious of the emergency Chicago trip and that he wasn’t going.”
“So you were just going to let him rape me?” I screamed.
Connor got up and started to walk towards me. “NO! I wasn’t. How the hell could you say that?”
“Because he damn well got close enough! What the fuck, Connor? You didn’t think I deserved to know what the hell you and your boys were planning. This is my life, my fucking life, and you should’ve included me,” I screamed as I broke down and fell to my knees.
“Ellery, please try to understand,” he said as he kneeled down in front of me.
“Understand what?!” I screamed. “I need time away from you so I can think.”
“Don’t say that, Ellery. Please, don’t say that,” he begged as a tear fell from his eye.
I got up from the floor and wiped my eyes. “You keep things from me, even though you promise you won’t. I need time away from you because if I don’t get it, I will hurt you.”
“Baby, please!” he yelled as I tore up the stairs.
I slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it. I took a suitcase from the closet and started throwing some clothes in it. When I was packed, I called a cab and took my suitcase downstairs. Connor was sitting on the couch with his face buried in his hands. When he heard me, he looked up.
“I’m going to the beach house, and I’m taking Julia with me. Do not, and I repeat, do not come there. This marriage is hanging by a thread right now and, if you come there, I can promise you that it will be over. I need time.”
“How much time do you want?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” I said as the tears wouldn’t stop flowing and I walked out the door.
Chapter 36
Connor
The door shut and, just like that, she was gone. I walked over to the bar to get a drink. I picked up the glass and threw it against the wall. I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took it upstairs. Whiskey wasn’t my drink of choice, but it was right in front of me. I reached the top of the stairs and stepped inside Julia’s room. As I looked around, tears started falling from my eyes at the thought that I wouldn’t see her for a while. In an instant, my life had unraveled right before my eyes because of my stupidity. I sometimes questioned how the hell I was the CEO of a billion-dollar company. This was not how I planned for things to turn out. Ellery didn’t even know that I called Peyton and told her not to come over. She’d find out soon enough after she called her.
I lay down on the bed and replayed the night over and over again as I brought the bottle of whiskey to my mouth. I wasn’t going to let Phil hurt Ellery in any way, but Justin slipped up when he let her leave the penthouse. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, hoping she’d left me a message of some sort. But she hadn’t. I wanted to know how much time she wanted and needed because I couldn’t give her time. She was my wife and the mother of my child, and I wanted them back home. As I drank the last drop of whiskey, I threw the bottle across the room and watched it shatter as it hit the dresser. As the effects of the alcohol clouded my thinking, I felt myself slipping backwards to a time I never wanted to remember.
The nightmare of what happened jolted me awake. I looked over at the time and it was five o’clock in the morning. My head was pounding and my skin was drenched with sweat. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and prayed Ellery had either called or messaged me. She hadn’t. The ache in my heart was back with a vengeance as it screamed in agony. I rolled over and fell back asleep.
***
“What the fuck is going on?!” Peyton’s high-pitched voice startled me from an alcohol-induced sleep.
“Jesus Christ, Peyton, this is my bedroom. Get out!”
“I’m not going anywhere, buddy. Are you hung over? You look like shit!”
The last thing I needed right now was Peyton. I stumbled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. “If you don’t mind, I need to take a shower.”
“Go ahead, but I’ll be downstairs making you a pot of coffee, and then we’re going to have a little talk.”
I stood in the shower and let the hot water beat down on my body. As I put my hands up against the shower wall and closed my eyes, thoughts of Ellery and Julia consumed me. I stepped out, got dressed, and headed downstairs for some much-needed coffee. Peyton had a cup poured and sitting on the table across from her.
“Sit down, now!” Peyton commanded.
“Can I get some aspirin first?” I asked as I shot her a look. “Have you talked to her?”