Sophia’s POV
This again. Did he really think I would be so eager to go back to a man who had treated me like trash for five years?
I placed my hand on top of Mr Prescott’s.
“Fine. Let’s dance.” I said.
Mr Prescott smiled but there was nothing warm about it. Then he stood leading me onto the dancing floor.
As we moved, I could feel the intensity of someone’s gaze on me and I lifted my head only to lock gazes with Jerry who was watching me with an unnerving focus.
I was so startled that I stumbled in my steps only for Mr Prescott to steady me with his grip on my hand and shoulder.
“Watch your step, Miss Evergreen.” He said with a low but undeniably frosty voice.
One look at Mr Prescott and I knew he had noticed the exchange between Jerry and I. Great. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
We reached the dance floor and Mr Prescott led me through the first steps of the waltz.
Dancing with him with so much left unsaid between us made me so tense that I couldn’t relax in Mr Prescott’s arms.
His hand settled on my waist tugging me closer than was appropriate and a soft gasp escaped me in surprise.
I glanced up at him, my lips parted in shock and looking into those gray eyes might have been my greatest mistake.
Mr Prescott might not have felt anything for me other than threatened that I was going to wreck his plans but it was fast becoming apparent that it wasn’t the same for me.
As we danced and I spun in his arms, the world paused and slowly faded away, reducing to the feeling of Mr Prescott’s hand on my waist, his face inches on mine, his scent in my nose, the racing of my heart in my chest.
I stopped dancing midstep.
“I… I don’t feel good. I need to use the restroom.” I said pulling away from Mr Prescott, unable to meet his gaze as I hurried away.
I walked fast towards the restroom as though death was on my heels and it might as well have been because the feelings I was growing for Mr Prescott couldn’t end well.
My breathing became more labored as I moved, my world slowly spinning out of control on its axis. I knew instantly a panic attack was coming on. My first one in years.
Jerry betraying me and tossing me out on the curb hadn’t been enough to prompt a panic attack from me but one dance with Mr Prescott had.
I was so done for.
I entered the restroom flicking on a faucet as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out with shaky hands only to see Jerry’s call pop up.
I dropped my phone on the countertop to the side of the sink as though it were a venomous snake. Why the hell was Jerry calling me?
I plunged my hands under the running faucet water. Trying to shake myself clean of my panic attack, I tried to focus on a color.
Gray. The color of the tiles on the floor, the color of the countertop my phone was on, the color of Mr Prescott’s eyes. Damn. Even now I couldn’t stop thinking of him.
The door of the bathroom slammed open and Kate charged in like a woman on a mission, her baby bump bigger than the last time I saw her.
She yanked my arm pulling my hand from the bowl in her aggressiveness to turn me to face her.
For a moment I was astounded by her audacity.
“What do you think you are doing, Kate?”
“That’s what I should be asking you. You, hussy,” Kate hissed, her wide-eyed glare adding to her slightly unhinged look. “Do you think Jerry is postponing our wedding because of you?! You can never take him from me.”
What was Kate talking about?
I’d seen the tabloids carrying the rumors of their postponed wedding but I had assumed if it was true, it was due to the many projects currently underway at Baxter Corporation.
It definitely wasn’t for my sake.
I looked at Kate’s jealous face and I was just done with her and with all of this.
I yanked my arm out of her grasp roughly making her stagger in the process then I faced her down.
“The next time you accost me like this, I’ll forget the fact that you are pregnant.” I said in the calmest voice I could muster before brushing past her and knocking her back a few steps as I headed towards the door.
My hand was on the doorknob when I glanced back at a glaring Kate.
“Oh, by the way, Kate, I’m not in the slightest bit interested in your fiance in fact, I hope you stay together for a long time, both of you deserve each other.”
Then I left the restroom slamming the door angrily behind me.
I was almost back in the hall when I realized I had left my phone on the countertop in the restroom.
Damn. I had to go back to get it
Meaning I had to face Kate again and so help me if she tried to pick a fight with me, I might end up venting all my pent-up anger and frustration at her.
I walked back to the restroom partly filled with dread of an incoming fight. Only when I reached to open the closed restroom door, Kate’s angry voice from inside gave me pause.
“… daring to threaten me about this pregnancy is the last thing you want to do.” She yelled then she paused and I heard her scoff in disbelief before she said the words that would shatter my world.
“Be my guest. Go right ahead and try telling Jerry Baxter the truth that he is infertile and see where it will get you.”
I nearly slumped from the shock.
Jerry Baxter was infertile?