Sophia’s Point of View
At his words, for some reason, my heart skipped a beat in my chest.
“Can I go first?” I asked.
While I wanted to know exactly what Mr Prescott had to tell me I knew I was just delaying things. Putting off the inevitable.
I had already pushed this off for too long.
Mr Prescott didn’t seem to mind.
“Alright.” He said evenly.
Just say it, Sophia.
I looked at Mr Prescott directly and tried not to falter.
“The night Jerry announced our divorce, I… I got drunk and I…”
Before I could finish, Mr Prescott interrupted me.
“You had a one night stand. I know all about it, Miss Evergreen.”
I barely registered his shift in saying my name from Sophia to Miss Evergreen as shock raced through me.
Had I just misheard Mr Prescott? Did he just say he knew about the one night stand? How long had he known?
“You knew?” Those were the only words that left my lips.
Mr Prescott shrugged easily as though he had not just upended my world.
“I didn’t know initially but after some time I got curious so I looked into it,”
He laughed but it was his businessman laugh without any real humor.
“Funny how life works, isn’t it?”
My hands formed fists at my side.
“Why would you keep that information to yourself? I had a right to know.” I demanded angrily.
Nothing about this situation was remotely funny.
“Would it have changed anything?” Mr Prescott asked, his voice deceptively soft as he closed the distance between us, leaning in slightly to cradle my chin.
“Except you are an exceptional actress, Miss Evergreen, which you are not, it was just one regretful night none of us even recalled.”
Oh. My anger partly subsided.
He didn’t know. He knew about the one night stand but he didn’t know the children were his and not Jerry’s. Of course, he would assume the children were Jerry’s, I had been married to Jerry for five years after all.
My lips parted to speak. To tell him the truth or something but whatever I had been about to say was forever lost when I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye.
Mr Prescott was holding some papers in his other hand.
I took a confused step back.
“What is that?”
Mr Prescott didn’t hesitate before responding.
“Our divorce papers.”
My anger completely gave way to confusion.
Divorce papers? My mind refused to process those words.
“What?” I asked staring at Mr Prescott waiting for him to say something different. Anything different.
But he only looked at me cooly.
“Our deal is over, Miss Evergreen,”
Our deal was over? My mind must have been broken because for the life of me I couldn’t recall any deal we had both made.
Mr Prescott was still speaking.
“Thanks to your help, I have kept Jerry Baxter distracted while I crushed his project. Now I just have to rake in my spoils and take over as the new chairman of Baxter Corporation.”
Words. More words that I was failing to comprehend.
“My help?” I whispered, not certain if it was a question or a statement.
“Sending you in my place to the board meeting. Dangling you in front of Jerry, continuously showing him what he could never have. Making him think you were my revenge plan so I could misdirect his focus from my actual plans,” Mr Prescott clarified with a mildly contemplative look on his face.
“I knew Jerry would react but I admit Kate’s assassination attempt was… an unexpectedly helpful twist that helped speed up things.”
My thought process kickstarted as my shock shifted to whatever the hollow feeling that was spreading across my entire body was.
Jerry’s failed technology launch was in Asia, same as the location of our trip. Could it be….
“Our trip to Singapore,” My voice broke on the words. “You traveled to Asia to sabotage his launch there.”
Mr Prescott didn’t deny it.
“You were most helpful as always, Miss Evergreen.”
Good Lord.
I had wondered. Right from the onset, I’d wondered how marrying a nobody like me was necessary for Mr Prescott’s plans yet now that the truth was in front of me, I was still shaken.
Was this what Jerry had been referring to when he said I had no idea how calculating his brother was?
Had everything just been an act?
My heart lurched in my chest and my vision blurred.
No. It wasn’t an act.
I recalled the first time the lines between us blurred at Mr Prescott’s office when he touched the scar on my hairline. I thought of the emotions in his eyes when he told me of his past, our rooftop dinner, the little jabs and jokes we had shared in this very study while I took my online classes.
I thought of the first ultrasound we had gone to together and the way he always held me when I was too weak to stand on my own.
No one could pretend that long and well. I might not know everything about Mr Prescott but I knew he wasn’t pretentious. Right?
“You can’t just end things between us like this.” I said, my voice stronger than the fear I felt deep down.
Mr Prescott seemed to misunderstand my words.
“You will be getting your full pay, don’t worry, your father’s demands will not be deducted from it.”
“I don’t care about that,” I said sharply. “I was talking about us. Our relationship.”
How funny was it that what had once been my motivation to keep up with this marriage had been displaced by my feelings for Mr Prescott?
“Our partnership, you mean.” He corrected, his expression unchanging.
I didn’t let his words affect me, I had come too far.
“We crossed the borders of being just partners a long time ago, Reid.”
“I already told you our physical intimacy would be with no strings attached,” Mr Prescott drawled, his tone almost sounding bored as he placed the papers on the table with a pen before tapping on it. “Sign it, Miss Evergreen.”
It felt like deja vu. Just like when Jerry forced me to sign our divorce papers.
I stayed still.
“Why are you hesitating, Miss Evergreen?” For the first time since this conversation began, I saw a chip in Mr Prescott’s calm facade as he spoke. “Don’t tell me you actually began to believe our lie?”
Our lie. But it wasn’t a lie. Our feelings for each other were real even if we had never said them out loud.
I’d always been scared to admit my feelings for Mr Prescott even to myself but maybe being in love was to be vulnerable and trust that your partner would catch you.
I looked at Mr Prescott, tears blurring my vision.
“I love you, Reid.” I confessed.
“I didn’t mean to. In fact, I fought it every step of the way. I know when we signed the contract you said we weren’t allowed to fall for each other. But it happened and I know it wasn’t just me. You felt it too.”
I took Mr Prescott’s hand in mine, my gaze steady on his.
“I know what happened with Penelope scarred you but you can’t continue living in the past.”
Mr Prescott’s gaze dropped from my eyes to my hand on his and without a moment of hesitation, he pulled away from me.
Something broke inside me at that moment.
“I do not love you, Miss Evergreen,” Mr Prescott stated evenly without even a hint of inflection.
“Penelope hurt me but I have long since gotten over it. The reason I don’t reciprocate your feelings isn’t because of some trauma, it’s simply because we aren’t compatible.”
He pulled out a white hankie from his breast pocket wiping his hand clean from my touch.
“We might have physical attraction, Miss Evergreen, but that is it. Men like me don’t have happily ever afters with women like you.”
I felt cold. The sort of cold that began in the chest and iced a person out completely.
“Women like me?” I echoed.
“Women in a different social class,” Mr Prescott tilted his head to the side almost curiously regarding me with those gray eyes that had damned me in the first place. “Besides, you didn’t actually think I would raise Jerry’s bastards, did you?”