CHAPTER 100
ROBERT’S POV
“Don’t you dare call that name again! You lost the right to do that nine years ago. Stay the fuck away from me and keep pretending I don’t exist to you. I’m not the same Lily from nine years back. If you fuck around with me I’ll show you the other side of me. And if you ever think of following me, I’ll call the police on you and make sure you taste what it feels to be locked behind bars.”
Lily barked at me and slapped me. A powerful one at that. No one has slapped me this hard before. In all my time of knowing her, I have never seen her this angry. She was always calm and collected even in the worst of situations. But now, it was as if a wild beast of anger and hatred had been festering inside her all these years and saw this as the perfect opportunity to unleash its ferality.
I held my cheek where she had slapped me. It was throbbing with pain yet I was oblivious of it. I just held it and continued staring at her, almost on the brink of tears as I realized I made this beast out of her. After all these years, she still hated me. She hasn’t forgotten what I made her pass through. It wasn’t like I expected to because if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t forgive myself easily either. If hitting me will make her feel better. If it was any chance it could help me regain even a fraction of her love and forgiveness then she could strike me a thousand times over, and ruin me beyond recognition. I’ll gladly accept it as my penance.
“Lily…” I can’t count the number of times that name has left my mouth.
I called her but like she’d been doing since I saw her in the boardroom, she ignored me. She ran out the door like she was running from a monster. I was the monster she was running from. My heart clenched painfully on realizing that and clenched even more painfully as I watched her quickly flag down a taxi and get in as it zoomed off. I craned my neck, watching from the side of the road as the car faded to a distant speck, taking her further away from me and leaving behind the crushing weight of my regret. I was nearly hit by a delivery truck that had wanted to park I couldn’t tear my gaze off that distant speck.
I thought of chasing after her. Even if it meant taking off my shoes and using my bare feet to run on this road teeming with speeding vehicles. But that won’t be a good idea. She warned me severely. She was extremely angry, crying and disoriented from shock. If I followed her, I’d only be pouring gasoline on an already raging fire. And if she had concerned neighbours, they’d definitely call the police on, thinking I was a shameless man trying to harass her sexually in the middle of the day. I can’t risk that. I can’t risk being thrown into jail and not seeing even for a day. I had another way.
I quickly rushed into the building, avoiding bumping into a few bodies as I tried to navigate my way back to the boardroom. The universe had done its part in helping me find her as a reward for my frantic efforts in the search for her or perhaps it had pity on me and decided I had suffered long enough. Now, it was my turn to do my part and make things right. There is no way I’m losing her again. With time, she will be mine again. And me, hers forever.
After Jane had said all those cruel things and refused to help me, I lost hope. To make matters worse, Frank couldn’t find anything on her despite monitoring her closely and hacking into her phone line and even her husband’s. Either she was telling the truth about being unaware of Lily’s whereabouts, or she was taking extreme precautions to ensure I couldn’t use her to find Lily.
After that, I became so frustrated with life I thought of giving up on everything, even my company. I told my parents not to help me in the search for her again because it was of no use. Perhaps what Jane said was true.
****”Don’t bother thinking about going to find her. She’s happy and she’s moved on. If you do, you’ll just be opening up old wounds and hurting her more. Because of you, she lost everything her job, her mum, and seven years of her freedom just to mention but a few. Even when you two were married, you had no regard for her. You treated her like scum, cheated on her with that Scarlett witch and watched her talk shit about her in front of everyone. What type of man doesn’t stand up for the woman he loves? What makes you think she’ll want to see you after everything you put her through? Robert, do yourself a huge favour and stop looking for her. Forget that she ever existed because that’s the best thing you’ll be doing for right now.”****
I remember those words like it was yesterday. For two straight weeks, they were the bane of my existence. A torn in my flesh. A knife in the heart. Maybe Jane was right, Lily has moved on. Leaving her best life without me. There was no way I could ever find her until a few minutes ago when this meeting was just about to happen.
This meeting was the last place I expected to find her. Will Crawford, the chairman of the Association of Ad Agencies in the whole country and a good friend of mine had set it up as a way of connecting top-ranking ad agencies in the country, strengthening the network and opening doors for future collaborations. He sent my company an invitation. I was reluctant to attend. I almost missed out on it but he made me come seeing how my company was struggling to regain its footing after recent setbacks.
If Lily was also invited to this meeting, it could only mean one thing: she was the CEO of a top ad agency in the country. How was that even possible? My mind raced with questions. As a CEO myself, I knew firsthand how tough it was to build an agency, let alone propel it to the top. Yet Lily had achieved all that in just two years-right after getting out of prison. How did she manage it? What had happened in the years I was absent from her life? Could she have had a hidden fortune or investments she’d kept from me during our marriage while pretending to be poor?
The question consumed my thoughts as I stormed into the boardroom, interrupting Will’s presentation. Everywhere fell silent, and all eyes darted in my direction, judging me sternly. I could hear some of them spitefully muttering in annoyance, saying,
“Who does he think he is?”
“We’re all CEOs, he’s no better or richer than us.”
“What makes him think he can just walk in and out of this boardroom like he owns the place after that cringe episode with that lady?”
“I bet he wooed her to his bed and fucked her and now, she had come to her senses, realizing what an arrogant jerk he is.”
“If he feels he’s way above our league and can’t sit down to listen to what the chairman has to say then he should have continued fucking his whore and not bothered coming.”
“Why is the side of his cheek red? He must have been slapped by his whore.” One sniggered.