I tapped briefly on my phone’s screen, making it light up with a wallpaper picture of Achilles and Liam squatting side by side of each other in the garden with dirt littered all over themselves. I smiled at the picture, but what I was more curious about was the time.
11:53 AM.
7 more minutes before Achilles arrives with Liam at my office to have lunch together. He sent me a text half way through the morning, telling me about how Liam was doing on his first day at his office and asking to try out a new cafe down the street for lunch. And even though I was swamped at work with meetings, I didn’t have the heart to tell them no after I saw how happy Liam looked sitting in Achilles’s ginormous office chair in the picture that Achilles attached to his message.
Thus, I ended up rushing through my morning meetings and pushed off a few of my afternoon meetings to make room for an hour long break for my boys. But, I was still running a bit late despite cutting my morning meetings short and I knew that Achilles was one to always arrive on the dot if not early, something about wanting to treat his queen right.
The first time he told me that, I tried to refute his words. He was a busy man and already treated me better than anyone I’ve ever known. There was no way I could ask for more, but I had to quickly give up on trying to argue him after he threatened to retire early and spend all his time waiting on me instead.
My finger tapped anxiously against the edge of my tablet as I waited for the elevator reach my floor. It felt like it was taking ages to climb one floor at a time.
Even though I couldn’t get Achilles to concede, I at least didn’t want to make him wait for me after he went through all the trouble to take time out of his workday for me.
My ears perked up as a familiar ding rang out from above me.
But right as I was about to make a beeline to my office after stepping out of the elevator, I was blocked by a group of girls waiting in front of the elevator.
I gulped as the elevator doors closed, leaving me trapped between in their little semicircle.
Mr. Serman only had three VPs for his company, and I was the only girl of the three. Although I didn’t work directly with any of these girls, I recognized them as managers reporting to the other two VPs, and I knew that they didn’t exactly like me for some reason beyond simply being the only female VP.
The girl in the center with shoulder-length dark brown hair arched her eyebrow when she caught sight of me. She politely greeted, “Hello, Ms. Belcalis. We were just talking about getting lunch together. Would you like to join us?”
An uncomfortable feeling crawled down my back. I pulled my tablet closer to myself and quietly murmured, “It’s alright. I already have lunch plans.”
She walked closer toward me, towering over my tiny stature with her heels. With an odd glint in her eye, she pouted and loudly announced, catching the attention of all the other people on the floor, “We just wanted to be nice to you and invite you to lunch, Ms. Belcalis. But I guess it can’t be helped that you can’t make room for us in your busy schedule.” Her eyes darkened with a small smirk as she leaned down closer to me and whispered in my ear, “After all, you must be busy getting under every man in the office to climb the ranks. To think you even hooked yourself a bit fish like the head of the Cordova Industries to boot.”
I pursed my lips, biting back my words.
This was part of the reason why I didn’t like bringing Liam to my office. I didn’t want him to see how pathetic his mother was, getting harassed by both men and women alike. I managed to hide it from him well enough for these last couple of years, but Achilles was much too observant when it came to things like this, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to last much longer if they decided to spend any more time than they already did at my office.
She painfully jabbed her finger into my shoulder and hissed lowly, “I don’t know how you got his attention, but just know that he will eventually be mine.”
I gripped my tablet harder, turning my fingers white as I tried not to whimper out in pain. I had forgotten that she once worked with Achilles on a project for his company. I guess she must’ve taken a liking for him.
I didn’t want to give her any more reason to hate me than she already did, so it was better to stay silent than make the situation any worse. Achilles would definitely find out if she ended up leaving a bruise, and I could only imagine how much of a fuse he would blow if he ever found out what was going on at work.
She continued to mutter lowly to herself as she picked at my appearance. “Just what does he see in you? You’re so fucking short and frail. Dull hair. Sickly pale skin. Blind as a bat. Eyes of a freak.”
I bit my lower lip harshly when she suddenly yanked the collar of my blouse open and dug her nail into the skin at the base of my neck.
She chuckled lowly, “Do you think you are special? Prancing around with his hickey on you like some sort of whore, opening your legs for anyone. I bet your fear of men is just an act. You probably-”
I was so caught up in being stuck in their little huddle and trying to drown out all of their voices that I didn’t even notice when the elevator had come back up to the top floor until I was suddenly pulled back by a strong arm around my shoulder.
“HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR HANDS ON MY WOMAN?”
My eyes widened as a familiar voice boomed over my head.
I immediately looked up and saw Liam sitting in Achilles’s arms with an expression nearly as dark as the man next to him. When did they get here? Just how much did they see?
“I, uh…” The girls faltered as they stared up at the heaving behemoth behind me.
Achilles’s eyes were hard as he glared at the people in front of me with so much anger that his body was physically shaking. His voice was low as he gritted out, “You must really be idiots to think you could get away with hurting my wife without me knowing. Calling her a whore and shaming her in front of everyone.”
“W-we were-”
Cutting her off without a single care, Achilles abruptly called out, “BENEDICT! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!”
Panic flooded through my system. I knew that he was close friends with Mr. Serman, but why was he planning to get him involved? It wouldn’t do any good to get my boss involved.
I squeezed Achilles’s arm in an attempt to ease his grip on me to shift around and try to stop him before things escalated any further, but his fingers only tightened on my shoulder as he lowly warned me, “Stay still, Jane.”
I tried, “But-”
“I will not let this go, and nothing you can say will change my mind.” He didn’t even look at me as he spoke, keeping his eyes trained on the row of girls in front of us.
I pressed my lips together as I obediently lowered my eyes and stopped resisting. He must be really mad…
Mr. Serman practically came tumbling out of his office at the sound of Achilles’s voice, eyes blown wide open at the scene in front of him. A hoard of cowering women and a heaving beast standing right in the middle of the floor.
Turning his attention to me, Achilles told me, “I will talk to you when I finish dealing with this mess.”
His eyes were hard as he looked down at me. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Achilles carefully set Liam back down on the ground and instructed him, “Take your mom to her office and stay there until I get back.”
Liam nodded obediently as he silently took my hand, guiding me toward my office and glaring at the girls from the side of his eye as he went.
He closed the door behind us the moment we entered, blocking us from the scene outside. But it wasn’t enough to completely block out the sound of Achilles’s booming voice with such a flimsy door.
Achilles was more than just angry. The sound of crashes and booms. The scattering footsteps. His muffled voice covered Mr. Serman’s pleas.
It went on non-stop for almost twenty minutes straight.
I nearly jumped out of my seat when my office door suddenly flew open, revealing a highly upset man ducking straight into the room and slamming the door shut right behind him.
He tousled his hair in frustration as he angrily paced back and forth across the room. The atmosphere felt mind-numbing heavy as each thundering footstep echoed through the room without a single word.
I nervously shuffled in my seat while waiting for him to say something. The silence was deafening. Was he going to yell at me? Call me pathetic for not standing up to them? Decide that they were right?
When he finally came to a stop, he pinched the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh as his foot tapped against the floor with impatience. After what felt like forever, he finally grunted out, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Dropping my eyes to the floor, I murmured softly, “I didn’t want to worry you…”
“For fuck’s sake, Jane!”
I flinched as a loud crack echoed through the room. Splinters of wood flew across the floor.
“I fucking thought you were safe here, only to find out you have been getting harassed since day one without me ever knowing!”
Crash!
I squeezed my eyes shut as a hollow sound boomed across the room, and a cloud of dust filled the air. His heavy breath echoed in the room as he pulled away from whatever he had hit.
“Do you know how frustrating it is to find out that someone has been hurting the woman that I love without me knowing?!” His thundering footsteps grew louder as they got closer to me.
I stiffened when he roughly pulled my chin up to look at him, making Liam instinctively squeeze my hand, unsure of whether he should step in between us or not.
“Why won’t you say anything-”
His eyes immediately softened when they caught sight of the tears brimming in my eyes.
Liam grabbed onto Achilles’s arm before anything else could happen and whimpered, “Please don’t yell at mom…”
Achilles sighed as he released his hold on my chin and slid down to kneel on the ground below me. He gently eased Liam out of my lap and squeezed his hand reassuringly, “I’m sorry for scaring you, Liam. I know that I can get too much at times, but know that I would never harm
your mom even when I am mad.”
Liam nodded hesitantly as his eyes darted back and forth between the two of us.
Achilles’s aura started to loosen up as he leaned against my knee and explained softly, “I’m sorry for yelling at you, Jane… I’m not mad at you. I’m just mad at the situation…”
I nodded mutely, still a bit too scared to reach out to him. I had never seen him get so aggressive before.
He sighed again as he pushed himself off my legs and looked up at me silently.
I flinched and reflexively squeezed my eyes shut when he reached up for my face.
“I would never hit you, my love,” he whispered softly as his rough fingers gently caressed my throbbing cheek. “I just want to check you for injuries.”
I nodded obediently as I cautiously opened my eyes again.
His eyes held so many emotions as his hand glided down my neck, “It physically hurts me to see you in pain, so please don’t ever think that I would ever be able to lay a finger on you like those other people.”
I nodded meekly as his fingers slid under the collar of my blouse and carefully pushed it aside, revealing the throbbing patch of skin that the girl had dug her nails into earlier.
He sucked in his breath sharply at the sight and gently instructed Liam to fish out the first aid kit from under my desk.
Achilles immediately sat up and eased me into his lap. He carefully pulled my shirt off my shoulder, revealing more of the irritated skin. He muttered unhappily to himself, “Just what is wrong with that woman, attacking you like some sort of rabid animal.”
I tensed up as a cold, wet cotton ball pressed up against the wound, sending a stinging pain into the side of my neck.
“I’m sorry, love. I know it hurts, but I need to disinfect it before it becomes worse.”
I nodded silently as my fingers dug into my palms, trying very hard to let out a single peep. It wasn’t that big of a wound, but it was in a very sensitive spot.
Achilles pressed a soft kiss to my temple when he finished bandaging the wound and reassured me, “You don’t have to worry about those girls anymore. I made sure that they would never be able to step a single foot back in here again.”
I pursed my lips. I didn’t exactly like those girls, but I never meant for them to get fired like that. Knowing Achilles, he probably made sure they had a black mark on their history for the rest of the corporate world to know.
They weren’t bad employees. They just didn’t like me.
Almost as if he could read my thoughts, Achilles brushed my hair away from my eyes and refuted, “They shouldn’t be allowed to work with others if they cannot control themselves enough to behave like a human.”
I nodded understandingly as Achilles pulled Liam into our laps, joining us in our little cuddle session.
Liam looked up at me worriedly, “Please say something, mom. You’re being too quiet.”
I sighed and leaned my head tiredly on Achilles’s shoulder, “I didn’t mean to worry you, honey. It was just a little bit overwhelming to take all of this in at once.”
Achilles accepted me without any resistance. Pressing a kiss on the top of my head, he quietly asked me, “Just promise me you will tell me if something like this happens again in the future. You will never be a burden to me. All I want is to keep the two of you safe.”
I melted under his touch. How could I ever be scared of this man when all he’s done is show us how much he cares about us?
“I promise, Achilles.”