“Goodbye, Hayley.”

“I love you too.” She jumped up and headed for the door as Corey came in.

Then I looked up and saw it. Plain and clear. The way Hayley’s eyes lit up as he held the door open for her, the way he almost leaned down to kiss her good bye, but held back and smiled instead.

What. The. Fuck.

I waited until he closed the door, until he took a seat at my desk—directly in front of me.

“So...” He cleared his throat. “About the Meyer’s account. I was thinking we could investigate their background a little more before we fully commit. What do you think?”

“Are you fucking my little sister?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s a yes or no question. Are. You. Fucking. My. Little. Sister?”

“I...It’s not like that.”

“Yes or no.”

He sighed. “No...Not—”

“Yet? You plan on fucking my little sister?”

“Johnathan, man...It’s not what you think it is.”

“For your sake I would hope not.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “When the fuck were you going to tell me about this shit?”

“I wanted to tell you weeks ago, but I knew how you would react to this...What I have with Hayley is nothing like what I’ve had with all those women in the past. And if you would just listen to me for a second I can explain.”

I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. The only thing I could focus on was breaking every single bone in his face, pushing him out the window, and watching him fall to an early death.

I didn’t care how long this shit had been going on or why. He wasn’t worthy of Hayley as far as I was concerned—best friend or not; especially not the same best friend whose body count was more than quadruple mine.

“I would never hurt her,” he said. “I swear.”

“Get the fuck out of my office.”

“Don’t do this, man. Just—”

“I can only deal with so much bad shit at a time, so excuse me if I don’t want to talk to the man who is days away from fucking my little sister and hanging her heart out to dry. Just get the fuck out.” I turned around in my chair and waited until I heard the door close.

Is this shit really happening?

I picked up my phone and called Angela.

“Yes, Mr. Statham?”

“Did Miss Gracen send out a memo to every person in my life and tell them to make me as fucking miserable as possible this week?”

“Um... No sir. Not that I’m aware of.”

“Can you please check?”

“Yes sir...Are you still meeting with the ring designer this afternoon?”

“No. Cancel that please.” I hung up and sighed. I’d called Miss Valenti yesterday to ask if Claire had ever stopped by to design my ring and—surprise, surprise, she hadn’t.

I knew I’d previously joked with her about not knowing who she was anymore when she revealed that she’d been taking erotic classes, and when I found her in that bondage room at her bachelorette party. But with our wedding falling apart at the seams and her ex-husband slipping into her life again, I could honestly say that I didn’t know who she was right now.

She wasn’t acting like the Claire I loved...

I rolled over in my bed, reaching for Claire—cursing at myself for even doing that. It’d been a week and a half since we’d last spoke and her phone calls to me still came every hour on the hour.

I was still staying in my executive suite at the office, collecting the notes she dropped off and actually reading the more recent ones. The one she’d sent yesterday read, “You are the only love of my life. Please hear me out—Claire.” And the one she’d sent today read, “I missed when you used to send notes with the flowers...That’s what made them special...”

I could practically picture her face as she received my note-less flowers, could literally see her shaking her head and trying not to cry. As much as it hurt me to know that she was in pain, I couldn’t bring myself to console her because I was hurting too...

I sighed and looked at my watch: 2:58. Even though I was still hurt—beyond hurt, I figured that when she called this time, I would try to pick up.

At exactly three o’ clock, my phone rang and I held it up to my ear.

“Hello?” I tried to hide the pain in my voice.

“Hey, Jonathan.” It was Caroline.

“Caroline? Hey, how are you?”

“I’m okay. Me and Ashley want to come home this weekend and eat dinner with you and mom if that’s okay...We’re kinda tired of campus food.”

“That’d be fine. I’ll...I’ll set that up. Is that all?”

“Almost...Do you think me and Ash are identical-identical or just identical?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, how long did it take you to figure out who was who after we’d met you for the first time?”

“A week.” I laughed. “Why?”

“Good enough. I’m going to ask Ashley to take the rest of my tests for Strategy Physics.”

“Excuse me?” I heard her gasp and I knew she hadn’t meant to say that last sentence out loud. “You’re going to risk expulsion? Is that what you just said, Caroline?”

“What?! No...”

“You have ten seconds to tell me what the hell is going on. Don’t you dare bullshit me.”

She sighed. “I missed the first two weeks of classes because I overslept...I went out partying every night and—I mean it’s Physics, like my best subject. Or so I thought...I can’t get into the flight program with less than a B minus...”

“And?”

“This isn’t like regular physics...It’s a strategic level course. It’s not about how many you get right, it’s about which ones you get right. Apparently the problems I pick to solve are the ones only worth two points...” Her voice cracked. “There are only four tests this semester and I already failed the first one. Terribly. I need to make an A on every single one to get the B minus average...”

“I take it that Ashley isn’t failing?”

“Ha! Are you kidding me?” She scoffed. “Of course not. Strategy is her best asset. She has the highest score in the class...I tried to get her to help to me, but I just don’t get it...”

I sighed and shook my head, telling her how disappointed I was that she would even think to ask Ashley to cheat for her, and that I was upset because she wasn’t taking college seriously. I told her that I would hire a private tutor for her, but she’d have to commit to twenty hours’ worth of sessions a week—at night, during party hours. I knew that was the only way she’d take it seriously.

She sounded like she was trying not to cry, but I could tell that she was. “When will I start the tutoring?”

“Tonight. I’ll have Greg fly out to get you. I’ll help you with some of it here.”

“Okay...Thank you...” She sniffled one more time before hanging up.

Claire’s four o’ clock call came across my phone and I wanted to pick it up, but I couldn’t.

Instead, I ordered two kettles of Caroline’s favorite hot chocolate and had a local candy store set up a small sweets bar in my office. I figured that a long night of physics problems would keep me from thinking about Claire.

It was a little after eight o’ clock when I heard knocking at my door.

“One second.” I set a few calculators down on my desk and opened it.

It was Claire. And Caroline. And Ashley.

“Hello ladies.” I avoided looking directly at Claire. I knew she’d been crying by the way she’d done her makeup, by the way she’d brushed her hair over her face, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to her.

“Just because I have an A in the class doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be whisked away in the private jet, Jonathan.” Ashley grabbed a chocolate stick from the candy bar. “I’m offended that I didn’t get a call. Don’t you love me too?”

I rolled my eyes and showed them over to my desk. “Let’s get started, shall we?”