When I open my eyes the next morning, I realize I’m alone in bed. Sebastian brought me upstairs and held me until I fell asleep.
Maybe he went back to his room later.
I roll out of bed and change into workout clothes. A good run should help me organize my thoughts. Clear my head.
The door opens. “You’re up,” Sebastian says, coming in with a cup of water. “Here.” He hands me Plan B. “I just grabbed it. Thought you might want it.”
I look at the box for a moment. And think about how sensible and considerate he’s being. We didn’t use a condom last night, and I’m not on birth control. I was planning to stop by the pharmacy to grab one on my way to work.
The conversation Sebastian and I had at Manny’s Tacos flashes through my mind. Neither of us wants a pregnancy.
At some point, I’d love to have children. But right now, a baby would only complicate things. I’d rather not bring a child into the world when I’m not ready. “Thanks.”
I swallow the pill, then look down at the floor for a second to gather my thoughts.
He takes the empty glass back. “About last night…”
“I was pretty melodramatic and not myself.” The frustration of the delays with the Hae Min Group and the drama with Gabriella have completely derailed me. “It won’t happen again.” I smile like everything’s fine.
He looks at me like he has a lot to say, but I don’t think I can listen to him right now.
“I want to go run now. You’re welcome to work out with me if you like.”
I put AirPods into my ears, turn the music on as loud as I can tolerate it and head to the gym. He follows, but he doesn’t try to talk. He just gazes at me thoughtfully, which is almost as bad as our talking about what happened, because it keeps poking at my raw emotions. And I have no idea what he’s thinking.
We go to work, and Bianca informs me Chul-Su hasn’t responded yet. Later that afternoon, Sebastian sends me stunning scarlet dahlias.
“They’re gorgeous,” Bianca says dreamily, staring at the flowers on my desk. “He sure knows how to treat you right.”
I smile wordlessly. She didn’t grow up like me. To her, gifts are just gifts, not ulterior motives or pretty blankets to lay over lies.
She tilts her head. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have that look. Come on. You can tell your bestie.”
“It’s nothing.”
She shoots me a you’re-full-of-shit look.
“Fine. Take a seat.”
She promptly complies, and I sigh and tell her what happened yesterday, skipping the explicit details. I can’t decide if I’m making any sense. To be honest, I’m not sure if I can put logic to my emotions. They’re so contradictory and volatile.
“You have feelings for him,” she says when I’m done.
“Of course I do. He’s my husband.”
“No, I mean real feelings. At the very least, you like him, and you want him to like you back. You’re frustrated because you don’t think that’s going to happen.”
I let out a laugh. “I’ve never… That’s ridiculous.”
“Don’t kid yourself. You wouldn’t have reacted like that if you didn’t have any expectations.”
“But you know why I married him—the circumstances of our marriage.”
“So? He was your first choice all along.” She raises a hand. “We aren’t going to talk about Darren because that piece of shit was your grandfather’s pick, not yours. And Preston was pushed on you by the Comtois family. The fact that you hand-picked Sebastian tells me you felt something for him from the beginning. On top of that, he acted in ways that would mess with anybody’s mind.” She leans closer. “He’s kind to you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“Okay, so…?”
She rolls her eyes. “He looks at you like you’re the center of his universe.”
Something warm and happy shivers through me, but I shake it off. I don’t want to hope only to be let down again. “He’s acting.”
“He’s a hell of an actor, then, because I bought the whole thing, even though I know exactly what’s going on.” She stands and pats my shoulder. “The man’s gorgeous and treats you well. You could do much worse. Don’t be so hard on him.”
“Hey! You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Which is why I’m telling you all this. If I wasn’t your best friend, I would’ve told you to dump him and get yourself a new boy toy.” She starts to leave with a playful smile. Before closing the door, she says, “You have a meeting in ten minutes with the finance team.”
I nod and plunge into the rest of the day, which is jam-packed with meetings. Just as I end the final one, my stomach cramps in that familiar but unpleasant way. My period has started.
For once, I actually welcome it. No unintended consequences.
After I wrap up a few last-minute items on my agenda, I pick up beef burritos with extra cheese from Manny’s Tacos and head home. Sebastian texted he was going to be home late.
I eat my dinner alone in the huge, silent house. For some reason, the place feels even bigger and quieter today. He doesn’t come home until I’ve been tossing and turning in bed for a while. The cramps are making it impossible to get comfortable.
He changes and slips under the covers. I ball up on my side, my back to him.
“I’m on my period,” I tell him before he can touch me. “So you can sleep in your room if you want. I’m going to be tossing and turning a lot.”
He says nothing, but I can feel the weight of his gaze. I hold my breath, waiting for him to leave.
“Sometimes I just like to hold you at night without wanting sex,” he says quietly, his breath on the back of my neck.
I bite my lip.
He pulls me close, lays a large warm hand on my belly and rubs gently. The heat and the massage seem to alleviate the cramps.
Placebo, I tell myself. No matter how protective his arms feel around me, the gnawing emptiness is still in my heart. Bianca’s words that I want him to like me back float in my head, and it’s a struggle to fall asleep.
He continues to hold me every night, and I keep being silent, mulling over what Bianca said. By the time my period ends, I’ve given up and admitted she’s right. But that doesn’t provide me with a guideline for future action. How do you demand that someone like you just because you like him? There’s a reason words like “unrequited” exist.
We also don’t discuss what The Hollywood News claimed about the origin of the photos, although I ask Bianca to hire a security team to look into my home’s IT infrastructure. She turns horrified when I tell her what Sebastian discovered, but recovers and promises to get on it as soon as possible. We’ll find the real culprit behind the photo leaks. Unlike him, I’m not going to assume anything.
Sebastian and I also don’t discuss what the Hae Min Group said about Gabriella. The peace between us is as fragile as a butterfly’s wing. You breathe wrong—it’s going to break. And I don’t want to be the one to breathe wrong.
So instead, I instruct Karen to look into getting another partner in Korea, since the Hae Min Group seems to have become unreliable. I also ask her to look into ending the venture altogether.
“That would be catastrophic for you,” she says, deep lines between her eyebrows.
“I know, but the Hae Min Group might not work out after all.” If everyone’s dragging their feet and going behind each other’s backs, the venture’s doomed. We should end it before we spend more money and energy.
“There’s a penalty for pulling out,” she says. “Sebastian Jewelry’s legal team wasn’t stupid.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to do it.” I press my lips together tightly, trying to hide the frustration welling. This project should have never been this complicated to execute. I don’t know where it derailed so badly. “I just want you to look into minimizing the loss. Just in case.”
She stares at me for a long time. “Okay.”
After she leaves my office, I sigh. The shareholders are going to be infuriated if I end the collaboration. I spoke highly of it before, and many of them were excited over a new market and bigger profits. I need something to distract them, something shinier, but can’t think of anything. It doesn’t help that I have less than forty-eight hours to come up with a new idea for the shareholders’ meeting. But is that what they really want? I’ve had so many great ideas that eventually flopped for some reason. They aren’t going to be pleased about the latest.
My phone rings. It’s Yuna.
“Hi, Yuna,” I say, with a warm smile in my voice.
“Hi. Am I interrupting anything?” She sounds…taut.
“No. Is everything okay?”
“Not really. But I wanted to talk to you first. Knowing what I know, I just can’t accept their side of things.”
Dread slowly wraps its fingers around my heart. “What happened?” Tabloid gossip? Did someone say something to her?
“My dad is furious that Peery Diamonds is refusing to create a custom-designed diamond set for my mom for their anniversary.”
“What?”
“He thinks you aren’t taking the deal seriously, and this is your way of expressing how little regard you have for the business relationship.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I say. “Hold on. I never heard about this.”
“How is that possible? His assistant called and spoke directly with yours. Mr. Park does not make mistakes. He wouldn’t have been at Hae Min for so long as my dad’s right-hand man.”
“What did he say was my assistant’s response?” There has to be some kind of miscommunication. Maybe Julio mishandled it while Bianca was out of the country.
“She told him it’s not happening. Without any explanation.” Yuna sounds insulted.
She? “Maybe he misunderstood,” I say woodenly as my thoughts spiral out of control, trying to piece together what must’ve happened.
“He doesn’t misunderstand. He speaks four languages, and his English is excellent.”
My whole body starts shaking. I prop my elbows on the desk and press the heels of my hands against my pulsing temples. She’s right about Mr. Park. I met him, along with Eugene and a few others, when I visited their headquarters. The Hae Min employees take their work more seriously than a heart attack.
Yuna isn’t finished. “Dad is fuming, and Eugene isn’t thrilled, either. They think you’re jerking them around, because you don’t respond to the group’s emails in a timely fashion. And when you do, it’s often with ambiguous wording or not what was agreed upon. Like insisting on using Gabriella Ricci.”
I jerk my head up.
“Wouldn’t it be awkward to work with your husband’s previous girlfriend? Especially when the gossip sites claimed you stole him from her? I can’t imagine a situation like that. And it isn’t like she’s the only acceptable model out there.”
Blood roars in my head. This is the exact opposite of what Bianca told me.
Yuna continues, “It wasn’t a big topic in Korea because there was a juicier scandal at the time. But if this collaboration launches with Gabriella Ricci as the brand ambassador, the media there will talk about the three-way relationship involving you, her and your husband, and it will create a negative brand image.”
Nausea wells. A bitter-sour tang coats my mouth.
“Eugene is ready to cut ties and sue both Peery and Sebastian Jewelry.”
Holy mother of God… Dread pours over me. The shareholders’ meeting is two days away. A lawsuit from our overseas partner would be the final nail in my coffin.
“But I told him I needed to talk to you before he did anything. Because what he said doesn’t jibe with what I know.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, struggle to breathe…and think. “Okay, I… That isn’t how I understood the situation.” My voice is shaking, and I stop and inhale. I can’t afford to get emotional. Project calm leadership—and see what can be done to salvage all this. “First of all, my assistant should never have said that, assuming there was no miscommunication or misunderstanding. We’re always happy to do custom work, and I already told my design team to come up with special gifts to celebrate the partnership. Maybe she didn’t articulate the situation well. As for Gabriella Ricci, my understanding was that Hae Min wanted to use her.” Bianca said Chul-Su wanted Gabriella, but would he have said that knowing Eugene would have the same concern that Yuna just voiced? “But like we discussed before, I’d prefer that we use a local celebrity with the right image and fanbase.”
A silence. “What’s going on, Lucie?” Yuna asks. Her tone’s softer now, concerned.
“I don’t know,” I say, although my churning gut says I do. But I simply can’t imagine my best friend doing all this when she knew how much her actions would hurt. She has nothing to gain by lying like this between me and the Hae Min Group. There has to be another explanation. “I’m going to have to look into this. I want to understand how so many mistakes were made.”
“If your assistant isn’t doing her job, you’re going to have to let her go,” Yuna says quietly. “She’s cost you and Hae Min a lot of trouble and time.”
“She’s my best friend. She’d never do anything that could harm the company. Or my reputation.”
“Lucie. I think she already has.” Yuna isn’t unkind, but that makes me feel more like a failure. The worst judge of character.
I clench my trembling hands.
“I hope you can safeguard your company. I’ll speak to my brother, and see what we can do. But if this issue isn’t resolved immediately, he won’t work with you.”
“I understand.” I choke out the words, then clear my throat. “Thank you for letting me know, Yuna.”
“It’s not a problem. And Lucie…good luck.”
We hang up. I bury my face in my hands. If it hadn’t been for Yuna, the Hae Min Group would’ve terminated everything and sued. What a disaster that would’ve been.
But now that I know what the problems are with the collaboration, I have to address them as soon as possible. Everything points to Bianca, but it doesn’t make any sense. We’ve been friends even before we started preschool. There has to be another explanation for this.
I hit the intercom to ask her to come in, but I can’t say the words. My throat is scratchy and raw, like it’s full of little splinters. If Bianca sees me like this, she’s going to know something’s wrong. I don’t want her to think I suspect her.
I don’t. I can’t.
I pull up the intercompany messenger instead.
