Mr Spencer: Chapter 23

I stand still, my feet frozen to the spot.

The air drains from my lungs.

William glances up and sees me as we approach the table, and his face quickly falls.

He recognises me.

“Charlotte,” I whisper, coming to another stop. “I need to talk to you. Outside… now.”

“This way.” She keeps dragging me to the table.

“You fucking dog.” William sneers as he stands.

Penelope’s eyes widen in horror. “Oh my God,” she whispers the second she sees me.

Charlotte’s face falls in confusion as she looks between us. “William?” she asks.

“What’s wrong?”

“Get the fuck outside, now!” William growls.

My jaw feels like it’s on the floor. What are the chances?

I’m completely speechless. What the fuck do I say to this?

“You know each other?” Edward asks, confused by our interaction.

William glares at me. “Oh, we know each other, all right.”

Charlottes glances between the two of us. “I don’t understand.”

“Last time I saw him he was in my bed, balls deep inside my wife.” William lunges for me, connecting a fist to my jaw which forces me to fly back.

“Oh my God!” Penelope yells when the table goes flying.

I glance over to see Charlotte’s hands are over her mouth as she connects the dots.

Harold holds onto the table to stop himself from falling over and, of course, Edward erupts like a madman. “What the fuck?” he yells.

“No!” Charlotte cries. “That can’t be true.” Her haunted eyes meet mine.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“No!” she whispers. Her face screws up in pain as she realises it’s true.

“Charlotte,” I whisper as she begins to cry hysterically. “I didn’t know she was married. I swear to you.”

Edward grabs me and pushes me towards the door. I see the flash of a camera hit my face.

“That’s not true!” Penelope yells. “You knew exactly who I was married to, and you were after his money. You pursued me for months until you wore me down.”

“What?” I cry. “You fucking liar. I didn’t even know you as Penelope. You told me your name was Stephanie.” I’m hit from the side by William again. The whole restaurant is watching, and the guards suddenly seem to come running from every direction.

Edward drags me towards the door to pull me away from Charlotte.

“Charlotte,” I cry. “She’s lying, I swear to you.”

I struggle to break free, but I still see Charlotte crying hysterically in Harold’s arms.

No!

This can’t be happening!

More cameras flash in the distance.

I grab the doorframe to try and stop them from dragging me away from her. “Charlotte!” I cry. “Charlotte, come here. Listen to me!” I beg.

Charlotte’s haunted eyes hold mine for just a second before she shakes her head and turns her back on me.

I dig my heels in to try and stop them dragging me away from her. “Charlotte!”

“Just leave, Spencer,” she yells into her father’s shoulder. Harold wraps his arms around her, shielding and protecting her from me.

I’m dragged outside and I struggle to break free. All at once, Charlotte is rushed out of the restaurant, the clicks of cameras flashing everywhere until she is put into the back of the Bentley.

“Charlotte!” I scream, and the car speeds off into the distance.

Edward walks up to me, his stare cold and full of hatred. “Are you happy now?”

“I swear to you, Edward, I didn’t know.” His guards hold me by my arms.

Edward punches me in the stomach and the wind is knocked from my lungs. I double over and fall to the ground on the cold, grey pavement.

Blood fills my mouth.

I hear footsteps, cars, and the flashes of more cameras. And then there’s a cacophony of car tyres screaming in the distance. After a short while, I feel myself being lifted from the ground. I look up to see Anthony and Wyatt.

They’ve stayed with me.

The only ones.

I look around to see everyone else has gone.

“Come on, let’s get you home,” Wyatt sighs sadly.

“Charlotte,” I whisper.

“She’s gone mate,” Anthony says with regret.

I stammer in a panic. “We… we have to go get her.”

Wyatt looks at me, his face is sad and full of sympathy. “She doesn’t want to see you, Spence. She told me to keep you away from her.”

I wince and drop my head.

This can’t be happening.

I stare at the television on the wall of the bar I’m in.

Masters and Seb are beside me, staying silent. What is there to say?

I’ve fucked it. I’ve completely fucked it.

“She’ll come around.” Masters sips his beer.

“I don’t think she will,” Seb mutters. “Have you seen the papers today? This scandal is fucking everywhere.”

“You’re not helping, Seb!” Masters snaps. “Try calling her again.”

I pass my phone to him. He dials Charlotte’s number and, once again, it goes straight through to voicemail. Her phone has been turned off since dinner last night. She hasn’t been back to our apartment. If I try to drive to Nottingham, they won’t let me see her, anyway.

I’ll wait here in London for her to come home.

Please come home.

“I don’t understand how you didn’t know this.” Masters frowns. “How do you fuck a married woman and never find out who she was married to?”

“It’s not something I wanted to know, all right? Fuck.”

Seb smirks and stares down at the table.

“What?” I say deadpan.

“You do have to admit, it is a little bit funny. What are the chances?”

“It’s not funny, Sebastian, you fucking idiot. What will be funny is when I rearrange your ugly face,” I growl.

Masters chuckles. “Now, that will be funny. I’d pay good money to watch you do that.”

A text comes in from Bree.

I drag my hand down my face in despair.

“She’s not seeing anyone or taking any calls. Beth called me this morning, and Charlotte won’t even see her. I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to fix this when she won’t even speak to me.”

We all fall silent.

“She’ll come home.” Masters sighs. “She’s just in shock.”

“Join the fucking club,” Seb grumbles. “I’m in shock, too.”

I glare at him. “I swear to fucking God, your face is so punch-able right now, I can’t even stand it.”

They both laugh at me.

“Can you two just fuck off and leave me alone?”

“Nope,” Masters answers without hesitation. “We’ve been through tougher times than this, and we always stick together.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. A memory of Charlotte’s face when she realised I’d slept with Penelope takes over, and my heart hurts.

I can’t believe I slept with Penelope.

What have I done?

Charlotte

Thirty-seven hours since he held me.

Thirty- seven hours since I had my heart completely ripped from my chest.

I’m in my bed, staring at a wall.

I can’t drink, I can’t eat, I can’t think.

I wish I couldn’t feel…

I keep seeing Spencer’s face as they dragged him away from me—the fear in his eyes.

He knew…he knew then, in that moment, what our future was.

We aren’t a love story. We’re a tragedy.

Tears roll down my face. The hysterical tears are over, replaced with numbness—a cold, dead feeling now taking over my heart.

I’m an empty vessel, broken beyond repair.

Everything I thought I knew was a lie. The life I planned with him is over.

Love with him will never be the same.

The man I fell in love with doesn’t exist.

In his place there’s a homewrecker, a man who I despise, and everything he stands for.

A man with different morals than me, and one I couldn’t possibly be in love with.

The pain is deep, real, and I feel like I’m grieving someone’s death all over again.

It hurts.

I hear a car horn in the distance.

Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep.

What’s that?

Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep.

I hear a door bang, and then footsteps as someone runs past my house down the gravel road.

What on earth is going on out there?

I drag myself to the window and peer through the sheer curtains only to see Spencer’s car outside the gates. He’s standing next to it, pushing on the horn through his open door.

Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep. “Charlotte!” he yells. “Come out here.” Beep, beep. “CHARLOTTE!” he screams.

I wince and feel more tears fall as I watch him. He’s frantic.

“Angel, please,” he begs. “I promise you, I didn’t know.”

I slap my hands over my ears. “Stop it,” I whisper. “Leave me alone.”

“Charlotte?” I turn and see Edward. I crash to his chest as he wraps me in his safe arms. “It’s okay, Lottie, they’re taking him away now.”

I howl against his chest; this pain unbearable.

The worst thing is, I know that Spencer will be hurting just as much as I am.

But what’s done is done.

He can’t change the past, and this will never be something I’ll be able to live with.

He slept with my brother’s wife. Penelope.

I taste bile, imagining him in William’s bed with William’s wife, and I cry harder and harder until I can’t breathe. I can’t see him.

I don’t ever want to see him again.

There is nothing he can say that will take away what he’s done or the hurt he’s caused my beloved brother.

A new rush of pain seeps through another layer in my heart.

“Spencer,” I cry. “My love. Why?” I howl. “Why did he do this, Edward, why?”

“Shh.”

I hear the car horn again and Spencer screams my name. “Charlotte!”

“Make him go away,” I cry.

“They’re taking him now. Dad is at the police station taking out a restraining order against him as we speak. He won’t be able to come here at all without being arrested soon.”

The thought that he can’t legally come here anymore breaks my heart even further, and I cry uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry I let this happen,” Edward whispers against my hair. “This is all my fault.”

“Charlotte!” Spencer screams again, and I slap my hands over my ears.

“Make it stop, Edward, make it stop.”

“Charlotte, please… I love you,” Spencer yells, his voice breaking. “I love you.”

The guards begin to shout, and then there’s a commotion. I know that Spencer is struggling with them to try to get to me.

I pull out of Edward’s arms and roll into a ball on my bed, holding my hands over my ears as I cry hysterically.

Make.

The.

Pain.

Stop.

Spencer

I stare at my computer, looking at pictures of myself outside the restaurant.

But all I see is Charlotte’s hurt face.

Every tabloid, every magazine, everyone knows I slept with Penelope—Charlotte’s brother’s wife. Her damn sister-in-law.

To make it worse, someone even filmed what Penelope was saying in the restaurant. It’s been played over and over and over.

Everywhere.

It’s not even true.

Did I sleep with her? Yes.

Did I know she was married? No.

I had no idea what her real name was. I hooked up with her a few times and she told me she was divorced. I saw her at a club one night and we went back to her house.

What I thought was her house, anyway.

Then a crazed husband burst in on us midway through sex, and he completely lost his shit. I picked up my clothes and ran. I never saw her again.

I still remember the devastation on his face when he caught us. It’s something I have thought of often over the years.

It’s the kind of thing you never forget.

There was no way in hell I would have been there if I’d have known the truth. I wouldn’t knowingly sleep with a married woman unless she was in an open relationship. I know what Seb went through. I would never inflict that pain on someone else.

My chest constricts as I remember the only person that matters in this story.

Charlotte. My beautiful Charlotte.

I’ve lost her.

She won’t answer my calls, she’s not opening my texts. She won’t see me.

She’s heartbroken, and who can blame her?

I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say. How do I salvage this?

A little voice from deep inside my mind tells me that it’s impossible.

I click out of the story on my screen and run my hands through my hair in disgust.

I’m sick to my stomach.

This is God punishing me. I’m being punished for being promiscuous before I met her.

My love… gone.

I hear my office door open and I look up and see a familiar face. Unable to help it, tears of relief fill my eyes and I stand quickly.

“Spence,” Sheridan whispers, taking me in her arms.

I cling to her as if my life depends on it. After a long time, she pulls back to look at my face, holding it in her hands.

“Are you okay, darling?” she asks softly, her eyes searching mine.

“No,” I whisper. “I am not.”

She takes me in her arms again and holds me tight. “It’s okay. I’m here now, baby. I’ll look after you. We’ll get through this together.”

Charlotte

I wake from my groggy sleep and lie in the darkness.

It’s Christmas Day—the day I was dreading spending without my family. That pain pales into insignificance now. I get a vision of my Spencer waking up alone in his apartment and my bottom lip quivers.

Is he okay?

I will not cry today. I will not cry today, I chant in my head.

Penelope and William had a huge argument and she left the estate last night.

She took Harrison with her… it’s Christmas.

It’s been ten days since I saw Spencer. Ten days without his love…. his touch.

I feel like a part of me has died and I’m trying to learn how to live without a limb.

I’ll get through this, I know I will.

I need to talk to Spencer, but I feel too weak to do so at the moment. I know if I see him now, he will somehow talk me around. I don’t have the strength to say what I need to say without crying and begging for him to turn back time.

To be honest, I don’t know if I ever will.

His love was perfect. It was something I feel I was meant to experience.

But that was before.

We were supposed to be leaving for Santorini in three days. I get a vision of us laughing and driving around on motorbikes the last time we were there, and I close my eyes, hating the way my chest constricts.

How do people do this? How do they bounce back?

I’ve always heard of people going through a bad breakup, but until you’ve actually had your heart ripped out and stomped on, you have no idea of the enormity of it.

It’s like the world is ending.

William needs me today. He’s spending Christmas without his son.

I know the fight they had last night was over Spencer. I heard his name called out as they yelled at each other from upstairs.

I think seeing Spencer opened a can of worms for William. How do you move on when you’ve seen another person making love to your wife? When that person turns up years later as your baby sister’s new boyfriend? It would have to mess your mind up.

I know mine is completely scrambled.

The bitter taste of betrayal fills my mouth.

He had sex with Penelope… more than once.

I could never look at him the same again. He is forever tainted in my eyes.

I keep getting a vision of them naked together, again and again, as if I saw it with my own eyes.

It’s making me sick.

“Charlotte,” my father calls from the hallway of my house. He’s been staying with me since this all happened. I think he’s scared to leave me alone. Scared of what, I’m unsure.

“Yes, Dad.”

He comes into view, peeking around the door. “Merry Christmas, my darling.”

I smile and my eyes fill with tears. He’s the one man I can always rely on.

“Merry Christmas, Dad.”

“You know what?” Lara says. “I’m glad this happened. At least now we have proof of what Edward and your father have been saying all along.”

I roll my eyes. “Not helping, Lars.”

We’re sitting out on the front porch of my house on December 26th.

Lara and Beth have come over to try and cheer me up… I think at Edward’s insistence, although Lara is not doing a very good job of it. I had one of the worst days of my life yesterday.

Christmas without Spencer.

“Bullshit. How could you say such a thing?” Beth snaps at her.

Lara shrugs. “They thought something was off and they were right.”

Beth rolls her eyes. “Did Edward tell you that while you were sucking his dick?”

I smirk.

“Will you drop it with the Edward crap?” Lara whines.

Beth is now openly ribbing Lara about Edward, and Lara is avoiding the topic by not answering a direct question. I really do think they either are fucking or have fucked in the past. Which one, I’m not sure. It’s something I don’t like to imagine.

“Will you stop making Spencer out to be the evil villain in this story, because he’s not?” Beth grumbles angrily. “It’s fucking Penelope and her loose vagina that’s caused all this heartache. Spencer wasn’t married. Spencer didn’t have a girlfriend. Who cares who he fucked before he met you?”

“When it was my brother’s wife, I do actually, Beth,” I hit back.

She rolls her eyes at me, choosing not to respond.

“Everybody will know. For the rest of my life, everyone will know that he fucked my brother’s wife. It’s been in every tabloid for a week.” My eyes fill with tears. “I can’t be with someone who’s done that, no matter how much I love them. I can’t get past it.”

“Then go talk to him and break up with him like a real adult.”

Guilt fills me.

“Why are you hiding from him?”

“Because if I see him, he’ll talk me down.”

“Because you know he’s fucking right!” Beth snaps.

“Oh, just shut up, Beth.” Lara sighs. “She can’t be with him after this. She’ll be the laughing stock of society.”

Beth scowls at us both and stands in an outrage. “Lara, I would expect you to bow down to society and suck their balls. But you…” she points at me, “are being fucking ridiculous. Spencer is a wonderful man, and I don’t care what he’s done before he met you because I see how happy he makes you now. If he fucked her now it would be different. But he didn’t, it was years ago. Wake up and smell the damn coffee.”

I stare at her through tears.

She points at me. “You’re going to lose him, and in ten years’ time when Penelope is long divorced from William, and Spencer is happily married to someone else, you’re going to kick yourself for throwing away the best thing that ever happened to you.”

We both stare at her and fear runs through me. What she’s just said is a real possibility.

“Now, I’m going to bed, because you two and this society-shame bullshit is pissing me off.” Before she leaves, Beth turns to me. “I thought you wanted to marry for love, Lottie?”

“I do.”

“You’re not acting like you love him. You’re acting like a selfish little girl—”

“Fuck off, Beth. She is not, she’s being smart, for once,” Lara interrupts.

“Imagine how he’s feeling right now.”

Tears roll down my cheeks.

“You know what? I wish Spencer Jones had fallen in love with me because there is no way in fucking hell I would be sitting here in this fucking prison with you.”

I stare at her.

“Your father didn’t talk to you for eight weeks because he didn’t get his own way, Charlotte.” She throws her hands in the air. “What does that tell you about this fucked up situation? How can you not see it?”

“Stop it, you’re upsetting her,” Lara demands.

“Where was Spencer?” Beth snaps. “Where was Spencer when you needed him?”

I drop my head into my hands as my emotions boil over.

“That’s right, Lottie, Spencer was right by your side the whole fucking time. Never once have you doubted his love for you.”

Wyatt walks around the corner after hearing our raised voices. “What’s going on here?” he asks.

“Nothing.” Beth sighs in disgust. “I’m going to bed. These two and their lack of priorities are making me sick.” The door slams behind her as she disappears.

Wyatt frowns, and his eyes flick to me in question.

“You go to bed, too, Lars. I’ll be up in a minute.” I sigh.

She kisses my cheek and walks inside the house.

“Are you okay?” Wyatt asks softly.

“I hardly know anymore,” I whisper.

He sits on the step at my feet, and we both stare out over the property and into the darkness of the night. He doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t try to talk me into his way of thinking.

He just stays, and in this moment, that’s all I need.

Spencer

Bang, bang, bang!

What on earth?

It’s two days after Christmas, and after possibly the most depressing Christmas I’ve ever had, I’m packing for Santorini.

She’ll come.

I know she will. Our love was too strong. She won’t forget that, no matter what’s happened.

She’ll come.

I have to believe that. I have to believe that she’ll be able to move past this because the reality is that if she doesn’t, it’ll be more than I can bear.

Bang, bang, bang!

I open the door in a rush.

“Where is she?” Edward growls, looking past me and into the room.

“What?” I frown. Him and Harold barge past me and walk into my apartment. “Please, do come in,” I mutter with an eye roll.

Assholes.

“Where is she?”

“What are you fucking talking about?”

“Don’t act dumb, you know exactly where she is.”

“I haven’t seen her since the restaurant, you know that.”

Harold pinches the bridge of his nose. “She could be anywhere. She’s taken off.” He falls onto the sofa.

“Her guards aren’t with her?” I ask in confusion.

“She’s… Charlotte is completely alone,” Harold stammers in a panic. “She snuck out in the middle of the night.”

“This is all my fault.” Edward groans. “Why did I…?” His voice trails off.

“What?” I frown. “What happened?”

He shakes his head and drops next to his father on the sofa. “We fought.”

“You fought with her?” I snap. “She’s hurt enough, why the fuck would you fight with her?”

“I don’t know. I was angry with Penelope for taking off and I…” He shakes his head at himself.

“What did she say?” I begin to freak out.

“She left a note saying she would be back soon,” Harold tells me quietly.

“What note?”

He digs around in his suit pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. He hands it over.

My heart swells with hope and pride.

That’s my girl.