Chapter 5 DAMN PATRICK SANLEY!

DAMN PATRICK SANLEY!

ATHENA’S POV

I couldn’t bear to be inside any longer.

As soon as he got a phone call, I bolted out of that conference room faster than Miranda gobbled down Jonas’s pancakes before he could get to his breakfast. I needed air, needed space, needed a different sight to focus on so as not to relive what I just did in that conference room.

Duke Montgomery, my ex-fiancé, was my new boss. I wanted to throw up.

This must be some kind of insane cosmic plot twist, the universe’s way of punishing me for not being a filial daughter and marrying him when I had the chance. Why else would he of all people be my new boss?

What was he even doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be up in some European Castle on a hill? The last I heard of him he was engaged to some French girl of royal ancestry or some shit. What was he doing in Southern California as the CEO of Meridian?

“Oh, Athena, your life is just as crappy as messed up as it was in high school,” I muttered to myself, still pacing up and down the sidewalk like a mad woman. I needed to head back inside because Duke was holding a meeting with the staff and I had to be there, but I couldn’t bring myself to move my feet in that direction.

“I have to quit,” I said and threw my hands up. “There’s no other way. It’s embarrassing enough to be working as an EA at a food company when my father owns billions, I can’t very well work as an EA for my ex. Asides from the humiliation killing me, Jonas wouldn’t even stand for it.”

“What wouldn’t Jonas stand for and why do you care if he does or doesn’t?” I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice. I had thought I had imagined it, but when I blinked and still saw his dirty blond hair with annoying blue eyes staring back at me with a huge grin on his face, I knew he was real.

“What are you doing here, Patrick?” I hoped to God I sounded angry enough to let him know I didn’t appreciate his presence. But he took my irritated tone as an excuse to step closer to me, smiling all pretty.

“Is it so wrong for me to come visit my girl at her place of work?” If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought I was hard of hearing. Did he just refer to me as his girl? I never thought a day would come when that statement from him would make it feel like a thousand ants were crawling all over my body.

“Excuse you?” I said and cocked my head to the side. He looked fine, like a normal person though there was absolutely nothing normal about Patrick Sanley. He was well dressed today in contrast to the color riot he had going on other days, and he even smelled a little fragrant. I guess he finally discovered soap.

“Athena, I understand that you were a little surprised by what happened last week and it was a perfectly normal reaction, you going off like that. Let’s get back together.” He smiled and took a step forward. “I’ll overlook what happened and what you did to Mirabella if you agree to this.”

I didn’t know which I couldn’t believe more: his audacity or the garbage I was hearing.

He’d forgive me? He’d overlook what happened? Was Patrick always this shameless or was I just too blind to notice it?

“Look, Patrick, I don’t know what useless games you wanna play now, but I don’t have the time for it. I’m the one who should be overlooking stuff and forgiving you if there was any forgiving going on between us. I still haven’t gotten the check for the money I spent on our engagement party that you ruined by sleeping with your cousin.” I was disgusted just saying the words and angry tears were threatening to form in my eyes. I shouldn’t cry in front of him. It would be way more embarrassing than working for Duke.

“Okay, fine. If claiming you’re the victim and being the one to forgive me instead would make you feel better, then let’s do that. I’m willing to be the bad guy so our relationship would work. Come back to me my love.” He tried to hold my hands, but I retracted it quickly before he could touch me.

I didn’t see it while we were dating for over twelve months, but Patrick was truly a disgusting piece of shit. Whenever Miranda complained about him, I always thought she was just being a picky hater as her standards seemed to me to be ridiculously high and unreasonable, but I could see now how all she ever wanted was literally the basics of a decent partner. I was the one who had low standards. I was the one who settled for less. I was the one who always managed to get the guys who would do stupid shit like what Patrick did and I cried my eyeballs out each time it didn’t work out well for me. I was at fault. I would love to blame Patrick, but I realize now that it was all my doing.

“Get the hell out of here before I call security, Patrick.” I turned to leave. Being with Duke would be much better than being here with this piece of shit.

I felt my hand being grabbed in an ungodly manner and I winced in pain.

“Let go of me!” I yelled and tried to yank my hand free, but he held on tightly.

“Where are you going when we’re still talking?”

“Let go of me or I’ll scream Patrick.” He hesitated a bit but let go when he saw people staring at us.

“Okay, fine. You have earned the right to act like a spoilt brat. You are one anyways, so I’m sure you’re used to this. I could only imagine how hard it was for you to try and hide it all this time.”

“What?” He had moved on to speaking nonsense now.

“Although, now that I think about it, you have had a little bit of sass and a spoilt air about you. And you had class that just didn’t seem like something an ordinary, middle-class person possessed. You know, like how you always ate with a fork and knife.” Leave it to Patrick to refer to basic dining etiquette as class that only the rich and upper class possessed. I guess for someone who owned a plastic spork and used it for every meal possible, cutlery such as a fork and knife would seem high class to him.

“What the hell are you talking about, Patrick?”

“Oh, you wanna play dumb? You shouldn’t still be hiding it, Athena, I’ve already seen it. You’re Richard Rosswell’s daughter.” And now it suddenly made sense why he had come here after insulting me on Thursday and telling me to never show up in front of him. I now understood why he wanted to get back together.

“I saw the news, Athena,” he continued, oblivious to the irritated and disgusted glare I was giving him. “You’re an heiress to billions of dollars. You really played the role of the pauper well. Was that some sort of test to find ‘the one’, someone who would love you for you and not for your father’s money? Well, it’s okay cause you found him. I loved you for you, remember? We were about to get married before you overreacted about the whole thing.”

“I overreacted?” I yelled. I didn’t want to talk to him or confront him about his cheating ways and I most definitely didn’t want to see him again, but hearing him talk like this now was making me so mad that all I wanted to do was pull his stupid hair out and beat the shit out of him until his brain started working.

“Patrick, you drank until your mind was so far gone that you had sex with your cousin in front of the fountain. Everyone saw you. You were buck naked and you were both screaming your brains off and don’t get me started on the other girl that was doing whatever she was doing with your cousin while you rammed into her like a mad cow. I believe my reaction was valid especially since everyone had their phones up and were recording you and they were looking at me with such pitiful eyes and it made me feel like shit!” He looked highly annoyed that I was yelling at him and calling him out on his bull but I didn’t relent. He had no right to look that way, not after what he did to me.

“I was drunk, Athena, I wasn’t in my right senses. Of course, people can make mistakes like that when they’re drunk. You act out all the time when you’ve had one too many to drink.”

“I’ve never had sex with anyone while I was drunk and dating another, Patrick.” He snickered and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah right,” he said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You really want me to believe you and Jonas have never hooked up, Athena? You guys live together for crying out loud. I have been a saint about your living situation. How many boyfriends do you think will be okay with their girlfriends living with a guy?”

“Don’t you dare say anything stupid right now, Patrick. First of all, I just don’t live with Jonas, I also live with his cousin who happens to be female. Secondly, without Jonas and his cousin, I would have been on the streets and you wouldn’t even have met me to begin with, so don’t you dare accuse me of doing something I didn’t do.”

“Why would you be on the streets when you’re Richard Rosswell’s daughter?” I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. This day was not going well for me. My chest was so tight and full of anger and my eyes were aching so much from trying to hold back my tears. I was so mad and heartbroken but I didn’t know what to do.

“You came back for me because you found out I was Richard’s daughter, right? But what can you do? I’m sure you also read that I was married. We can’t get back together, Patrick, now get lost before I get mad.” He grabbed my hand before I could take two steps away. “Let go of me, Patrick.”

“You think I’m just going to let you off like that? After playing with me? Ah, you wanted to have a little fun with a poor guy before settling for that bastard, is that it? I’m not good enough for the Athena Rosswell, huh? You’re such a bitch, Athena!”

“Let go of me, Patrick, you’re hurting me.”

“I knew there was something going on between you two. You guys lived together so I’m sure you had sex with him a couple times. What? Did you guys shower together too? You said you wanted to wait until we got married before you slept with me but I’m sure you’ve been doing it with him, right?” The tears were now falling as I struggled hard to free myself from him. Now that he was harassing me like this, people were less on the street and others were just minding their own business.

“I didn’t want to have sex with you because you were a disgusting piece of shit who only showered once in three days and hardly ever brushed his teeth, now let go!” I managed to yank my hand free and I slapped him the moment I got control back. His eyes flashed red and I staggered at the intensity of it.

“You bitch!” he roared. I have never seen him this angry before. “You think because your daddy owns so much money that you can walk all over me and get away with it? You were just using me to find out what it was like to date an average guy, weren’t you? But guess what? I was using you too.”

“What?” He smiled sinisterly.

“Do you know how desperate you were when we first met? How clingy and utterly annoying you were? Sure you used me, but I can’t say I didn’t use you too. I wanted to know what it was like to date a girl like you. I wanted to see how desperate you were for me so I agreed to go out with you, and my were you fun to play with. I’ve never met a girl like you who craved male attention so much. Were you not loved at home, Athena? Did your daddy deprive you of attention, is that why you acted like a desperate minx?”

I felt my chest ache with a kind of pain I’ve never experienced before. His words echoed in my ears until I couldn’t hear were what he said.

The tears fell without shame now.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, stop crying you princess. Don’t act like the victim now. You were desperate. I bet you left home because you wanted daddy to pay attention to you too. You told me that your past relationships never worked out quite well either, I’m guessing you dated those pricks as a way to rebel. You rich brats are all the same. Stupid bitch.”

“That’s enough,” a voice said from behind me. I didn’t know who it was and I didn’t bother to look up. I was dying inside and I wished I could die on the outside as well.

Patrick took a look at the figure who had stopped beside me and asked, “Are you okay?” before deciding it would be foolish of him to try and pick a fight with the guy.

“I was just about to leave anyways,” he said with a sneer. “Stay away from me, Athena. And I really hope for your sake you don’t pick the wrong guy again. Guys can smell desperation from a mile away and you reek of it.”

As soon as I heard his footsteps fade away, I broke down on the sidewalk and cried my whole being out on the shoulders of the stranger who helped me. My heart hurt, my eyes hurt and my legs wobbled like crazy from being bent for so long, but I didn’t stop crying. I felt like a fool for ever loving someone like him. I felt like a food for ever loving the guys I did. I felt like a fool for crying over a guy like Patrick on the shoulders of a stranger who probably wasn’t even all that interested in helping me out. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me and shield me from this embarrassment.

Damn Patrick Sanley!