Because Of You by Nia Arthurs

Author:Nia Arthurs [Arthurs, Nia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-27T18:30:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

PAULA

I tremble when I see her. Take a step back and consider whether I should run or stay.

Which is ridiculous.

She’s Ms. Liz. The woman who gave me a fresh start. The woman who stepped down from her big, mahogany desk, the safety of her giant office, and played lookout for me while I got my things out of Wayne’s trailer.

She barely knew me, but she put her life on the line for me. It bonded us. I can reach out and cry on her shoulder. We can share the joys of a scarred past. She was once a single mother. She knows the hills. The valleys. I can tell her how much I wish things could be better. She can listen and then roll up her sleeves to make things happen for me.

It doesn’t matter that her world is so removed from mine. Ms. Liz didn’t let the fact that she’s the wife of a billionaire stop her. In fact, she uses it for good. Whispers surround her. They say she has the power to control half the city. That her husband listens to everything she says and lives to please her. That the best way to make an enemy of the Bancroft empire is to make an enemy of her.

Ms. Liz is all these things and more and yet I’ve never feared her. Why is she making me uneasy now?

It takes me a moment to unpack all the feelings. She gives me the time, so I let the moment stretch and toss them out. Sort through them one-by-one before I find the culprit. The secret.

It’s there.

Not bothering to hide.

She told me not to take Wayne to Doc. Told me not to give him another shot.

I treasure her opinion.

But I didn’t hesitate to throw it away.

Does she know? Is she angry?

I can’t tell. She’s much better at hiding her feelings than I am. Shaping and forming her expressions, massaging them to look better, happier, put-together.

Ms. Liz lifts a hand and beckons me. The diamond on her left ring finger is a blinding supernova. Did someone drag the moon out of the sky and attach it to her knuckles? Dark skin surrounded by so much light. Yet another mark of how removed her world is from mine.

I take a hesitant step.

My breath comes easier when she smiles at me.

Smiling is good.

Smiling is happiness and approval.

My tense shoulders relax a smidge.

“You know, you don’t have to call me ‘Ms.’.” She plucks something off a plate and I realize she helped herself to the grapes we keep in our fridge.

It doesn’t surprise me. According to Corny, her husband co-owns this place. The grapes. The fridge. Everything around it. It all belongs to her.

“It’s to show respect.”

She keeps her eyes on me as she pops another grape. I can hear the crunch now that I’m in front of her.

“Do you?”

I lick my lips. “Do I what?”

“Respect me, Paula?”

It’s a loaded question. Her eyes sharpen just a smidge. The glint behind them tells me she’s more powerful than I imagined.

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