This was going to work, I told myself. Read some, relax, rest up and give myself time to think, and then tomorrow when Asher left for work and Beatrice went out to do whatever she usually did, I’d sneak into her room and scope the place out.
I was positive I’d find something. What was the worst that could happen? A lot, actually. I needed to be very very careful.
His Absolute Passion
*
I peeked past the window curtains in the master bedroom on the second floor of Asher Landseer’s guest home, waiting and watching. I’d declined an invitation for breakfast from Asher(and supposedly Beatrice, though I doubted she wanted me there) in order to do this. Jeremy came to ask, since Asher was busy with a phone call at the time. Before Jeremy left, I made sure to ask if Beatrice and Asher were going out for the day.
“Asher?” Jeremy had said. “Yeah, of course he is. Work and everything. It’s not even a job to him, it’s practically an obsession. I think Beatrice is leaving, too. I don’t know for sure, but I doubt she’ll stick around. She doesn’t like to stay in one place often if she can. Why?”
I made up an excuse. I forgot exactly what I said, but I’m sure it made no sense. Jeremy rolled his eyes at me and laughed, but left it at that.#p#分页标题#e#
He knew to some extent. He knew that I wanted to try and figure out what Beatrice Landseer and Solomon Royce were up to. They had a plan, something to do with ruining Landseer Enterprises and then subsequently running off together after Beatrice divorced Asher because of false accusations. I was a part of those accusations, or so I guessed. They wanted to denounce Asher for infidelity all while committing the exact same act.
Granted, Beatrice and Solomon wanted to do this without evidence, or mere circumstantial facts. I doubted it’d be too difficult to do, either. I had agreed to act as an egg donor and surrogate mother for Beatrice, which made the idea of Asher and I sleeping together a simpler concept to swallow. Neither Solomon nor Beatrice knew that Asher and I had actually slept together already(technically only twice, for what that was worth). None of this really helped my case. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, knew I shouldn’t have tempted him, but, my God, it was so difficult.
It was even easier when I learned that Beatrice cared nothing for Asher. Why should he stay in a marriage like that? He didn’t know it yet, but he wouldn’t be staying in it for long. And then what?
It didn’t matter. I didn’t care what happened in the end, if Asher hated me or wanted me to leave or whatever; it didn’t matter. Because this wasn’t about that. Asher was, more than anything, someone I cared about. Silly, maybe, because I hadn’t known him for too long, but I didn’t care. We talked, we understood each other a little. I wanted to understand him so much more, too. I wanted to be there, to be someone he could count on, to listen to him and for him to listen to me, to share with each other.
What I really wanted was for Asher to be happy, though. And what Beatrice intended was to absolutely destroy every single hope and dream he had. She lied about her infertility, she lied about who she went on her constant vacations with, and she’d lied at their wedding ceremony. She must have promised, must have said the vows, to love and honor him every day of her life. Except she’d never done it, not once.
Maybe Asher hadn’t loved her like a husband should love a wife, but he at least tried. He wanted to make Beatrice happy, and he did everything in his power to do it. He let her go, let her do as she liked, and the only thing he wanted in return was a child. She’d stolen that away from him, too, paying off a doctor to lie to Asher and tell him that she was infertile. Still, he never gave up hope, never said anything bad about her.
It infuriated me. I clenched my jaw, thinking about it, getting worked up and annoyed even further. I almost missed the cars leaving the parking garage out front.
The first was Jeremy, who was driving Asher to Landseer Tower. They both sat in the front seat this time, as opposed to when Asher and I had sat in the back seat while Jeremy drove us from the Japanese restaurant to Asher’s guest home the first night I’d ever visited here. I watched them drive off, chatting amicably to one another, saying this or that. I wondered if maybe they were talking about me, if Asher wanted to know how I was, why I’d missed breakfast, and if I’d said anything about him.
Then, after Jeremy drove away through the gated entrance, Beatrice pulled out of the garage. She drove herself. Easier to keep her schemes a secret if she didn’t have anyone tagging along with her, I thought. She wore wide-lens sunglasses and looked pissed off for no apparent reason. Not that this was any different from how she usually looked, but it was almost comical seeing her like this. In a car, alone, driving away, and mad. Mad that she couldn’t just be rid of Asher right now? Mad that she couldn’t divorce him for no reason and expect to take half of his assets afterwards? Yes, probably, and also mad because she was a bitch. That’s just how those types of people acted.