Page 74 of Angels Are Falling

No one was immune to his charm. Not even me.

My heart fluttered when he bought Bella a ginger ale and sat with her on the shaded curb until she felt better. The hands-on approach with the children had left me in disbelief. Not once had Kai shirked his responsibilities to his staff or the nanny, and they weren’t even his brothers and sister. How could this be the same megalomaniac tech zillionaire who propositioned me with a twisted relationship? I had watched him carefully, waiting for an arrogant note in his voice or the glancing blow that would knock the moment off-balance. But it never came. He had embraced ordinary life and the family man role so wholeheartedly that I forgot he could make the world dance to his tune.

Today was my much-needed reality check. Kai dropped the kids off at school, then drove me to work. On the way, he stopped at a coffee house, left the car running, and ran in for his caffeine fix. A moment later, he had returned with a cup in each hand, a coffee for him, and an almond chai latte for me. When he reached across the center console to give me the cup, his hand brushed mine. The touch was incidental, yet it lingered on my skin for the rest of the drive. “Have a good day, Princess,” he had said before kissing me. For the first time, I hadn’t rebuffed his advances.

Everything in the last few days had been joyous. Kai no longer felt like my enemy but rather a friend. A partner. Why would he do something so manipulative to piss me off?

Midday through my shift, I caught Ricky coming out of the elevators. I’d been meaning to apologize to him ever since Kai scared the shit out of him for his harmless flirtations.

“Hi, Ricky.” I raised my hand to wave.

He visibly stiffened and turned on his heel. I frowned.

“Hey, Ricky. Wait up.”

He only sped up in the opposite direction. I rushed after him as orderlies and patients stared in our direction. I barely caught the back of his scrubs. He didn’t turn around, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

“What’s wrong?” Why wouldn’t he make eye contact?

“I can’t look at you,” he said tersely.

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t look at you. Sorry, Ame—” He paused. “Sorry, Mrs. Cavendish.”

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

“Your husband… Mr. Cavendish paid me twenty thousand dollars to never look at you again.” A beat before he added, “Sorry, Amel—Mrs. Cavendish. You know the situation with my mom. I really need the money.”

My hold on his scrubs dropped. I was so taken aback that I barely noticed when he sprinted across the hall, putting as much distance between us as possible.

Ricky could never look me in the face. We worked together. What the hell? Kai was a lunatic.

Just when I thought I couldn’t be angrier, Jo broke the true bad news during the second half of my shift. She was waiting for me by the reception with the expression of someone trying very hard not to look thrilled. “Morning, Mrs. Cavendish.” She winked.

I closed my eyes. “Not you, too.”

“What was that, Mrs. Cavendish?”

“I swear to God, Jo.”

She pressed her lips together. A smile broke through anyway.

“How much did Kai pay you to make you call me that?” I asked ruefully.

“Kai didn’t pay me anything. But a few of his assistants stopped by and distributed envelopes containing a thousand dollars to the hospital staff. They merely advised us of your name change.”

Asshole! I hated how he used money to control everyone in my life. “What did they say?”

“A thousand-dollar courtesy payment will be made to each staff member of this hospital,” she imitated. “It’s a goodwill gesture for anyone who refers to Amelie as Mrs. Cavendish.”

Courtesy payment.

He paid my colleagues a thousand dollars each to call me by his last name. Not even to do anything useful. Just to say two words. Mrs. Cavendish. A thousand dollars. Per person. I did a quick calculation of the nursing staff alone and felt slightly faint.

“Are you really going to call me Mrs. Cavendish for a thousand dollars?”

“I’m going to call you Mrs. Cavendish for free because I really like your husband,” she said earnestly. “The thousand dollars was a bonus.”