A Taste Of His Control

Chapter Two

A sharp sting of hurt flared in my chest. Josh had never yelled at me before. When he turned

his attention back to me, he was glaring as if it were entirely my fault that he had lashed out.

"Why did you call me here?" I asked, my voice dropping all its warmth. I wasn't going to tolerate that kind of disrespect, especially when I had spent the last week worrying myself sick over his absence.

He seemed to notice the sharp irritation in my tone, and his tense features softened.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? Things have been really rough lately!"

"Tell me about it," I said, rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms tightly over my chest. "You proposed to me and then disappeared without a single trace for a week. Tell me, Josh, who does that?"

"Annie, can we not make this all about you for once?"The exhaustion in his voice made me feel like I was a burden. A sharp pain settled deep in my chest. "I'm going through something much worse than a silent week," he muttered, running a hand over his face.

I clenched my jaw, forcing down my rising anger. "Fine then. Let's talk about you."

"Everything is going south in my life," he said, his voice dropping to a panicked whisper. "For the past year, I've lost contracts, clients, investors... It's starting to look like I've been completely blacklisted from the entire industry." He paused, staring blankly at the table. "Everything was going perfectly well, until.."

"Until what?" I pressed.

"Until we started dating."

The words hit me like a bucket of ice water.

My blood ran completely cold.

"What exactly are you trying to say, Josh?"

"I'm not saying anything"

"I get that you're frustrated, but please be very careful with your words," I warned, my voice trembling slightly. "If your company is struggling, I can always talk to my father and see if he can-"

"There you go again!" he interrupted, his face contorting with anger. "I've told you a thousand times, Annie. I don't want any help from you or your father."

"Why not?"

"Because I won't give either of you the chance to look down on me. The moment I accept a handout from him, he'll see me as less of a man."

I stared at him, unable to believe my ears. "Do you even hear yourself right now? You would rather let your entire life fall apart than accept a helping hand from the family you're marrying into?"

"Yes! Because for all I know, your father could be the very reason I'm in this mess to begin with."

"How dare you?" I stood up slightly, my fingers gripping the edge of the table. "My father would never do something so petty."'

"The man doesn't like me, for God's sake, Annie!"

"That's because you haven't given him a single reason to!"

"Oh, please. As if anything I ever do will be enough to please a man like him."

"That man is my father, I hissed through clenched teeth. "You will show him some respect."

Josh let out a dry, bitter chuckle, shaking his head. "It's all a mistake."

A tight knot formed in my stomach, making it hard to breathe. "What do you mean by that?"

"I should have never dated you." I felt a piece of my heart shatter.

"I'm sorry to be blunt, Annie, but you're nothing but bad luck," he said coldly, standing up from his chair. "I need to remove you from my life. My mother was right from the beginning-a spoiled girl like you could only bring me rotten luck."

The humiliation stung worse than the heartbreak. Warm tears finally broke free, rolling down my flushed cheeks.

"You are really going to throw away everything we've built together? Just like that?"

Without sparing me another glance, he adjusted his sunglasses. "You can get rid of the ring!"

Then, he walked out of the café, leaving me alone.

The dam broke, and I buried my face in my hands, bursting into tears right there in the middle of the crowded café.

Suddenly, a crisp white handkerchief appeared in my line of sight.

I blinked through my blurred vision and looked up. A woman I didn't recognize was standing over the booth, looking down at me with an expression of quiet pity.

"Wipe your tears," she said softly. "He isn't worth them."

I offered her a trembling smile and accepted the cloth. Before I could gather my voice to thank her properly, she turned away and walked out the door.

She was right, though. Josh wasn't worth my tears.

The woman left the café, walking down the sidewalk before slipping smoothly into the back seat of a sleek, luxurious black car parked almost near the entrance.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle was suffocatingly tense.

Her boss was in a notoriously gloomy mood, and everyone around him had been walking on eggshells all morning. Pulling her posture straight, she hoped the news she was about to deliver would save her from his wrath.

Through the heavily tinted windows, his stormy gray eyes remained fixed on Josh, who was currently standing beside his own car down the street, angrily lighting a cigarette.

With every passing second, the temperature inside the vehicle seemed to plummet.

The woman finally gathered enough courage to break the silence. "I have good news, boss."

"Speak."

His cold, commanding voice never wavered.

His gaze didn't shift from Josh for even a millisecond.

"They broke up!"

The suffocating atmosphere instantly evaporated. The shift was so dramatic that the assistant almost let out a visible sigh of relief.

Finally, the man turned his head toward her.

His icy, piercing stare was so intense it almost made her forget how to breathe.

"Tell me," He said quietly, a dark, dangerous satisfaction curling at the edge of his lips. "Do you think she liked the flowers?"