CHAPTER4
1638 Words
THE NAME ON THE CARD
The door flew open before I could even turn the key. Clara stood there in her pajamas, phone in one hand, eyes wild.
"Shaznay!" She grabbed my arm and yanked me inside. "Do you have any idea how worried we have been? We called you sixty-seven times!"
Dorinda was on the couch with her laptop open and her reading glasses on. She looked up and her mouth fell open. "She lives."
"Barely," I muttered, dropping onto the couch beside Dorinda and kicking off my shoes. "Before you both start yelling, let me just say that I know I messed up."
"Messed up?" Clara planted her hands on her hips. "You left the club with a random man, disappeared for the entire weekend, and your phone was dead. We were about to call the police, Shaznay. The actual police."
"I know. I am sorry." I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling. "I was in Cape Town."
Silence. Then both of them at once.
"Cape Town?"
"With that guy?" Clara sat on the arm of the couch. "The tall one from VIP?"
I nodded. Dorinda closed her laptop slowly. "How did you end up in Cape Town with a man you met three hours before?"
"He has a private jet."
"Of course he does," Dorinda said flatly. "Rich men and their toys. Did you at least have fun?"
I sat up and looked at both of them. My best friends since university. The two people in this world besides my grandmother and Shantell who I trusted completely. I pulled the ring out of my pocket. I had slid it off my finger in the car because looking at it made me nauseous. I held it up between my fingers and watched their expressions change.
Clara squinted. "What is that?"
"A diamond ring."
"Why do you have a diamond ring?"
I swallowed. "Because I got married last night."
The silence that followed was so thick I could taste it. Dorinda removed her glasses. Clara's mouth opened and closed three times. Then they both erupted.
"MARRIED?"
"To the man from the club?"
"In Cape Town?"
"Shaznay, what the actual..."
"I know!" I dropped the ring on the coffee table and buried my face in my hands. "I know how it sounds. I was drunk. Beyond drunk. I do not remember the ceremony. I barely remember anything after the second bar."
Clara picked up the ring and examined it. "This is real. This is a very real, very expensive diamond. Who is this man?"
I pulled the card from my pocket and handed it to her. "His name is Benjamin Victor. He goes by Victor."
Clara read the card. Then she read it again. Then she looked at me with an expression I had never seen on her face before. Part shock, part disbelief, part something close to awe.
"Shaznay," she whispered. "Benjamin Victor? The Benjamin Victor?"
"What do you mean 'the'? Do you know him?"
Dorinda snatched the card from Clara's hand and read it. Her eyes went huge. "Oh my God. Shaznay, this is the heir to the Victor family empire. His father is Richard Victor. They own Crown Properties and about fifteen other companies. He was on the cover of Forbes Africa last year."
My blood ran cold. "Crown Properties?"
"Yes, Crown Properties. You know, the company you are starting at on Monday?" Dorinda stared at me. "Please tell me you are connecting these dots right now."
The room tilted. I grabbed the armrest. "No. No, that cannot be right. He said his name was Victor. He said he works in property development but he did not say..."
"He is a billionaire, Shaznay!" Clara grabbed her phone and pulled up a photo. She shoved the screen in my face and there he was. Same jaw. Same dark eyes with the gold in them. Same dimples in the photo where he was smiling at some charity event. The headline read: Benjamin Victor, youngest CEO in line for Crown Properties empire.
"I am going to be sick," I whispered.
"Girl, you married a billionaire," Dorinda said, and despite the chaos, she grinned. "Accidentally."
"It is not funny!"
"It is a little funny."
I stood up and paced the small living room. "No one can know about this. We are getting an annulment. His lawyer is handling it. It will be like it never happened."
"But what about work?" Clara asked carefully. "He is connected to Crown Properties. What if he is there?"
"He will not be there," I said firmly. "Mr. Richard hired me. He is the CEO. Benjamin is probably off running some other branch. It will be fine."
Clara and Dorinda exchanged a look that told me they did not believe me. I did not believe myself either, but I needed to say the words out loud because if I did not, I was going to collapse.
The rest of Sunday passed in a fog. I slept. I stared at the ceiling. I charged my phone and found seventeen missed calls from Shantell asking if I was okay and one voicemail from Grandma Evelyn asking when I was coming to visit. The guilt nearly swallowed me whole.
Monday morning, I woke before my alarm. I showered, dressed in my best blouse and black trousers, tied my braids back in a neat low bun, and stared at my reflection. I looked put together. Professional. Like a woman who had not just married a stranger forty-eight hours ago.
"You can do this," I told my reflection. "He will not be there. It will be fine."
I made it to the Crown Properties building in Sandton with ten minutes to spare. Glass and steel, thirty stories high, the morning sun bouncing off every surface. I walked through the revolving doors, my heels clicking on the polished marble floor, and presented myself at reception.
"Shaznay? Welcome!" A woman with a bright smile and a neat grey blazer greeted me. "I am Tonia. We spoke on the phone last week."
"Yes, hello. Lovely to meet you in person." I shook her hand and forced my face into calm.
"Perfect timing," Tonia said, already turning and walking briskly toward the elevators. "Mr. Richard wants to introduce you to someone before you get settled in. He is very excited about a big announcement today."
"Oh?" My stomach tightened. "What kind of announcement?"
"His son is officially joining the company as co-CEO. He arrived back from overseas last month and today is his first day in the office too." She smiled at me as we stepped into the elevator. "You will actually be working under him directly."
The elevator doors closed and I watched the numbers climb. My heart was beating so hard I was sure Tonia could hear it. His son. The co-CEO. Working under him directly.
The elevator stopped at the thirtieth floor. Tonia led me through a wide open space with glass offices and modern art on the walls and expensive furniture everywhere. She stopped at a large glass door and knocked once before pushing it open.
"Mr. Richard, your new assistant is here."
I stepped into the office. Richard stood by the window, the same silver-haired gentleman who had interviewed me last week. And beside him, turning from the window to face me with those golden-brown eyes that had watched me across a crowded club just three nights ago, was Benjamin.
"Shaznay," Richard said warmly. "Allow me to introduce my son, Benjamin. You will be working closely together."
Benjamin held my gaze. Steady. Unreadable.
"Hello, Shaznay," he said. "It is nice to meet you."
My chest was burning and my hands were fists at my sides, but I forced a smile onto my face and shook his outstretched hand. His fingers closed around mine and squeezed once, brief, electric.
"Nice to meet you too," I said through my teeth.
Richard beamed between us, oblivious. "Wonderful. I will let you two get acquainted. Benjamin, show her the ropes, will you?"
Richard left the office and the glass door clicked shut behind him. The silence between Benjamin and me stretched tight as a wire.
"You knew," I said quietly.
His jaw flexed. "I did not know until Saturday night when my father called."
My nails dug into my palms and I took one step closer, keeping my voice low. "You handed me that card. You saw my face when I read it. You said nothing."
"What was I supposed to say, Shaznay? In the back of a car on a Sunday evening?" He moved behind his desk and sat, leaning back in his chair. "I needed time to figure out how to handle this."
"Handle this?" I repeated. "I will tell you how we handle this. I quit."
"You cannot quit."
"Watch me."
"Shaznay." His voice dropped and he leaned forward, his hands clasped on the desk. "If you quit on your first day, my father will ask questions. If he asks questions, he will find out what happened. And if he finds out what happened between us..."
I stared at him, waiting.
"Things will get very complicated. For both of us."
I did not like the weight behind those words. I did not like the way his eyes had darkened or the tension in his shoulders. But more than anything, I did not like the fact that somewhere, deep in the pit of my stomach, standing this close to him still made me feel something.
"What are you not telling me?" I asked.
He opened his mouth to answer but his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and his expression shifted. Something flashed in his eyes that looked a lot like dread.
"Sit down, Shaznay," he said quietly. "We have a bigger problem than I thought."
- Writer
