Truth Untold (Eligible Bachelors #1) - Completed

Chapter Five

Alexander had dressed for work, pausing once or twice in doing so to check his waistline in the mirror. He should not be thinking those negative thoughts since they had been spewed from the mouth of a woman he resented just as much, and that her intention had been to make clear how much she disliked him. Once, he pinched the skin on his side, scoffing at his stupidity. There had been no excess skin to pull since he had allotted a generous number of hours, weekly, to visiting the gym over the last five or so years.

Once he was set, he took Daphne with him and dropped her off at the Stein mansion before heading to work. There had not been much headway in that either. He hadn’t noticed the receptionist at the front desk greeting him like she did every morning, and he barely paid attention in any of the meetings he had carded for the morning.

In fact, his assistant, Sarah, had come close to worrying about him since he seemed to be elsewhere the majority of the morning. His energy to get work done had been sapped and the incident at breakfast played on his mind like a broken record.

His wife loathed him.

She insinuated that he was fat and seemed to take great pleasure in degrading him. He thought that was rather awful of her.

How is that different from what you have done and said, his subconscious screamed, the guilt of his past transgressions making his heart beat uneasily. But he could not deny that Vanessa taking delight in saying those terrible things had been completely warranted.

“Wait! What the hell? Why am I even thinking about this golddigger?” Alexander scoffed and continued on with his work, until the lunch break came and his assistant, Sarah, and best friend, Carson Fletcher, joined him for lunch.

Since Alexander rarely had the chance to eat outside of the office, his assistant often ordered in his lunch if he hadn’t had the maids pack him one. Sarah had been his assistant for four years and she was excellent at her job. She came highly recommended by HR, and Alexander could count on her to have things ready even when he slipped up.

Carson Fletcher had known Alexander since childhood days. They met as children and went to the same high school where they were on the football team together. They shared most of the same classes and went off to college together to major in the same fields.

But there was one thing that Sarah and Carson had in common that Alexander, naturally, disagreed with. They didn’t like Daphne Stein.

Some four years ago, on the first day of her new job, Sarah had the misfortune – as she would say – of meeting Daphne Stein, who had rubbed her the wrong way. As an objective outsider, she saw Daphne’s infatuation with luxury goods, always decked out in the most expensive, and brand name clothing, the latest jewellery sets, and wearing Syren’s latest cosmetics as the proud ambassador to all of Stein’s products.

She, like Carson, had observed Daphne’s greed. Even as the spoiled daughter of the Steins, she was never placated and always demanded more. She was never happy unless Alexander booked the most exotic vacation trips, or bought her the most expensive, and luxurious gifts. If he had refused, she would bribe him with seduction techniques. It was the same tactic she used whenever something came up that might paint her in a negative light in Alexander’s eyes.

Sarah openly displayed her dislike, but soon accepted defeat when she realized Daphne’s manipulations ran deeply. She had her witchy talons stuck so far into Alexander that he was blinded by the glamour of dating the favoured and spoiled princess of the Stein family. Carson had chosen a quieter approach, knowing that Alexander would hear him but never heed his words.

Sarah and Carson had thus, come to a joint agreement. They would patiently await the day the veil was lifted, and Daphne’s manipulations had been revealed. They cared for Alexander, but if he refused to see, then there was nothing either of them could do but wait.

“You’re not eating?” Sarah asked, pausing as she noticed that Alexander barely ate, spending more time pushing the food around the disposable box.

“Do you think I’m fat?”

The question came out of nowhere! Sarah snapped her head up, and Carson choked on a piece of chicken, hastily grabbing for his drink as Sarah patted his back and handed over a napkin.

The two exchanged questioning glances before looking back to their superior and friend.

“Come again?” Carson replied, wiping his mouth with the napkin, and then setting it off to the side.

“He asked if we think he’s fat,” Sarah supplied, nodding her head in amusement at the unusual question. Alexander was a proud man, and there weren’t many things that could lower his self-esteem. In fact, Sarah doubted that there was.

Or so she thought.

“What brought this on? Why the sudden lack of confidence?” Sarah prodded, exchanging amused glances with a confused Carson as they watched Alexander huff and puff. He slumped in his chair and leaned back.

“My wife.”

Carson raised an eyebrow. Sarah grinned.

“Ooh! Is this the part where we talk about the wife? It’s so nice for a change,” she beamed. “You always talk about the mistress. Daphne this, Daphne that. Daphne wants this, and Daphne wants to go there. Daphne’s upset-”

“I get it,” Alexander snapped, earning a chuckle from Carson and a grin from his assistant.

“Sarah’s right, though. You only ever mention Vanessa whenever she does something to upset Daphne,” Carson commented, thoughtfully, wondering what the woman could have done this time to spark faltered confidence in his best friend.

He didn’t know much about Vanessa, only that she was an author and supposedly had one novel published and well-received when she married Alexander a year ago.

For that matter, the ‘wedding’ hadn’t been such an occasion to facilitate idle chit-chat. He had only heard of Vanessa at that time. Alexander talked constantly about Daphne and how great she was and out of boredom – having heard the same things over and over again - Carson made a joke, asking if Daphne had a sister with whom he could get. Alexander’s response had been, “Yeah. But I wouldn’t go for her. She’s bland and I don’t even notice she’s there half the time.”

The wedding – which was simply a court date to sign the marriage certificate and gag order – had been the first time he met her. She barely spoke to anyone associated with Alexander, let alone looked at her groom or his family and friends. She was just as silent throughout the reception dinner that followed, speaking mainly with Scott Stein, two of her friends she brought to the ‘wedding,’ and briefly exchanged words with Alexander’s parents, and his sister, Tomi.

If anything, she looked done with life, itself.

After that, the only times he heard of Vanessa was when Daphne had been put in a foul mood by said sister and had to be placated with extravagant and costly gifts.

Other than that, Vanessa seemed practically non-existent to the world. Even her social media presence was lacking. Carson knew, he tried searching for her. She had a page on Google, and a f*******: account that was rarely used. Her Twitter account was the most used platform but even that saw her presence like a rare blue moon.

Vanessa hardly ever made the tabloids. It seemed that she preferred it that way, unlike Daphne who always seemed to grace the tabloids with her latest fashion trends. Even before the marriage, Daphne frequently made the cover of tabloid magazines for being the Stein ambassador or for dating Alexander.

“So…” Carson drawled, “what about the golddigger wife is eating you?”

“Personally,” Sarah piped up, “I don’t think she’s a golddigger. We never hear him complaining about having to buy her anything or putting up with shopping sprees.”

“True,” Carson agreed with a nod. “So, what’s up?”

Alexander stood and paced the length of the office floor, moving over to the window and pulling the string to open the blinds. He fumbled for words, finding it extra difficult to admit that Vanessa had managed to knock him down a notch. He had every intention of getting back up, though, for he was not about to admit defeat at the hands of the outcasted Stein daughter.

“We had an argument.”

“That would imply you two talked,” Sarah said, her eyes growing wider with realization. “Oh my god! You two talked!”

Alexander and Carson rolled their eyes, and the former continued his recollection of the dinner from last night and how Vanessa’s departure crumbled the evening, leaving Daphne upset. He, however, purposefully omitted recollection of the insults Eloisa threw to Vanessa.

“Of course!” Sarah exclaimed with a roll of her eyes and an exasperated scoff. “Of course, Daphne would be upset.”

Alexander gave her a dry stare but continued to tell them about the argument that ensued that night. “Can you believe that? And she swore, too. Like four times!”

“Wait…” Carson spoke up, gesturing for his friend to stop speaking so that he could gather his thoughts, “I’m hearing what you’re saying and I’m thinking. What exactly did Vanessa do to ruin the evening and then say what she said later on?”

Alexander shrugged. “She got offended because Eloisa told her she looked nice, and not chubby.”

“Oh?” Carson frowned, not finding anything wrong with what Eloisa had said.

“No wonder she left. Her mother basically called her fat. Inviting her to a dinner and then saying she doesn’t look chubby,” Sarah retorted. “It’s funny, though, because Vanessa’s pretty tiny.”

Now, Alexander thought, and wanted to add. But saying so might reveal to them that his wife’s reaction, her yelling, and swearing had been warranted. That might further pit them against Daphne, and she was the woman he wanted to marry and begin a life with.

Only six months were left in this eighteen-month marriage. He couldn’t wait for the divorce to arrive sooner. As soon as it was finalized, he and Daphne had agreed to get married. His wife had been the inconvenience, and had it not been for her, he and Daphne would be married by now, and there was no doubt, Daphne would by now be pregnant.

“So, where does your fat dilemma come into play?” Sarah asked.

Alexander shrugged again. “Other than telling me I eat enough to feed a small village; she made it clear that she loathes me.”

Carson chuckled. “So, what’s bothering you more? Her saying she hates you or insinuating you’re fat?”

“So, I am fat?”

“Insinuate,” Carson enunciated with a dry stare. “It’s different from outrightly saying so. And no, to answer your question.”

“I don’t know.”

Liar, his subconscious screamed at him again. Vanessa could call him the god of glutton for all he cared, but what made no sense to him was that his mind kept replaying those three words and the image of the malice in those chocolate eyes haunted him every time he zoned out. And he’d been doing that a lot today, he realized.

Alexander didn’t bother with lunch, setting it aside and deciding to stay distracted by throwing himself into his work. But even as he flipped through files and worked on his laptop, he kept seeing Vanessa’s brown eyes.

The malice.

The smile. Pretty, but evil, he thought to himself.

Alexander cringed outrightly, alone in his office and shoved his work away. He pushed the chair out and started pacing, scolding himself for having those thoughts and daring to agree with it but he was quickly losing that battle of stubbornness.

“It’s not like I didn’t know. It’s obvious, I have a pretty wife,” he said aloud, ranting to himself in hopes to realign his thoughts so that he may continue working in peace, and without having to be tortured by the image of his wife’s eyes or the fact that she loathes him. He loathes her, too.

At least, he thought.

The office phone rang then, drawing him away from his mind rant. It was Sarah who informed him that she had, on hold, on another line, a sleaze-bag paparazzi asking about a controversial tweet and had requested an interview. Alexander shut it down immediately. He had been made aware of the paparazzi mob lurking outside the building, screaming at security and trying to get inside the building. All of them kept mentioning the controversial tweet.

Having had enough of his phone ringing off the hook, he told Sarah to contact security to give the paparazzi mob a message. If they didn’t leave, and stop with the odd questions, he would have them arrested.

Alexander steered away from Twitter. It was a scary place filled with all kinds of crackheads, so he was sure that whatever this controversial tweet was, paled in comparison to larger issues. He had no time for vultures seeking out the next juiciest gossip just to make a dollar.