Broken Truth (34 page)

“While we wait, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new employee for those who have not yet met her. She came extremely well recommended from our sister office in the UK, so we hope she is going to help sprinkle some magic as well as learn along the way. Everyone, please welcome Char-”

Marco was cut off abruptly as the metal door to the meeting room was opened. All eyes including Charlie’s turned to look at the figure of the person stood in the doorway.

 “Jay,” she whispered into the silent room.

“Apologies for my lateness everyone, but I was unfortunately held in a traffic jam on the way here,” he said with a wry smile that pierced and bore straight into her soul.

“That is quite alright,” Marco said as he walked over and shook his hand in greeting. He turned towards the rest of the employees who were sat around the table with questioning eyes. “
Attenzione
, I would like to introduce you all to our new director of International Operations, Mr Jared Wharves,” Marco announced.

Thirty Two

As a chorus of claps and well wishes flooded around the room, Charlie remained frozen and silent in her seat. She couldn’t breathe as an unexpected force started to pound deep inside of her brain. It was fierce, threatening to push out of her ears at any moment. It was a feeling of being trapped, like the feeling of pressure rushing into your ears after you have put your head under water.

She felt as though she were drowning.

“This can’t be happening,” she eventually whispered into the room as she watched Jared step forward and close the door behind him. Charlie knew that she had to be dreaming. She couldn’t imagine for one second that Marco had just introduced Jay as Jared and announced him as the new director of the company. It was impossible. She knew that there had to be some sort of mistake.

Charlie lifted and pressed her hand against her forehead and closed her eyes. The pounding was becoming more and more forceful the longer she looked at him. She hoped that if she closed her eyes she would rid herself of the nightmare she was currently in.

Jay was Jared.

She had almost slept with
Jared
in the alleyway behind Vision.

Her mind started to recall the moment when Callum pulled him away from her. She remembered his harsh words as he told her that she had almost made the worst decision of her life. Now everything was starting to make sense to her.

 “Charlotte?” Charlie opened her eyes at the concern in Marco’s voice. “Are you alright? Would you like a glass of water?”

Realising she had once again attracted the attention of the entire room including Jared, Charlie blushed a furious shade of tomato and shook her head. “I’m okay, thank you. I am just feeling a little warm,” she explained, picking up Sophia’s notepad and fanning her face in an attempt to calm her soaring body temperature.

“Are you alright?” Sophia whispered.

“No,” Charlie choked. “I’m not alright. That is the guy that Callum beat up in the Alley behind the nightclub. That is Jay.”

Sophia’s eyes widened at her confession. “But... Marco said he was Jared?”

“He lied to me,” she croaked, trying to gasp some air into her lungs. “He told me his name was Jay.”

“Okay...” Sophia replied slowly. “Forgive me, but I don’t understand what relevance this has other than the fact you almost slept with him? I get that it will be awkward, but we can work around that.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand, Sophia. I’ve heard the name Jared Wharves before and I’ve seen it in all of the papers... he is Callum’s business partner.”

“Shit,” Sophia breathed as the giant fucked up puzzle slid its final piece into place.

Diverting her eyes to one spot in the corner of the room, Charlie heard a few background whispers before Jared’s deep and throaty chuckle reverberated off of the walls around them. The sound of his voice sent cold shivers trickling along the length of her spine. 

“He keeps staring at you,” she heard Sophia whisper. “And those eyes... Jesus, Charlie. I can see why you almost did go through with it.”

“Not helping,” Charlie snapped, nudging Sophia in the side with her finger.

Unable to resist the curiosity any longer, Charlie slowly lifted her eyes to where Jared was stood with Marco. She noticed the salacious and wicked grin spreading across his mouth as their eyes connected and he registered the utter horror on her face.

 “Right, shall we get on with the meeting then?” Marco clapped his hands together eagerly and looked around the room. “Jared, if you’d like to take a seat then we will begin,” he said, gesturing towards the empty seat to Charlie’s left.

“Oh God,” she breathed as an award winning smirk appeared across Jared’s features. She knew this was going to be a bad idea.

Trying to keep her cool, Charlie merely nodded as he took the empty chair beside her at the head of the table and opened up his laptop. After he had switched it on, she immediately caught sight of the wallpaper saved to his desktop background.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she took in the picture of her and Jared onscreen. Recognising it instantly, her memory flicked back to the night with ease. She remembered the drinks were flowing freely that particular night at Vision and the way Jared
had tried to seduce her into forgetting Callum. She took in her happy and smiling face as she posed drunkenly beside him. Although the image looked grainy as if taken from a mobile phone, there was no denying the drunken passion between them in the photo.

Charlie felt sick at the memory.

She had been played all along.

 “So Charlotte...”

Charlie jumped out of her seat a little and directed her attention towards Marco who was watching her movements carefully.

“I do apologise, please could you repeat that?”

Marco narrowed his eyes. “I was just asking if you wouldn’t mind telling the team a little about yourself as an introduction.”  

“Ummm-”

“Don’t be nervous,” Marco said as he took his seat. “We all work here as a family, so this is our getting to know you period.”

She sniggered to herself thinking about how wrong it sounded to be considered family with someone she had almost slept with. The thought alone would be enough to be considered incestuous.

“Please start, Charlotte,” Marco pushed impatiently.

Placing her hands neatly on the table, Charlie looked around the room and tried to ignore the presence to her left. “Hi, my name is Charlotte, but you can all call me Charlie. I have been in Milan a total of two days following a move from Manchester. I like to shop... quite a bit. And I hope we all get along great while I’m here.” She flushed a little at the end of her sentence realising she sounded like a new member at her local self-help group.

“Thank you, Charlie,” Marco praised. “I’m sure we will all get along very well and welcome you into the family. In fact, perhaps we should schedule an evening out to welcome our two new members of staff?” Marco suggested, his eyes practically gleaming at the schmooze possibilities.

“That sounds great,” Charlie replied as she kicked her bare leg against Jared’s trousers in warning. Although he flinched under the table, he still maintained his usual businesslike composure on top which infuriated her. She was giving him a warning that she didn’t want him to attend tonight. She needed some time to think before she could confront him properly.

“Will you join us tonight, Mr Wharves?” Marco turned towards Jared and cocked his head to the side with a small smirk.

Charlie looked towards him pleadingly. She willed him to say no.

Jared’s gaze intensified as he licked his lips daringly. “I’ll be there,” he nodded.

“Shit!” Sophia screeched as she started to fling various hangers with clothes onto Charlie’s bed. “Why do you think he is here? How did he even have the money to buy into the company if everything with Callum has gone down the drain?”

“Seriously,” Charlie sighed from her cross legged position on the bed. “The only thing I could think is that Callum paid him extremely well, so he had money saved that he must have used. I know that Callum is very generous when it comes to annual bonuses and things. I mean, they are business partners so we aren’t talking a few thousand here, we are talking more in the millions. My guess is that once Callum’s company shutdown, Jared decided to move into a new avenue. Why he chose the company I work for though is a question I’m going to have to ask him.”

“Something smells fishy to me,” Sophia declared, placing her hands firmly on her hips.

“I agree.”

“Do you reckon Callum knows what has been happening?” Sophia asked as she turned back to the wardrobe to hunt for more clothes.

The question weighed heavy on Charlie’s shoulders. Given the lies and deceit from Callum and now Jared, she wasn’t sure who was hiding what anymore. “I don’t know,” she sighed.

Flicking a glance over her shoulder, Sophia looked at her warily. “We need to find out what’s going on. You need to talk to Jared, tonight.”

“I’m not ready to confront him,” Charlie confessed as she rubbed her hands awkwardly over her legs.

“You need to grow some balls and just deal with this. Jared lied to you and I think you deserve to find out why,” Sophia said, turning around to face her. “Put this on,” she demanded as she threw a dress in Charlie’s direction. “And I don’t want to hear any of your bitching. You will look stunning in that.”

Charlie’s mind wandered onto Marco as she held up the barely there pieces of the purple cut out dress she had just been passed. “Um, hey,” she said, trying to change the subject. “You know Marco... Is there anything going on there between you two?”

“No,” Sophia answered quickly. “Ummm... Maybe? Okay, yes!” she confessed, rushing over to sit on the bed in front of Charlie. “Was it noticeable? Oh God, it must have been if you noticed it after like two days.”

“Calm down,” Charlie laughed. “It was only because of the way he looks at you. I just figured that something was going on,” she explained.

In truth, Charlie just wanted to find out a little bit more information about Marco. There was something odd about the way he interacted with people. She noticed on more than one occasion that he tended to be a bit of a flirt. His supposed playboy ways were a growing concern for her as she knew from personal experience the frailness of a young girl’s heart.

“How long have you been seeing him?”

“Around three months,” Sophia admitted.

It was there that Charlie saw it. Deep within the young girl’s eyes, she saw the precious sparkle of love shining. She knew at that moment that while she was in Milan, she would do everything in her power to prevent Sophia from heartache.

“Oi!” Sophia shouted. “You totally changed the subject.”

“No I didn’t.”

“
Bugiarda
.”

“Okay, I have no idea what you just said,” Charlie snorted.

“I called you a liar.”

“Whatever,” she huffed as the sound of her ringing mobile phone interrupted them. Picking it up, Charlie smiled as she spotted Amelia’s name flashing across the screen. “Hi Mia,” she greeted, placing the call onto speaker phone. “I want you to meet my roomma-”

“Charlie? I really need to talk to you. I have you on speakerphone and Lucy is here with me.” Amelia’s panicked voice filtered through the receiver. “Are you on your own?”

Charlie looked up and saw Sophia nod in understanding before she left the room and closed the door behind her. “Mia? What’s going on? What’s happened?” She fired multiple questions at her without waiting for an answer. “Are you alright? Please tell me what’s going on?”

“For God’s sake Charlie,” Amelia snapped. “Can you at least let me get a word out?”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“Charlie, it’s about Callum,” Lucy interrupted.

She felt her stomach drop at the mention of his name.

“We went to the penthouse to get the rest of your things and he was there,” Amelia explained. “He wouldn’t let us leave with anything until we sat down and talked to him. He was... He looked a mess, Charlie.”

“D-D-Did you tell him about Milan?” she croaked.