The CEO's Wife

Chapter 9

The Reveal

Melody Young

I haven't been working with Mr. Ball for long, but what I can say is that for a fact, without a shadow of a doubt, this man is one of the most difficult men I've ever encountered in my entire life. I've never dealt with a high-maintenance man before and seeing it now was a crazy experience. He likes things to flow a certain way and if they don't, I'll hear about it all day. He's real big on his schedule, if there's anything for him to do during the day it needs to be on the schedule, and if it's not it's gonna throw off the rest of his week. When things go wrong, he has a habit of not fussing at me though, instead, he does things that he knows will annoy me, like clicking his pen non-stop for an hour after I forgot to send his mother and grandmother flowers for Mother's Day.

I was about to afford a car after about a month and a half of working with him. We argued over that like we did almost everything else. he didn't understand why I didn't run out and buy a brand-new car just because I had enough money to do that. Instead, I bought something older that I wouldn't have to pay a huge car note on. He wanted me to get something new so bad that he even offered to cover the difference between what I had saved up and the rest of the car that I wanted but I told him no.

I pulled into the back parking lot at Larry's and the sight of me getting out of a car instead of walking had his face twisted up into a look of pure disgust. Some of the girls giggled as I walked by but I paid no mind to them. I was always the butt of their jokes as if they were so much better than me. They come here and sell their bodies for wigs and new clothes but I'm the joke.

"You had enough money to buy a car but haven't paid me the rest of my money?" Larry asked as I walked by where he stood with two of the bouncers.

"The car was a gift," I lied.

He snorted. "You should have given it back cause that thing is a piece of shit." he smiled and walked away. I cannot wait until I'm done here, and I never have o see this place again.

I was relieved to get off from the club and even more relieved that I didn't have to walk home at the end of the night. I had to get up in the morning and go dress shopping with Mr. Ball's fiancé, and I wasn't looking forward to it. It's gonna be the first time that I was ever going to have a real conversation with her. Honestly, I'm just curious to see what kinda girl she is. I've always heard rumors from girls on the intern floor that were bold enough to take a shot at him, and not to my surprise he'd had his way with more than one of them. It's the type of thing that you would think could ruin a workplace but for some reason the girls he messes around with becoming friends, or at least they act like friends while they share stories about what it's like to sleep with him.

"Do you know that you talk out loud to yourself when you think?" I looked up from the planner in my hands to the platform where Hannah was standing. This was the tenth dress she's tried on since we got here and honestly, I think she'd just try on dresses for the hell of it instead of trying to shop.

"How much is that one?" I asked.

"15 thousand," the salesperson replied.

"Too much," I said to her. "We have a budget."

"How am I supposed to find a dress for under 6 thousand dollars?" she asked making a face at me. All I could do is shrug.

"They aren't my rules I'm just here to"

"To babysit." she spat out. She grabbed the bottom of the dress and stepped off of the platform and back to the dressing room. The salesperson followed behind her and came back a moment later.

"you guys have an hour left in the appointment but she says she doesn't want to look at anything else." the salesperson said.

I sucked in a deep breath and placed my iPad down on the sofa before going back over to the dressing room. I could hear soft sobbing as I approached the door. "Hannah," I called out before knocking softly.

The door was jerked open from the other side. "What?" she asked.

I was kind of caught off guard. Her make-up was starting the streak but I could tell she was trying to salvage it by dabbing the tears away before they ran down her face. "The....the lady said."

"Yeah, I'm ready to go," she said before slamming the door back shut. A stood there looking for the words to encourage her to stay but before I could come up with anything she was walking out of the door in her clothes. She didn't stop walking until she was standing in the car.

"Well, I guess the day is over," I said before grabbing our things and heading out the door behind her.

The next day I was sitting at the tailor with Mr. Ball watching him get measured for his suit. He was standing on the platform letting the tailor measure him. I sat there in silence the entire time because I didn't want to say anything in front of the old woman but when we got inside and the two of us were back in his car, I decided that I would just ask. After all, what would it hurt?

"Do you want to get married?" I asked him.

He turned and glanced at me before turning his attention back to the road. "Yeah why?" he replied quickly. That was taken quickly, there was no feeling behind his answer like he had rehearsed it over and over.

"Neither of you seems like you want this," I said to him. "Both of you talk about getting married like it's the worst thing in the world."

"Hannah and I are.... different. our relationship was different, but we make it work." He said.

Something wasn't right about what he was saying but I had maxed out my daily question allowance asking him about this so I chose to let it go. Something about this isn't right, and I'm going to find out what it is. I sat back in the passenger's seat and went on about what I was doing. Hannah refused to pick a dress but she still needed one. So, I started looking for dresses online and sending them to her to see what she likes, which was nothing. She was determined to get what she wanted no matter how hard I tried to get her to stay within the budget.

When we got back to the office we went right back to work. I was sitting in my little corner still twiddling away at the iPad in my lap, but I was alone this time. Mr. Ball had gone to the bathroom and he didn't need me to do that, so I sat waiting for him to return. The door swung open and I thought that it would be Mr. Ball coming into the door but instead, it was his uncle. He must have thought that his nephew was in there but instead it was just me but that didn't stop him from saying.

"He nephew you ready to announce your fake wedding to the board-" he stopped talking when he saw me. Then he looked around the room and realized that Mr. Ball wasn't in there. "Shit,"

"Fake?" I asked.

Mr. Ball walked in right after that and both of us turned to look at him. "Why yall looking at me like that?"

"My bad," was all that his uncle said in reply.

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"Your wedding is fake!?" I asked him.

He looked over at his uncle. "You big mouth bastard."