𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐃

09: fracture

Elle's PoV

It's been two weeks after our tragic Dubai trip and I've never wished to murder my neighbor as I do now.

I'm forced to see Grace every day, and she becomes less sympathetic each time I see her face. Joe being the nice person he is, he isn't mad at me at all for attacking his wife.

Instead of being bothered by me, she can be bothered by her husband who is still nice to me. I don't even understand a little what her deal with me is.

Attacking her was the best and worst decision of my life. One, the best decision because I finally got to let my anger out and thought about doing sports like boxing. Two, worst decision because we're business partners and Ethan literally hates me for that trip.

To justify myself, I didn't want to go in the first place.

Two weeks of being confronted with Justin in his company or Ethan's and act like nothing ever happened.

He ignored me, which was good.

I don't think about him sinfully as I did before. My body still shakes, though. It's just the way it is and I can't control it. His appearance does things to me which I can't help.

I'm not showing him that, of course. He tried talking to me two times, I straight-up walked away and didn't respond. I ignore him. And then he started ignoring me.

Currently, he's somewhere here in Ethan's company. Somewhere where I don't care since I'm in my own office and do my work for the charity organization, planning a huge donation for Somalia.

With our team, we decided to fly there and actively build with our own hands and be present.

I can't wait to help those people there.

My concentration was interrupted as Ethan's secrecy knocked on my door, "Mrs, you're expected in the conference room in ten minutes."

"Oh, right. Thank you so much, Elizabeth." I smile at her and then looked at my watch.

She smiled back at me, nodding in response and closed the door behind her.

My office didn't have glass doors as the others had.

Ethan, me and a very few others had covered doors.

I planned my presentation I'll have in a bit, mentally prepared myself to stand in front of mostly men only who don't believe in my work. They always have a serious look on their faces, judging whatever I say. Telling me that I "thoroughly thought this through but..".

I never get fully taken seriously as men do and that annoys me.

Packing my stuff, leaving with my Mac towards the conference room which I hear noises from already.

I'll go in there with a serious face and convince them of my plan.

As I step inside the room, my heels hitting the floor taking everyone's attention as I notice that I'm again the only woman here. I seriously have to talk to Ethan about hiring women for higher positions.

I just nod through the round and sit down at the very top so everyone had a perfect look at me.

Not daring to turn to my left, I felt my body shaking slightly because I feel his stare on me. Sharing my presentation with everyone so they had a look on their devices. Nervously chewing on my lip, drink a sip of cold water to cool my body down. My eyes catch Ethan slightly smile at me, I just do the same and looked back at my display.

"Mrs. Matthews I saw what your organization did in schools here in New Orleans. So amazing that they have much more colorful walls and more access to sports clubs."