Shaw
“I’msorry,butyou can’t go in there. Sir, no, you can’t—”
That was my secretary, Julieta. Alarm speared through me. Judd. Had he come to make good on his threat? The bastard wouldn’t actually confront me on school premises, would he? I never pegged him to be that dumb and provoke a fight where everyone would be able to see it.
The door to my office opened, and Ari strode in, Julieta following him.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Wheeler. He just barged right in.”
“Actually, I told you I needed to speak to Daddy, and you tried to stop me.” Ari pointed a finger at my secretary.
What happened to his face? The right side was all bruised and discolored.
“You need to make an appointment,” Julieta replied, but it only served to aggravate Ari more than he already was.
“I told you I’m his son,” Ari said.
“It’s fine, Julieta.” I walked around my desk. Usually, Ari was friendly to people. Why was he behaving so badly toward her? “Ari’s my stepson.” Boy, I really needed to work on that if people started suspecting a relationship between us.
“See, I told you.” Ari glared at her. “Aristotle. You know me. You worked here while I went to this school.”
She widened her eyes, and her face turned a bright pink. “I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognize you.”
Did she really not recognize him? Sure, he’d grown into his features, but he didn’t look that much different from when he was a student here.
“I thought he was a student trying to play a prank on me,” Julieta said.
I took her shoulder and gently steered her toward the door. “That’s okay, Julieta. We all make mistakes. No harm, no foul.”
“I’m really sorry,” she said again. I closed the door after her and turned to Ari. “Are you insane? What are you doing here?”
“She’s lying, the bitch!” Ari snorted. “She knew damn well who I was. She’s always been that way to me when I needed to see you.”
I frowned at him. “Ari, you’ll treat her respectfully. She’s a valuable secretary.”
“One who never liked how often I hung out in your office.”
I shook my head. “Where’s all this coming from?”
“You weren’t here once when I stopped by to avoid Rich, and she was nasty to me. Told me I couldn’t stay in your office until you got back. Then she proceeded to tell me I shouldn’t come to your office so much and how weird it is.”
“She said that?” She’d never told me.
“Yeah, but the reason I hate her is that I think she is jealous of the attention you give me. Her eyes follow you, you know.”
Ah, now that made sense. “That’s why you dislike her?” I could barely contain my amusement.
“That’s reason enough.”
“You’re being extra bratty today.” I approached him, took his face in my hand, and turned his cheek. “What happened?”
“I ran into a door?”
“The truth, please.”
He pulled a small Ziploc bag with a bloody knife from the inside of his coat.
“Jesus, Ari? What’d you do?”