Chapter 5

"You wanna know what's crazy? If he comes right now and walks through that door, I might run up to him and hold on to him. I might forgive him. I can't stay mad at him, I always make the same mistakes. I always want to fix them. Am I so bad at love that I always attract these kinds of men? Before I came to New York, I had a bad break up, I don't even talk about it anymore. It was so bad that I had to move states because I was becoming a shadow of myself. I lost myself and I see the same pattern in Nate but I still want to do what I did: Stay and fix him and how he treats me instead of walking away with my dignity."

"Juls, you're not perfect. Nobody is. You just love people who are not worthy of your love." Ashley said trying to console her friend. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe Juliette's face.

"Well, haven't we cracked the code? I am the problem. Thanks for helping me figure this out."

"I didn't say that. You can never be the problem. It just hurts that Nathan doesn't see how valuable you are and I really wish he did."

"I think I will just-"

"Ah, there you both are. We are supposed to have a general conference meeting right here in ten minutes" a colleague interrupted them. Juliette quickly wiped her face and tried to avoid eye contact with the colleague. Immediately after the announcement, the colleague walked off.

"We should get ready." Juliette said to Ashley. She brought out a small mirror from her bag to check her makeup. Her mascara ran a little bit but she cleaned up good and did a little retouch.

Shortly after, the meeting started and it held for an hour. Immediately after the meeting, the company CEO congratulated Juliette and her team for their presentation and the new business status the company had acquired from the deal with the artist.

After work, the girls drove back home and when they got to Ashley's apartment, Nathan stood there with a large bouquet of flowers and immediately she saw him, her heart skipped a beat. Ashley immediately came out of the car and walked towards Nathan. Sensing that Ashley might embarrass her, Juliette ran after her friend and held her in an attempt to stop her from going physical on Nathan.

"What the hell do you want?" Ashley asked Nathan in the most angry tone.

"I came to talk to Juliette" he said to her and turned to Juliette and with the most sincere countenance he said, "Baby, I am so sorry for hurting you. I don't know what it is but I know you're pissed at me."

"I don't think here's a good-"

"You fucking loser! I saw you on a date with another woman." Ashley interrupted.

"Yeah, a date my parents set up for me. It was a blind date, I don't love that woman."

"A blind date and yet you kissed her immediately you came in. I can't believe you'd stand there and lie like a child, I'm literally disgusted and you don't have any right to-"

"Ash, if I may please?" Juliette interrupted and faced Nathan to say, "I can't continue this. You're lying with so much passion even though we have proof. What happens when and if we didn't have the proof?"

"Babe, I'm not denying that I kissed her. I just don't want us to fight anymore. I'm sorry I cheated on you. I've been in a dark place lately, and you might not understand but I've been battling with a lot of things this period. I love you and I'm ready to fight for your love again."

Ashley looked over to Juliette to see what she'd do but Juliette looked as if she bought Nathan's deceits and manipulation. Even if she just stormed off, Ashley knew Nathan had gotten a little bit of what he wanted: he had gotten a little forgiveness from her.

As she walked into her apartment building, Ashley looked over at Nathan and grabbed the bouquet he held. She smacked the flowers on him several times but he didn't respond or even fight her off. With her teeth clenched tightly, Ashley continued to hit him and cussed under her breath. Nathan just started muttering "sorry" to Ashley.

When Juliette got into her apartment, she realized that Matt was in. It look as if he had cooked. The place smelt nice. She just walked towards her own room but he was also coming out of his in room. He wore a black shirt and a blue jeans, and a black leather jacket that he was trying to wear.

"Hey" he called out to her.

"Hey" she responded, stopped in her tracks then turned to face him. One look at her, he could tell that she was having a bad day. So he asked if she wanted to sit down and talk about her day. She didn't know what to say was wrong with her and the last thing she needed was to tell her new neighbor that her boyfriend was cheating on her and was comfortable lying and that her day was only partly ruined because she closed a major deal at work. So she just told him she wanted to close her eyes. He frowned at her response but he didn't say anything else. He just walked away.

"Later" he called out as he walked out of the house.

As soon as he stopped out of the house, Matt called his friend, Collins. Collins has been on the one helping Matt find his half brother, Justin.

Matt is the son of a prominent millionaire in Europe. He grew up with both parent by him. As the only child, his parent were always preparing him to take over the family business. He was sent to the best school in the country and was handed everything to make sure that he was ready to run the business.

One day, some days after his twenty seventh birthday, he came home from one of his numerous trips to see his parents, but unknown to him, his father was on an important business trip. He has an extremely close relationship with his father so he just went into his father's study to relax. As he was checking out the things in there -trying to relive his childhood memories of when he used to play in his father's study and have his father read him some of his favorite books- he accidentally stumbled upon a perfectly camouflaged safe. At first, he wondered why there was a locked safe in there but it became clear that it had something in it or else, his father would not try to hide it and password-protect it. He tried different passwords and it was incorrect till he tried his own birthday.

The content of the safe exposed a secret that he knew would traumatize his mother if she found out: his father had an illegitimate affair and it brought him a son. The son, Winston, was about seven years older than Matt. They shared the same birthday but he was never involved in his Winston's life from when he was a child. He had spent all those years stalking him by hiring a private investigator to stalk him from childhood till date. However, he helped Winston by making him get hired by one of his companies in America. He got him promoted and in less than five years, Winston was part of the board in the company. What he doesn't know is that, his father is responsible for his success, he thought he figured out his life by himself.

From the pictures, Matt realized that the man had the same greenish-blue eyes as him, a common feature that their father possessed. They had the same smile and while he knew that his mother would collapse if she found out, he was very happy knowing he had a big brother. So he decided to look for his brother.

He spoke to a detective, Collins, who also worked as a part-time private investigator and they decided it was best if he got close to his brother without his parent's knowledge. So instead, he told them he was going to America for a year on a personal growth journey. His father was against it at first but he promised to be fully prepared for the business when he returned and his father let him go.

In America, he discovered that it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought it'd be. Getting close to a board member of Klaus Enterprise was a tedious feat that he'd have to work for. Luckily for him, Collins knew the head of the HR department and one of the senior staffs needed to replace her assistant. Collins worked things out and got Matt the job.

His first day at work had been quite smooth because the previous assistant had done an impressive job and since his boss was still on her vacation, there was very little he had to do. He had all the spare time and that's why he could get groceries on his way from work.

Making meals was fun for him, he used to do it most times by himself when he lived alone during his undergraduate era. It helped to relax him and he never took it for granted. After eating, he called Collins to meet so that he could brief him about his day over drinks and after they spoke, Juliette walked in. She looked exhausted and he wanted to ask her if she was okay but he didn't want to be too froward. As expected, she didn't trust him enough to let him in on her life, so he went out to check out the park and wait till it's time to meet with Collins.

Juliette just slid onto her bed immediately she got inside her room. She knew she had to forgive Nathan but that will be after she tells him about her drunk make out session with a total stranger.

She picked up her phone and dialed his number. He picked after the second ring.

"I'd give you another chance after we talk. See you at our usual spot at the park by 6pm today. Don't be late."

With that, she ended the call and just sank into her bed. Shortly after, she was famished and she came out to eat some of what Matt had made. It was rice and veggies with steaks. She helped herself to some. While she was at it, she texted Ashley to come over. 

Ashley was almost home but immediately Juliette's text came in, she drove back to her. When she got into the apartment, she used the keys Juliette gave her to let herself in. She startled Juliette who smiled after seeing her.

"You almost gave me a mini heart attack." Juliette began

Confused, Ashley asked "Why? You alone?" as she moved closer to Juliette.

"Yeah"

"Where's Matt?"

"Out I guess. So, I'm meeting Nathan later in the evening, I called him already."

"Are you serious? He literally cheat-"

"I know but I think I might've done the same thing too." Juliette interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked sitting down beside her on the same sofa.

"At my party? I made out with like a total stranger and I don't even remember who it was."

"But is it your fault though? You did it because you're lonely in your relationship." Ashley said trying to defend Juliette's acts.

"Hm, yeah but I shouldn't have kissed the guy."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know, my memory is faint. I remember what he smells like though. And it was the best kiss I've ever had all my life."

"Okay. Where are you meeting Nathan?"

"At our favorite part of the park."

"The park? All the comfortable restaurants and bars to meet him and you choose the park?"

"I love the park."

"I know but when you want to discuss with a grown man about a grown up issues, the park is not exactly private."

"I just want a place that I'll feel very comfortable talking about cheating with him-"

"You can't call it cheating if he already mentally checked out of the relationship at the time you kissed someone else."

Juliette just shook her head and when she realized that Ashley would support her whether she was right or wrong and she couldn't fight her on it anymore, she decided to let it go.