Chapter Thirteen
WhenMicahwentto meet his cousin for dinner, Isabel didn’t think anything of it. A week later, she was kicking herself for not realizing what was really going on. The news broke on a Friday afternoon. She received a text from her cousins asking if she and Micah had broken up and it all fell apart from there. They sent her a link to an article titled, ‘Playboy Billionaire at it Again,’ with an intimate looking photo of him and another woman. The date referenced in the article was the same night he was supposed to be out with Dante. Lies, so many lies, surrounded her and it was too much to keep up with. Looking down at her phone, her heart was shattered. The tears began before she could stop them. He had betrayed her. After everything they had been through together, he broke the one promise she asked of him. The only thing that could tear them apart was him cheating during their fake relationship. He knew that and he did it anyway.
She wiped the tears from her face and rushed out of her office. If he thought she was going to stand for him going back on his word, then he had lost his mind. She made her way down the office corridor nearly taking out one of the interns who dared to cross in front of her. Isabel was of the mind set that nothing would stand in her way. Fueled by anger she rounded the corner and through the glass windows of his office she saw the proof she needed that he was back to his old playboy ways. She stopped dead in her tracks, her body tensed painfully and it took everything inside her not to let out the wail of despair that had worked it's way up her throat. She stood there silently, and watched Micah as he tipped his head back in laughter while on the phone. The joy on his face made her week in the knees, but the problem wasn't the phone call. The problem was the young blond sitting on the edge of his desk. She had a short red skirt on that likely showed too much thigh before she chose the seat on his desk. Now with her ass nearly hanging out she leaned over him in a familiar gesture that made Isabel sick. Not only was he sneaking around on her in public he was also doing it at the office.
"Ms. Diaz, did you need something?"
The voice to her right shook her out of her daze.
"What?"
"Did you need something that I can help with?"
"No... no... I just... it's nothing. Never mind." she stuttered turning from the associate who had interrupted her break down.
As she turned and made her way back to the office the enormity of her situation began to set in. Her hands were shaking as she closed her laptop and slipped it into her oversized bag. Grabbing her cell phone, she ordered a car service and made her way downstairs. She stood outside in the scorching heat, waiting for her driver to arrive taking deep breaths while trying to calm her nerves. Since her and Micah worked the same schedule everyday, she had gotten used to driving in with him each morning. Now she was stranded at the office with no means of immediate escape. Isabel watched as the app on her phone showed the driver was only two minutes away, but a call from her mother interrupted it. Seeing ‘Mama’ come across the screen was too much to bear. She had promised herself she wouldn’t fall for the man she had been sharing her life with, but it was too late. Now her only options were to tell her family the truth or be the woman who once again couldn’t please a man enough to keep him faithful. When the driver pulled up, she turned her phone off and refused to deal with any of it.
The car dropped her off in front of their building. She nearly ran inside and took the elevator to the penthouse. The familiarity of her new home made things worse. She knew it was over, not just things with Micah, but this life she had grown to love. He knew how much something like this would hurt her, and he did it anyway. Whatever his reason, it wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t going to let another man take advantage of her heart, no matter how much it was going to hurt to walk away. Isabel made her way into the guest bedroom and grabbed her two suitcases. She dumped what remained in the room into one bag, then headed into the master. She went to the closet and packed the rest of her clothes, not caring to fold anything. Her only goal was to get out of there as soon as she could. When she went into the bathroom, she took the medication she had to help her with anxiety and grabbed the rest of her items.
Isabel made it in and out of the apartment in record time. Holding the tears back, she got into her car and drove. She needed time to process everything and come up with her next move. Time away from everyone around her was the only way. She loved her family, but she couldn’t let them influence her decisions. Knowing she needed to figure this out herself, she turned the radio up and headed north on the turnpike. Keeping it together on the drive was now her only goal. One small goal at a time could get her through this. When she found a hotel, she could let go. That’s when she’d face the feelings that continued to creep up. The old familiar feelings of betrayal, sadness, and doubt were all things she had prayed she would never have to face again.
“She’s gone Luca, you have to help me.” The desperation in Micah’s voice was unmistakable.
“I can barely hear you. Who’s gone?”
“Izzy, she left. I have no idea where she went!” Micah shouted into his phone over the noise of the party. He was at his fifth stop trying to track down Isabel to explain what happened, and he hit another dead end. After he got the call from the PR department, he rushed down to her office only to find she had left. One speeding ticket later, he was at the penthouse and it was empty, too. Not only was she not there, but every trace of her was gone. His heart was breaking in two, and out of desperation, he went to her mother. After she slapped him across the face, she let him explain the photo of him and Sofia. She gave him a list of places Isabel may be, but none of them panned out. As he fought his way through a crowded bar owned by her cousin Hector, he realized he had one person who could find anyone, his brother.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“It’s like I said. She left me. Luca, you have to track her down. I need to find her to explain. Can’t you track her car? Her credit cards? Something?”
“Micah, take a deep breath. First of all, I can’t just hack into the banking system to find your girlfriend. Tell me what happened.”
Once he finally got outside and the noise died down, he tried to explain. “My life is a fucking disaster. I swear every time I take one step forward, I get knocked the fuck down again. Some stupid asshole took a photo of me and Sofia the night I met with Dante. It was published today in some local gossip magazine and now it’s all over the internet.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was, and now she’s gone.”
“I don’t understand why she would leave you. Didn’t you tell her about Sofia?”
“Considering how well you took it, no, no, I didn’t.”
“Nothing like dear old dad fucking up our lives from the grave. Where do you think she went?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been everywhere I can think of. Her mother slapped me. I don’t think her cousin believes me and no one else has seen or heard from her. I’m terrified she is going to do something drastic.”
“Why?”
“The one thing she made me promise when this whole thing started was that I wouldn’t cheat on her. Once I learned about her past, it all made sense. I can’t imagine what she is going through right now, thinking I went against my word. It’s like I’m no better than the asshole that hurt her years ago. What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t think there’s much you can do, bro, you’re going to have to give her time.”
“But she’s... fuck, she’s going to hate that I told you this. She struggles with depression and anxiety. Like bad. Not just someone who takes the occasional Xanax to keep chill. They diagnosed her with Major Depressive Disorder and she takes medication every day to help her fight it. I can’t be the reason she loses her fight. I just can’t.”
Micah could barely get the words out. His world was crumbling down around him and his eyes were burning as he held back the tears threatening to fall. When he got back to his car, he turned it on and just sat there, waiting for his brother to respond.
“Let me see what I can do. I’m going to make some calls. Stay by your phone.”