Chapter 4
Eloise tried to break free of Jacob’s hold, but he wrapped his arms around her from behind to keep her contained. She lowered her head to bite him, but he cinched her jaw with one firm hand and shoved her into the backseat of his car.
He ordered the driver to step on it.
Lionel Finch was Jacob’s driver, and he knew Eloise. One backward glance at her told him something was amiss. Eloise pleaded, “Lionel, he’s out of his mind! Let me out of the car now!”
“Mr. Kilbourne, Ms. Sullivan is—” Lionel began hesitantly.
“Whose side are you on anyway? I’m your boss!” Jacob hissed.
Lionel dismissed Jacob and Eloise’s altercation as a lovers’ spat he should not get involved with. As such, he did as told and sped off.
No longer putting up a fight, Eloise calmed down and tried to reason with Jacob. “I’m in no mood to argue with you or throw a fit, Jacob. We’re over, and it’s pointless for us to let things get ugly!”
Jacob grimaced. “Over? I never agreed to the break-up!”
“You’re marrying Sophia soon. The least you could do is let me go,” Eloise countered.
“No!” he snapped.
“You—”
Jacob kept his arms tightly wrapped around Eloise as he hissed menacingly in her ear, “You’ve always wanted to have my kid, right? Fine! I’ll give you what you want tonight and knock you up!”
“You bastard!” Eloise spat. She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face. A resounding crack filled the car, followed by a deathly silence.
Jacob gaped at her incredulously. “H-How dare you hit me?”
Hot tears sprang to Eloise’s eyes, but she bit her lower lip to keep herself from crying. She couldn’t believe that the man she had loved for the last eight years would say something so cruel to her. It was as if he didn’t even respect her in the slightest!
“What am I to you, Jacob? A free nanny, or perhaps a lowly whore?” she ground out.
Outraged by the slap, Jacob snapped, “You seem to know your worth, at least. Be it a nanny or a whore, you signed up for this on your own! It’s not my fault you’re such a desperate slut!”
Eloise stared at him for a long moment before barking a self-deprecatory laugh. “You’re right. I was desperate, and now I’m paying for my foolishness.”
“You wanted to marry me so badly, but did you ever stop to evaluate if you were good enough?” Jacob taunted.
“No, I’m not good enough,” Eloise said.
“You… You were jealous of Sophia, but what made you think you were in the same league as her?”
“Indeed, the competition is pointless,” Eloise replied.
“You… You…” The calmer Eloise was, the more it threw Jacob off his curve. “Do you think any man would want you after you let me fuck you for free for the last eight years?”
“I take it that you think I’m ruined?” Eloise ventured a sarcastic guess.
Jacob pressed his lips into a thin line. “Yes. You’re ruined! You’re nothing more than secondhand goods!”
Eloise nodded. Her mind had never been clearer, and she had never been more relieved than when Jacob revealed his true colors. While eight years was a long time, she was thankful she had many more to come.
She loosed a laugh at that thought.
“What’s so funny?” Jacob demanded through gritted teeth.
Eloise fixed her steely gaze on him and smiled. “Let this be the moment I stop loving you, Jacob.”
Upon hearing this, Jacob fell silent. Although Eloise had threatened to break up with him countless times before, she had never claimed to stop loving him.
“Lionel, please pull over,” Eloise said to Lionel.
Lionel had been quiet until he heard this. He hesitated before saying, “Ms. Sullivan, we’re on the expressway right now. Would you still like me to pull over?”
Eloise wouldn’t cut off her nose to spite her face by having Lionel drop her off on an expressway. As such, she relented and said, “Very well. I’ll get off when we exit the expressway, then.”
Just then, Jacob’s phone rang. His furious look vanished and was replaced by tenderness when he saw Sophia’s name flash on the screen.
Sophia said the paparazzi had surrounded the set where she had been shooting a movie. She needed Jacob to pick her up now.
“I’m on my way,” he said with some urgency. After hanging up, he told Lionel to take the exit to Norwald.
Eloise frowned. Her villa was in Southburg, the opposite direction of Norwald. “Lionel, kindly exit the expressway first and let me off.”
“Pull over so she can get out of the car!” Jacob barked.
Lionel froze. “But we’re on the expressway—”
“Do as I say!” Jacob half-yelled.
Lionel had no choice but to pull over at the emergency lane.
Jacob practically shoved Eloise out of the car. When she regained her footing, she realized her purse was in the car. However, upon glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that Jacob’s car had sped off into the distance.
It was peak hour on the expressway. Cars zipped past Eloise as she kept to the roadside and made her way toward the next exit. Drivers honked at her every once in a while. Some grumpy ones even rolled down the window to shout at her, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Eloise endured such peril for an hour before finally getting off the expressway. Unfortunately, she did not have her phone or money, so she had to walk home.
She drew her coat closer to herself, bracing against the cold night breeze.
The number of cars on the expressway was dwindling. When she turned a corner, she ran into a drunkard who tried to grab her. She gritted her teeth and ran for her life.
Eloise tripped as she ran. Pain bolted through her knees when she fell, but she dared not stop running. She limped as she tried to shake off the drunkard.
Her villa was in a suburban area of Southburg, and it was already morning when she finally arrived home. She noted the soft light coming from within the villa and froze. Dumfounded, she knocked on the door.
Sophia opened the door. Her hair cascaded past her shoulders, drawing attention to her strappy nightgown with a low, scooping neckline. She hummed in surprise when she saw Eloise standing on the doorstep. “Did you just get back?”
Eloise’s brows furrowed. What the hell was Sophia doing in her house?
“Why are you here?” she demanded.
Sophia blinked. “Jacob brought me here.”
Eloise brushed past her and headed into the house, only to see Jacob leaving the kitchen with a bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup. She had no idea he knew how to cook.
She recalled the time she was down with a fever that had her breaking out in cold sweat. Jacob had returned home from work that day and grumbled about being hungry, then demanded that she make him dinner.
She had grown irritated and said, “If you hate takeout so much, you ought to learn how to cook. Surely you don’t plan on starving yourself if I’m not around to make you dinner.”
He had held her and countered shamelessly, “As if I’d ever learn how to cook. I want you to cook for me for the rest of our lives.”
A bitter laugh escaped her as the memory played through her mind. As it turned out, she was only ever a maid to him, while Sophia was his princess. She should have known; after all, what man in his right mind would cook for his maid?
Jacob cast her an icy, sidelong glance before leading Sophia into the living room. He set the bowl of noodles on the coffee table and put a throw pillow behind Sophia, who said with a pout, “I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat something. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Jacob chided gently as he picked up the bowl and began to feed her.
Sophia took a mouthful of the chicken noodle soup and shook her head. “You put too much salt in this. I don’t like it.”
“Really?” Jacob took a bite. “You’re right. I’ll make you another bowl.”
He didn’t seem to mind slaving over the stove for Sophia as he bounded into the kitchen.
Eloise was too tired to care. She only wanted to lie in bed and get some sleep.
She dragged herself to the bedroom, only to find her bed unmade and the pillows scattered across the floor. It seemed Sophia had taken over her closet, and her clothes had been thrown in a heap on the chair at the side.
Swallowing the rage building up in her, she marched downstairs and asked, “Who was in my bedroom last night?”
Jacob gave her a cursory glance and said, “Sophia will be living here from now on.”
“This is my house! Did I give her permission to move in?” Eloise demanded shrewdly.
He frowned at her. “No, this is my house; my permission is the only one she’ll need.”
Eloise went still. He was right. This was his house. After graduation, she had rented a place of her own, but he told her the space was too small for his liking and asked that she move in with him instead.
She might not have paid him rent, but she had paid for the upkeep of the house. She did not owe Jacob anything, not even a penny.
Sophia tipped her head to the side and smiled at Eloise. “Jacob and I plan on renovating the house. We could save you a room if you like.”
“No, thanks,” Eloise bit out as she stormed upstairs to take her suitcase out of the closet. She packed her things and returned downstairs, getting ready to leave.
“Eloise, I don’t have the patience to put up with your nonsense. If you leave with that suitcase right now, we’re over. We will never get back together, do you understand?” Jacob growled, his jaw clenching.
Eloise had reached the threshold when she heard this. She turned around and leveled an icy stare at Jacob as she set the keys on the shoe cabinet. “Goodbye, Jacob. I wish you well.”
