Chapter 5 A Parting Gift

• The night when the love of her life left, Natalie held her mother’s lifeless corpse and cried her heart out. When she drifted to the edge of the bridge in a bid to end her own life, it was Zoey who pulled her back and slapped her to her senses.
• “What reason have you to kill yourself?”
• Zoey’s question was a good one. Natalie then thought to herself that since none of it was her fault, she had no justification for punishing herself for it.
• As she recalled these, her hatred for this man intensified. “Get out of my sight, Claude. I still have those photos of yours so don’t make me send them to the press!”
• She had been upset enough to want to publicize the photos and ruin Claude’s fledgling career back then and would have done so had her heart not been softened by the remnants of the feelings she still harbored for him.
• What she did not expect was for him to still have the cheek to show his face around her again.
• “Nat, that was on me. You can scold me however you please.” Claude said as he ran his tongue around the stinging on the corner of his lips. “I only seek your forgiveness.”
• After a brief pause, he continued in a low voice, “I know that you have been with Sebastian Hoffman ever since we broke up. Is this how you intend to get back at me? Haven’t the year that you’ve spent with him been enough of a comeuppance?”
• “A comeuppance?” She laughed. “What makes you think you are worth my effort, huh?”
• Claude regarded her staidly. “I know that you still care for me, Nat. You would not have talked to other guests while avoiding me when we met just now.”
• “Please do not be mistaken, Mr. Nealey. I was only making sure that the other guests were being attended to,” Natalie stated plainly. “I chose to be with Sebastian. He is wealthy and good-looking. By being with him, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
• She arched her back as she leaned against the dressing table and then smiled sensually. “Only after knowing Mr. Hoffman did I understand what a real man should be like. He adores me and can give me anything I desire. But you? Hmph. You still need to depend on women.”
• Hearing the name of another man hang on Natalie’s lips left a bitter taste in Claude’s mouth. “Sebastian is a businessman, Nat. He is only using you to make money for him, whereas I still love you...”
• “Mr. Nealey’s accolades for his acting is surely well deserved. Look at how easily the word “love” rolls off his tongue!” Natalie cut Claude off before she turned her head sharply to regard him. “Mr. Hoffman knows how to please me in bed so I do love the way he uses me.”
• When Claude saw the woman’s lascivious conduct, he started to imagine her convulsing in throes of ecstasy beneath the torso of another man. His eyes burned with hostile intent and the veins on his arm pulsed as his fingers tightened against themselves.
• Natalie was not to be outdone as she matched his gaze with her own uncompromising brand of defiance.
• Just as the two of them were locked in a standoff, they were caught off guard by an untimely knock on the dressing room door.
• As Natalie was more concerned about the impossibility of accounting for Claude’s presence in her dressing room than anything else, she forwent changing her clothes. She then proceeded to loosen up her expression and put on a smile before pulling back on the door handle.
• “Mr. Morgan?” Natalie’s heart jumped when she saw that it was Sebastian’s personal assistant, Kirk Morgan, who was standing on the other side. She stepped outside swiftly and closed the door behind her to prevent him from seeing who was inside the dressing room.
• Natalie’s movements were quick but Kirk had already caught a glimpse of a man behind her as she was coming out. Besides, he had been lingering around long enough to catch part of the conversation between Claude and herself.
• With her crimson lips slightly parted, she asked bewitchingly, “What brought you here?”
• “I’ve brought you something, Ms. Cook.” Kirk noticed Natalie’s suggestive body language but he kept his head and passed the file he had in his hands along to her. “Mr. Hoffman wanted me to present this gift to you.”
• Natalie opened the folder to find the paperwork for the stand-alone villa in the city center that she had mentioned to Sebastian previously.
• Wow. Such a generous present! Could this be a parting gift?
• “Wow, I’m really chuffed at this gift from Mr. Hoffman!” Natalie signed off on the document with immediacy and fished out the sticky pad she always had with her. She then penned a personal note on it and stamped it with her own lips before slipping it inside the file.
• She smiled as she returned the signed paperwork to Kirk. “Please extend my thanks to Mr. Hoffman. I’ve seen the news this morning and believe Ms. Snydell would be a better fit for him too.”
• Kirk cursed under his breath when he almost got hooked by the captivating movements and saccharine enunciations of this sultry woman leaning against the door. “Will do, Ms. Cook.”
• “Alright. See you.” Natalie saw him off with a smile.
• After Kirk disappeared from view, Natalie wiped the inviting expression off her own face. She sneered when she turned back to eye the partially concealed dressing room briefly before leaving it in the dust.