Free Web NovelChapter 35: First Class Revenge
After talking things through with Quinn and Nicole, I remembered Caspian had asked me to send my itinerary the second I had it, so I forwarded the details right away. I had no idea what he was planning but trusted him completely regardless. He’d never once done anything to hurt me not in our small time of being hsuband and wife.
He called the moment he saw it. I was still in the car with Quinn, so when his voice came through, just "Val," a rush of warmth moved through my chest that I made sure didn’t show on my face. I still wasn’t ready to trust Quinn fully, so every word out of my mouth had to be careful.
"I had Theo upgrade your tickets to first class," he said, calm but weighing something underneath it. "Will that be a problem for you?"
"Of course not," I said, and meant it. I already understood why he had asked. Without that change, I would have been sitting in the same row as Amara and Liam on tomorrow’s flight, and I could already picture how unbearable and annoying that would have been. Amara wasn’t exactly the quiet type. But then something else occurred to me. Was the upgrade only for me? What about Quinn and Nicole?
"We can talk it through once you’re home," he said.
"Wait." The word came out before I’d thought it through.
He caught the hesitation immediately and didn’t push. "If it’s inconvenient to talk right now, message me instead."
"Okay." I hung up and typed it all out for him. I told him I still couldn’t fully trust Quinn, but since she’d chosen to follow me, I couldn’t treat her differently than Nicole without risking discouraging her right before a trip where I needed her fully on my side.
He read it fast. I could picture the small smile that probably crossed his face while he did. He always saw further than I did. Where I thought things through carefully, he thought them through completely, and that was exactly why we worked.
His reply came back quick. "Relax and take the gamble. Nicole’s loyal, but there’s a ceiling to what she can do. Quinn has plenty of faults, but she’s managed some of the biggest names in the industry. She’s more capable than Nicole across the board. And don’t forget, we already have everything on Quinn we’d ever need. Worst case if the bet doesn’t pay off, we lose nothing."
I read it twice and felt the tension drain out of me. "Understood, hubby," I typed back.
"I already upgraded both of them. Don’t worry about it."
Of course he had. My husband was the kind of man who finished the thought before you’d even finished asking the question. Nothing that small ever slipped past him.
I loved how thoughtful he was cos I knew during the flight, Amara was going to be using every chance to prove to me exactly who Liam belonged to. She would want me to understand that no matter how far my career climbed back, I was never getting him back.
That same night, I was in the wardrobe quietly packing when I noticed Caspian had also put together a bag of his own. I walked into the study, curious, and found him working.
"Caspian, are you flying out for business too?"
"My flight’s tomorrow," he said, nodding, though his attention stayed on the documents in front of him. I didn’t want to pull him away from it, so I let it go, figuring he’d fill me in once we were both in bed. But he worked through the whole night and was already gone by the time I woke up. He’d left a note. I read it without any real worry. Whatever had come up, I trusted him with it completely, and made a mental note to check in once I landed in the States.
Quinn was already waiting outside the gates when we came down early the next morning. Since I’d never mentioned my relationship with Caspian around her, Nicole stayed quiet and loaded the luggage without drawing attention to it. The three of us made it to the airport quickly and met up with Liam’s group.
The terminal was still fairly empty at that hour. Liam and Amara walked in holding hands, entirely unbothered by who might see, and Amara made a point of looking my way while she did it, expression carefully provoking. I could feel Nicole’s irritation climbing beside me to the point where I half expected her to say something.
"Nicole, go collect our boarding passes," Liam said, that familiar edge in his voice, the one he liked to use on people he assumed he could push around.
"Why do I have to do that?" Nicole shot back. She knew exactly what game he was playing.
"Go ahead, Nicole," I said, calm, catching her eye. She paused, then nodded. "Fine. Be right back."
Amara and her assistant traded a satisfied look, already picturing how convenient it would be having Nicole run errands for them the whole trip. What they weren’t expecting was what she came back with.
Three boarding passes.
"Nicole, what is this supposed to mean?" Amara demanded.
"I’m Valerie’s assistant," Nicole said, even. "My paycheck comes from her, not Xova. Why would I collect yours? Don’t you have your own?"
Amara and her assistant went rigid with anger, and there wasn’t a single thing they could say to argue with that logic. Liam looked over at me. I’d already put my sunglasses on and turned away.
By eight twenty, boarding had started. A few fans spotted me near the gate and stopped me for autographs, which put me a little behind. Liam and Amara boarded first, and Amara settled in with her arm looped through his, clearly waiting to enjoy the moment I finally reached our row. When she spotted me coming down the aisle, she called out, sweet as anything.
"Valerie, your seat’s right here."
