A big coward

Ethan

After leaving Mariana's house that morning, I went home just to take a shower and change clothes since I was still wearing the same ones from the previous night at the mall. Then, without any delay, I headed straight to the office. Several foreign investors were waiting for me for an important meeting, and after a few hours, I felt completely sore. My secretary, Liz, quickly noticed my discomfort, and while one of my project managers was giving a presentation to the other participants, she handed me a glass of water and a pill, which I swallowed without even asking what it was.

Still, I fervently hoped it was some sort of painkiller because my muscle tension was at its peak. The pain subsided significantly, and when the meeting ended, I walked directly to my office and asked Liz to join me. I needed to give her some instructions regarding the meeting.

Once we were in my office, the discomfort from the sleepless night was still lingering, as well as the memory of the woman who made me act like a boy, sleeping on a mattress placed on the floor and too small for me.

"What happened, Ethan?"

"With me?" I asked, not understanding. "I don't know what you're referring to."

"It seems like you had a terrible night..."

I smiled at the observation but disagreed with her perspective. I then proceeded to tell Liz everything that had happened the previous night. We were friends at that level of intimacy, but I didn't go into details about the initial blackmail I had done with Mariana because she certainly wouldn't approve of such an action, and I would receive long lectures from that point on.

"Why don't you just buy a bed for Mariana?" she jokingly suggested. "I believe given the whole situation, it would be easier for her to accept that rather than taking her to your apartment, especially with Aunt Celina there."

Why didn't I have this brilliant idea before? It could have avoided all the discomfort from the previous night!

"I need you to arrange for a King-size bed and have it delivered to this address," I instructed, writing down the address on a piece of paper and handing it to her. "Today, if possible."

Liz looked at me with a half-smile, but I didn't mind her displaying a self-satisfied smile. After all, better late than never, and I had to admit that this time the credit was all hers.

"I've had to send various types of gifts to your 'girlfriends'," she made air quotes, "but a bed is a first. I'm not sure if I can call it a gift, though... it's just a bed."

"I agree with you that it's not a gift for Mariana, and I would even say that this time I'm gifting myself," I replied ironically. "Otherwise, I'll soon be unable to walk with all the pain in my body."

"I believe Mariana is still the girl you're competing with Arthur Rodrigues for... or am I mistaken?"

"I'm not competing with anyone for Mariana!" I protested angrily. "Arthur is out of the picture; he just needs to accept that."

Liz raised an eyebrow, which irritated me quite a bit as if she was disagreeing with my words. But I disregarded the questioning in her gaze and asked her to solve my problem once and for all. That would be her top priority for the morning.

I needed that bed to be in Mariana's house today, and since she wouldn't be going to the store today, I would stop by my place just to shower and change clothes.

By late afternoon, when I could no longer contain my desire to see Mariana and enjoy our new bed to the fullest, I decided to end my workday a little earlier, hoping I could still make it to her house for dinner.

But my plans were thwarted, and my good mood was completely affected by Liz's announcement that there was a certain person who wanted to speak with me when I was already shutting down my computer.

"I made it very clear that he shouldn't contact me at the office," I said to my secretary, expressing my anger. "Is he going crazy?"

"He's in the reception area, and he made it clear that he won't leave until he speaks with you in person, Ethan," Liz explained. "I don't think it's a good idea to try to brush him off without meeting him first."

Liz was right, of course, and I couldn't risk going against that idiot without giving him a warning that would put him back in his rightful place. So, I asked Liz to authorize his visit and prepared myself to meet the man who was trying to blackmail me. Me, of all people.

As Jorge Souza entered my office, I stared at him with a fake expression of calmness, greeting him with a mere nod and indicating that he should sit in one of the chairs arranged in front of my desk.

"I believe I made it clear that I didn't want any visitors at my company," I said coldly.

"As the money didn't come to me," he said sarcastically, "I came to the money."

The smiling and self-assured man in front of me was a former employee of FERZ who had approached me some time ago seeking a partnership to tarnish Murilo Fernandes' reputation by causing a major scandal around his company. I immediately accepted the offer without a second thought.

As always when it came to Murilo, I dove headfirst into the idea of tarnishing his good reputation in the market, all in an effort to destroy his career as an entrepreneur and make him pay for what he had done.

And as was becoming a constant pattern with him, I had made a huge mistake by aligning myself with a lunatic who only cared about making easy money at the expense of anyone who fell for his poorly crafted scheme.

Jorge had become a bottomless pit, always seeking more and more money in exchange for keeping the labor lawsuit against Murilo ongoing and not revealing my involvement in the failed attempt to sabotage the FERZ's corporate event, which ended up happening in the end, but not in the way I had intended.

I would never have supported Bruna in committing such an act of cruelty by pushing Murilo's girl, or anyone else, down the stairs as she ultimately did.

"The agreed-upon amount has been duly paid," I said with utmost coldness. "I would even say I've paid it several times over, and now I have no intention of giving you a single cent more."

Jorge doesn't seem to be intimidated by what I just said and lets out a mocking laugh, which doesn't affect me at all, assuming that was his intention.

"I'm sure you're no fool, Constantino," he says with an ironic smile. "You know very well that I can expose all this dirt. And I'm sure you wouldn't want me to do that, would you?"