He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 02

He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 02

She handed me the spare key.

I felt cold all over and drove there immediately.

The moment I pushed open the door, I nearly lost my balance.

All the furniture I remembered was gone.

In its place was pink decor that looked like it belonged to a young woman.

The paintings my father had collected were gone too.

They had been replaced by an entire wall of candid photographs.

The people in the pictures were Chloe and Ethan.

Mason appeared in a few of them too.

Every photograph had been carefully labeled with its date.

The most recent one was from Thanksgiving.

I had booked Ethan a week in advance to come to Mom’s for the holiday.

He said Chloe had scheduled an important client meeting that day.

I asked what time the meeting would end. Mom was willing to wait.

He said he didn’t know when and told me to drop it.

There wasn’t a client anywhere in sight.

At that exact time, Mom had reheated dinner three times.

When I left after midnight, she had packed up the best cuts of meat for me to take to Ethan.

“He works so hard. Don’t let him go hungry.”

The photograph beside it, the one with Mason in it, was from the Fourth of July.

I had stayed up all night to get three amusement-park tickets.

Ethan’s calendar was grayed out that day.

I didn’t even have the option to book him.

“Chloe had arranged for important investors to tour the office that day, so he didn’t have time.”

Mason had looked miserable too.

“What’s the point of going to an amusement park? I might as well tour Dad’s office.”

Yet in the photograph, the three people who were supposedly at the office were laughing at the amusement park.

It wasn’t that the amusement park was no fun. It was that going with me wasn’t.

I fought to control my shaking and called Ethan.

After two rings, the call went straight to voicemail.

Because I hadn’t booked a call in advance.

“Who gave you the right to clear out my father’s house?”

“Put it back the way it was by the end of today, or I’ll throw everything inside out.”

Two minutes later, Ethan called back.

Chloe’s voice came through first.

“Mr. Carter’s busy. I’ll answer for him.”

The smugness in her voice was impossible to miss.

“I’m sorry I took over your father’s house. But Ethan said your father was gone, and leaving the place empty wouldn’t bring him back. He thought I might as well live here and put it to use.”

I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore.

“Ethan, are you even human?”

When he heard the break in my voice, Ethan took the phone from her.

“Claire, none of your dad’s things were thrown out. Mrs. Harper put them in storage.”

“Calm down. I’ll finish up next Friday and talk it through with you.”

Before the call ended, I heard a sales associate on his end.

“Excellent choice, sir. This sofa is perfect for a young couple…”

His version of being busy was shopping for new furniture for Chloe.

I raised my hand and knocked every framed photograph off the wall.

The property manager burst in with security and pinned my arms.

“Ma’am, you need to leave immediately.”

“Let go of me. I’m a homeowner too!”

He pulled up the call log on his phone.

“Mr. Carter has always paid the HOA fees. He told us to remove you.”

I stopped struggling.

He had time to call the property manager and have me thrown out, but not time to explain a single thing to me.

After escorting me outside, the property manager still wouldn’t let me leave.

“Ma’am, you need to pay for the damage.”

“You’ll have to wait here until the homeowner returns to assess the damage.”