Hearts Remember What Minds Try To Forget by Rex Wilder 13

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“Miss Vance, Mr. Thorne isn’t available right now. He’s tied up dealing with the company’s lost endorsements–thwack!” 

Before the employee could finish, Chloe’s hand lashed out, striking her hard across the face. 

“Every time I come looking for him, you use the same pathetic excuses to push me away! Do you really think I’m some pushover?” Chloe had reached her breaking point. Lucas had given her the cold shoulder for too many days, and her fury was so blinding, she barely knew what she was saying. “I’m his most important woman now! I’m the future Mrs. Thorne! And it was me who tipped off the press to get those pictures of Lucas and me!” 

The words had barely left her lips when the office door swung open from within. 

Chloe slowly lifted her gaze, her face instantly draining of color. 

Standing before her, his face a thundercloud, was Lucas. 

His eyes blazed with a volcanic fury as he took a few steps closer. Towering over her, he asked, each word deliberate and laced with venom, “So, you’re behind all of this?” 

“Lu–Lucas…” Chloe’s voice hitched, a terrified stutter catching in her throat. She forced a flimsy smile. “I–I thought you weren’t 

here…” 

Lucas acted as if he hadn’t heard a word. He closed in on Chloe, his voice low and guttural as he ground out, “That day at the hospital, you orchestrated everything, didn’t you? You even called the reporters yourself to catch us in the act, right?” 

Chloe started to protest, but Lucas had already seized her wrist. A cry of pain tore from her throat, her face twisting. “Lucas, you’re hurting me! Let go!” 

But then Lucas’s voice cut through the silence, sharp and dangerously cold. “Answer me,” he bit out. “Was this all you?” 

Chloe cried out, her wrist threatening to snap. Tears streamed down her face as she finally sobbed out, “It was me! I did it all, are you happy now? It’s all because you refused to commit to me, I was desperate!” 

Lucas stiffened, his eyes, wide with disbelief, locking onto Chloe. He had never once conceived that such venomous malice could fester beneath her stunning beauty. 

He’d been infatuated with that sort of woman for years, and for her, he’d completely pushed me out of his mind. 

But Chloe had ruined everything. 

Lucas’s jaw clenched, his gaze sharpening with a dangerous, escalating ruthlessness. 

Terror ripped through Chloe. The fear of losing Lucas, compounded by the damage she’d done, made her voice a desperate whine as she tried to salvage the situation. “What’s so wrong with that?” she whimpered, her eyes wide with a wounded plea. “Anna’s gone, isn’t she? Now we can finally be together-” 

Lucas’s hand shot out, a brutal slap echoing through the room. Chloe crumpled instantly, collapsing to the floor in a stunned, silent heap. 

Blood beaded at the corner of her mouth, her hair a tangled mess around her face. Her voice, a ragged tremor, ripped through the silence as she stared at Lucas. “You… you hit me? Lucas, you’ve always doted on me. How could you possibly hit me?!” 

Lucas crouched, his hand clamping around Chloe’s jaw. His voice, frigid and devoid of warmth, was a low snarl. “Chloe, I can be so much more tender with you than this. I’m going to give you a taste of my love right now.” 

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He flung her away the moment the words left his lips, shaking off her touch as if it were poison. He spun to his staff, his voice devoid of all warmth. “Take her. Lock her in the cold storage unit in the company’s basement. I want to see what kind of ice sculpture she 

makes.” 

Chloe was terrified. She pleaded frantically, but a hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her, as she was dragged into the elevator. 

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