Earn My Trust

Chapter 22 - Past Lessons

Mel and Greg returned two hours later, and Hannah was still waiting for Ethan.
Thankfully, she had been kept occupied. The police had called her to get her witness statement of what happened over the weekend. She had been asked for her relation to those involved and how it all happened. She hinted but didn't go into details about her past relationship with Jake, saying he had always been a horrible man who thought the world owed him something. She stressed how badly it had affected her daughter being bullied by a full-grown man, which is why her dad reacted in such a way. The policeman on the other line of the phone was patient with her, soothing her when she got flustered and encouraging her when she felt the tears threatening to fall, causing her to choke up.
The whole phone call left her with a bitter taste in her mouth, souring her otherwise happy mood, but she forced it aside for now. It wasn't something she could control, so dwelling on it wouldn't make the whole thing easier to deal with.
She had hoped that Ethan would appear after she finished the call, giving her the comfort she so desperately needed, but he hadn't.
"He hasn't messaged you?" Mel asked in an outrage.
Hannah shook her head, feeling a little stood up.
Greg made a low noise in the back of his throat.
"I have half a mind to go up there and find out what's fucking taking so long!" He snarled, dropping into his chair and throwing his wallet into the drawer.
"I'm sure it's just overrun." Hannah said awkwardly, more to herself than anyone else.
"Girl, he should at least let you know!" Mel huffed.
"He technically did." She showed her the text he sent her. "See? He said it was dragging."
She frowned down at her phone and was about to text him again before the door crashed open, and Ethan stumbled into the office, out of breath.
"Baby, I'm so sorry! That woman just wouldn't shut up!" He wheezed. "I took the stairs instead of being stuck in the lift with her."
Hannah stared at him. "Was she really that bad?"
Ethan nodded, but before he could answer, Martin appeared and furiously shoved him from behind, making him fall to the floor.
"You bastard!" Martin growled. "You fucking ditched me and made me go down four floors on my own with that woman! In a lift! With no escape!! I thought you were my friend?!"
Greg snorted loudly at the men's bickering, quickly trying to hide his amusement and sheepishly pull it off as a sneeze.
Ethan got to his feet and glared at Martin.
"I tried to tell you the plan, but she was intruding in my personal space!" He explained frantically, looking genuinely alarmed.
"I'll take it she won't be getting the contract then?" Martin drawled, rolling his eyes at Hannah, who was hiding her smirk behind her hand.
"Fuck no!" Ethan cried, turning to Hannah and surrounding her in his arms.
Hannah went to hug him back when a strong whiff of overpowering perfume invaded her nostrils.
"Holy... shit!" She coughed and spluttered, pulling away to escape the smell. "Was she humping you or something? You stink!"
"The way she was that close to him, she might as well have been." Martin grimaced. "I'm so glad I'm not filthy rich!"
Ethan looked between the two of them exasperatedly. "Thanks, you two!"
Mel was looking around her desk, momentarily distracting the trio from their banter. Hannah leaned around Ethan to frown at her.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for a bag of popcorn." Mel replied cheekily. "This is good."
Greg threw his head back and laughed.
Ethan sighed and took Hannah's hand.
"I need to get home and change. Possibly have a scalding hot shower too to disinfect myself."
"Yeah, you will be." She scrunched up her nose. "I'm not going near you smelling like that. It's like she's marked you as her own."
Martin pulled a face and nodded. "That's a good way of putting it."
Ethans face fell. "I take it you don't want to wait for me to do that, do you? I've already made you two hours late for lunch." He glanced at his old battered Rolex and groaned. "It's three o'clock?! Fuck sake!"
Hannah put a reassuring hand on his arm. "It's fine. Go back. I'll be finishing soon anyway."
He nodded sadly, pouting at her in defeat before turning to Martin. "Tomorrow morning, send an email to that woman and tell her no deal!"
"Yes, sir!" Martin saluted.
Ethan sighed and made to leave when he remembered his manners.
"I'm so sorry, I haven't introduced myself properly and just barged in here!" He winced apologetically at Mel and Greg, approaching Greg first and holding out his hand. "I'm Ethan."
Greg arched an amused eyebrow at him but shook his hand. "Greg Collins."
"I know. You've been renting here for the longest. I remember seeing your name on the tenancy list when I purchased the building."
Greg nodded once. "That's right. We've been here twenty years now."
"Impressive." Ethan nodded, turning to greet Mel. "And you are?"
"Mel." She replied. "I've been here since the beginning, too."
"Lovely to meet you both. Sorry for the dramatic entrance then, but if you'd have met that woman, you would have understood."
Mel and Greg exchanged looks but nodded politely.
"I'll catch you later then." Ethan said to Hannah, looking so apologetic. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Hannah shook her head. "Don't worry." She kissed him on the lips, scrunching her nose up as the stench flooded her nose again. "Just get rid of that smell."
He nodded obediently and turned to leave, Martin quickly side stepping out of the way to give him room to pass. He pressed the button for the lift and frowned back at Martin.
"Aren't you coming?" He asked him.
Martin shook his head vehemently. "For what? To be suffocated in a lift again, then awkwardly sit on my bosses sofa while he takes a shower?! Don't think so, buddy! I'm spoken for!"
Mel howled with laughter at that. "Oh, I like him, hannah!" She wheezed, wiping a tear from her eye.
Ethan scoffed back at him and entered the lift. "Fuck you then." He snapped just as the doors shut.
Hannah rolled her eyes at Martin. "You know, Lisa did say we would think you were gay if we saw you. I think she'll be pleased to know I can confirm that's not the case."
"Yeah, do. Please? She keeps teasing, saying Ethan and I will dump you both one day and elope in the mountains together." He replied, looking alarmed.
She giggled and sat back down in her chair, turning to return to her work.
Mel and Greg followed suit, and Martin was left standing there, looking out of place.
"Aren't you going home?" Hannah asked when he still hadn't moved after a couple of minutes.
"Well, I was going to ask if I could hang here for a bit?" He winced awkwardly. "Lisa doesn't get home until later, so it gets really boring in my flat."
Greg looked up at him, sympathetically.
"Sure you can, lad. Coffee?"
Martin was taken aback that Greg openly allowed him to stay, having expected to be told to go away so they could work, and nodded eagerly.
"Please?" He smiled gratefully.
"Here." Mel moved a stack of paperwork from an old desk chair they never used and gestured to it. "Take a seat. I think I have a couple of muffins left."
"I thought they were for me?" Greg blanched. "I was going to take them home."
"Not anymore they're not." Mel poked her tongue out and beat him into the kitchen to get Martin a muffin.
Due to them having practically caught up fully earlier that day, the trio ended up having a friendly chat with Martin.
Martin was very much a people person. He kept the conversation light and polite after his little tiff with Ethan earlier, and gave Mel and Greg a great first impression after the madness.
He told them about his main role with Ethan, the travelling they'd done for work in the past, and even told them some stories of the early days when Ethan first began growing his billions.
"It was ridiculous! We had to stay together in a cramped one bedroom flat on the outskirts of Brixton. We took turns sleeping on the sofa bed and ate whatever clearance meals we could find every night." He laughed, holding his untouched cup of coffee and animatedly sharing his story. "I'll never forget when we managed to bag that first property in Scotland, and we went to stay up there while we made it habitable."
"He started his properties in Scotland?" Mel blanched, completely engrossed in his stories.
Martin nodded vehemently. "That's what started it all. He got hold of a dilapidated house of multiple occupancy in Edinburgh with the money we had saved up over college. Got it for a hundred thousand, I think? But we spent another hundred thousand doing it up. Sold it on for over eight hundred thousand!"
Greg whistled in awe. "My god! That's incredible!"
"It allowed him to buy another two houses closer to London and update them, ready to be sold." Martin continued, looking proud for his friend. "He then rented a few to ensure I had a monthly income from them, and the rest is history."
Hannah was also taken in by his tale. Not just because it gave her a better understanding of their close friendship, but because it humbled her that they had experienced the struggles she had had to face over the past seven years.
She was actually grateful that Ethan had been through a similar lifestyle. It made his reaction to her tiny flat even sweeter.
"What were your thoughts on Ethans' little game he played?" Greg then asked, making the air suddenly thick with tension.
Martin frowned at him. "What game?"
Greg ignored Hannah frantically signalling not to tell him and arched an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
"This disguise he had when they first started dating." He grunted coldly.
Martins eyes widened and he whipped around to stare at Hannah.
"You told them?!"
"Well, yeah. I trust them! Plus they were thinking I was a gold digger and Ethan was using me. I had to correct them somehow!" She explained awkwardly.
"We didn't say those things!" Mel complained.
"You were hinting at them, so shut up!" She snapped. "I wanted to put those cruel judgements to rest!"
Greg leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "Be fair, Hannah. His kind don't just choose those they meet on dating apps."
"What's that meant to mean?!" She argued back.
"I mean, the rich stick to the rich. The poor stick to the poor."
"And it's because of those rumours and wrong opinions of others which is usually why they do so." Mel added, trying to defend his reasoning. "Girl, it's all about status. You and Ethan are the minority."
Martin listened closely to their discussion, his brow furrowed.
"Can I just say something?" He interrupted Hannah before she could make a sound. "Do you realise how stuck up the upper classes are?"
Mel and Greg fell silent, looking at him and waiting for him to continue rather than answer.
"You've heard about Bianca, I assume? Did you know about all the shit she put Ethan through just so they could be seen as the 'Golden Couple'?!"
Hannah felt her stomach flip over at the mention of Bianca, and her mouth went dry.
"When they first met, Bianca was at an audition for a TV programme." He explained soberly. "Ethan was visiting a friend of ours who we knew from college, who was working in the special effects department. Ethan saw her and started talking to her. They started going out for drinks. She didn't get the part she had auditioned for, and he felt sorry for her. From then on, he let her know of any auditions some of our mutual contacts would be holding, and she went along to them. It was several months until she landed a role, and even then, it was a small one." He pursed his lips and scowled. "Ethan was quickly growing in rank at that time. We would come back from meetings with another success, and she would really struggle to hold in her jealousy. She pretended to be supportive and proud of him, but one day, I caught her on the phone to her mum whining about how unfair it all was and how she deserved to be recognised and have that kind of money because she 'had talent', apparently."
He looked down at his now cold, still untouched coffee and miserably put it on the window sill beside him.
"I told Ethan, of course, but he just said she's just feeling left out and that things would change once she finally got her big break. She became unbearable to be around for me! She dyed her hair all the time, started using Ethan's money to get the most flattering clothes money could buy, had to have a chauffer everywhere, and a personal makeup artist every day just to leave the house. When I pulled her up on it, she just said she had to 'look the part as Ethan's future wife'. She began forcing him to buy the best suits and to start going to the gym, even though he hated it at first. Told him he had to show the world how a real billionaire should look and behave! Made me sick to the stomach!"
Hannah was speechless! She couldn't believe the audacity of that bitch!
"Now, Bianca wasn't exactly from a family that didn't know money. Her dad was a popular car salesman, and her mum was a surgeon. So she'd never known the struggle Ethan and I had endured before our luck changed. Oh my god! The shite she would come out with if Ethan ever said no to her!" He changed his voice to a high-pitched, irritating whining. "You don't get what it's like to be second best! You haven't had to deal with people turning you away again and again! You've never had to struggle like I have while my boyfriend shoves it in my face that he's better than me!"
His face set in such a venomous glare at no one in particular, and he began to grind his teeth. The three colleagues didn't even dare to breathe in case he exploded in fury.
"You know he only proposed just to get her to shut the fuck up about it to the press?!" He spat furiously, leaving Mel, Greg and Hannah thunderstruck. "That was her biggest manipulation against him. If he ever shouted at her after she pushed him too far, she would turn on the tap and cry about how he could abuse her after she's stood by him for so long!"
He balled up his fists, trying to resist punching the filing cabinet beside him and imagining it was Biancas face. He took a moment to calm himself down before he spoke to the three thunderstruck colleagues, trying to speak around the lump that had developed in his throat.
"So, do you see why he used the disguise now? Do you see why he tried to protect both Hannah and Bea from all that?! He had been alone all those seven years, terrified that all women were the same, then Hannah came along." He murmured quietly. "My point is that, even though you're saying the classes should stick to the same class, it hardly ever works out because the status they seek is actually more a competition to them. Ethan and Hannah are well suited for each other, I can tell you that! She's not won over so easily because of the wealth and glamour. He's not being expected to dish out all the time or constantly need to be in the spotlight. You're letting your own clouded views and the well publicised drama get in the way of what's actually good about their relationship!"
He sighed and looked down at his lap, trying to force back the seething rage he felt towards Ethan's ex. After a moment, he looked up at the still stunned Hannah and gave her a look of such adoration.
"You have no idea how good it is to have my best friend back after all these years. He's finally going back to the way he was, and it's all because of you."

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Martin escorted Hannah back to the flat after she had finished work at five.
The deafening silence that had followed after he'd said his part left both Mel and Greg feeling guilty for being so narrow-minded, but it also left them reassured that Hannah and Ethan were a good couple together and they would make each other happy.
The duo waved goodbye to Steve, who was still in shock that Hannah was having a full day in the office, and walked together towards Ethans flat.
"Thank you for that." Hannah whispered to him, stepping in close to his side as they followed the flow of pedestrians.
"For what? Telling you you're better than Bianca?" He joked half heartedly.
After he had vented about what he'd had to stand by and watch happen in the past, he was left feeling emotionally drained and fragile.
He had never told anyone about what it had been like, although he had certainly been tempted to.
He clearly remembered the intense urge to tell the reporters that had contacted him all about the shit she had caused within three short years. It hadn't been the money that had enticed him the most. It had actually been wanting to ruin her reputation completely in the hope she would be blacklisted.
Then again, if he had done it, he wouldn't still be close friends, even if his intentions had been to save his bosses honour.
Now he had finally let go most - he had left a lot of details out because it would have been too much - he did feel a lot lighter, even if he did feel exhausted.
Hannah smiled knowingly and lightly slapped his arm.
"I mean, thank you for helping me make them realise this isn't some publicity stunt. Everyone just seems to think we're together solely just to gain something, and it frustrates the hell out of me!"
He reached an arm across her shoulders and gave her a brotherly squeeze. "Well, what else would you have expected from me? You're my best friends girlfriend. Not only that, but you're also my girlfriends best friend! Do you realise the shit I'd get from the both of them if I didn't stick up for you?!"
"Yeah, I know, but I truly appreciate it all the same." She sighed and looked down at her feet. "I still can't get over how nasty she was to him, though."
"Pfft. That wasn't even the half of it." He scoffed. "Things got worse after they got engaged. She banned me from the wedding, you know."
"Say what?!"
"Mmm, hmm. Ethan wanted me to be his best man, and she point-blank refused. Said I was the one being toxic and trying to sabotage their relationship." He rolled his eyes. "In my defence, I had a good fucking reason to."
"How can people be like that to someone they're supposed to love?!" She asked incredulously. "Why is there this need to control someone and try to manipulate and abuse them into an emotionless shell?!"
"I can't understand it myself." He shrugged, checking both ways before they crossed the road. "Was your ex as bad as her?"
She shook her head. "I didn't even notice it for the entire relationship. He would word it in such a way that it made it sound like I was doing it to help him. But when I think back, the way he changed my bank log-in details online so only he could see what was going in and out. He took my card and only gave me money when I asked for it. The most frustrating one was when I was pregnant, and I told him I wanted to return to work after maternity leave. He argued that it was cruel to have a kid only to have someone else raise them every day, then once I was on maternity leave and wanted to go out for a coffee with Lisa, or get the train, he'd then moan that I was always spending his money and made me feel guilty. Meanwhile, he was shagging a woman he worked with."
"I'll admit, I'm really hoping he does cotton on that you are going out with Ethan. Solely because im selfish and I want to watch Karma get delivered. It'll be so satisfying to see him get absolutely destroyed!" He grinned, leaning forward to open the door to the block of flats.
She giggled and stepped inside, pausing until he came in himself, and they both headed for the lifts.
"Oh, by the way..." he added, pulling out his keys and removing one. "I think it best you have this instead of me now."
He handed her the key to Ethan's flat, and she stared at it in surprise.
"Are you sure?"
"Course, I'm sure! Unless you're a really good actress, I can tell you and Ethan are in this for the long run. Besides, it'll be a lot less awkward if you were the one to walk in on him doing the shuffle with Mrs thumb and her four friends than me."
She burst out laughing and pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you, Martin." She mumbled gratefully. "You are such a good friend! What would we ever do without you and Lisa?"
"First, you would have never met." He smirked and waited for the doors to open before gesturing her to leave. "I'll let you go in alone, just in case. Tell him I'll see him in the morning."
"Thanks again!" She waved goodbye as the doors slid shut again after her.
She turned and put the key in the door, mentally preparing for her first whole evening with Ethan completely on their own.