My Ex's Billionaire Brother Is My Temptation

Emily's POV

"I'm breaking up with you," My boyfriend of three years, Joe Hutton, uttered, as I sipped my lemonade, and I nearly spat it out in shock as I stared at him.

"W-What are you talking about?" I asked, placing my glass of lemonade on the table. "Did I do something wrong? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"

I couldn't possibly fathom why Joe would want a breakup on the third anniversary of our relationship, without us having any fights prior.

We were currently at Cafe de Oriental, his favourite cafe, to celebrate our anniversary.

"How do I put this?" Joe muttered, his countenance plain. "I am no longer in love with you, Emily."

"Okay, I will forgive you if this is an elaborate prank preceding a surprise," I said, willing myself to giggle but Joe remained unsmiling as he stared at me.

"I have tried my best to fall in love with you again, but I just can't seem to do it, Emily," He continued. "I can't keep pretending to myself that our relationship is heading somewhere when it clearly isn't. I don't want you anymore."

My eyes turned glassy with tears as I looked at him, desperately willing he'd admit it was a prank, and he was really playing with me because there was no way he was telling the truth.

"Is it because I didn't get you a gift?" I asked. "You know I only just got a job last week, so I haven't received my salary yet. But as soon as I do, I will get you something really nice."

Joe had also gotten me nothing to celebrate our anniversary, but that didn't matter to me because all I cared about was his presence.

"No, it's not, Emily," He said. "I don't want you anymore and am sorry I waited this long to tell you the truth. I wanted to be sure of my feelings and didn't want to rush out of our relationship. Again, I'm sorry."

Unlike me, Joe came from a much higher social class, with a surgeon dad and a mum who owned several businesses.

So he was most definitely set for life.

Meanwhile, I had no one other than my best friends, Janine and Abigail, both of whom I met in middle school.

As for my parents, they died in a fire accident at home five years ago, when I was in my last year of highschool.

From that moment onward, I had to work odd jobs to put myself through highschool and subsequently college, as none of my aunties and uncles were willing to foot the bill after making empty promises to me at my parents' funeral.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I inhaled sharply, tears streaming down my face as I thought about how miserable my life truly was.

Joe was the first and only man who'd shown any interest in me all my life.

He was my own gentleman, who I had naively thought would be in my happily ever after romance.

And now, he was leaving me.

Standing up, Joe said, "I wish you well, Emily and I hope you have a great and happy life without me."

Without waiting for a response, he exited the restaurant while I bawled my eyes out, ignoring the stares around me.

To think Janine had been skeptical about our relationship from the start, especially after finding out that he was a wealthy heir.

She has warned me against dating him if I didn't want to get my heart broken, but I'd been too in love to think straight.

Especially after Joe told me that he wanted us to wait till our wedding night to have sex.

That resolve of his had further melted my naive heart, because I'd never even thought I could be worthy of being loved by a man as perfect as him.

Now that I thought of it, Joe had probably felt sympathy for me and not love.

And so to get out of having to sleep with me, he had come up with that waiting till marriage nonsense.

Heaving a huge sigh, I wiped off my tears and stood up.

"Excuse me, ma'am. You haven't paid for your order," A waiter spoke as I reached the door, and I was instantly overwhelmed with embarrassment.

"Okay," I said, before walking over to the cashier.

So Joe didn't even have the decency to pay for my lemonade after breaking up with me on our anniversary.

He really was a jerk.

"Thank you," I said, as the cashier handed me my credit card.

Afterward, I made my way out of the restaurant, with a heavy heart and a gloomy countenance.

The universe could never let me be happy.

First, my parents had died when I was a teenager who could barely fend for herself, and now that I finally had my life in order with a decent job as an accountant, I got broken up with.

Walking to the bus stop, I took a cab home.

On getting to my apartment, I grabbed the half opened bottle of dry gin from my refrigerator alongside a glass before heading upstairs to my bedroom.

Janine and Abigail were the ones who usually took the dry gin because I couldn't hold my liquor well.

Thereafter, I got under the sheets, poured myself a glass of dry gin and sent a message to mine and my best friends' group chat.

"Joe broke up with me."

Presently, both Janine and Abigail were out of town for different reasons, or I would have gone to either of their places to mope over my relationship ending.

Janine was a pediatric nurse while Abigail was an accountant just like me, in her father's accounting firm.

Almost instantly, Abigail placed a call to the group which Janine joined immediately.

Blinking away the tears welling up in my eyes, I joined the call as well.

Taking a sip of my dry gin, I winced as the alcohol burnt my throat in that ever so pleasant manner.

"Oh my goodness, babes," Abigail shrieked. "Are you okay? I can't believe that bastard did something so gruesome to you."

"I'm not," I replied truthfully. "But what can I do? I mean, Janine warned me from the start but I was too delusional to see the truth."

"Come on, girl," Janine sighed. "We all know it's not and will never be your fault. Those wealthy heirs are mostly always douchebags, so he knew what he was doing from the start. He couldn't pick any other day apart from your third anniversary. What an asshole!"

"Joe is really a huge prick. How I wish we were in town right now," Abigail said. "I can't imagine you handling this all alone. And I can't leave this project for now. But I promise you that the moment I'm able to, I will be by your side immediately."

"It's just heartbreak, babes," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. "I'm not sick plus I have alcohol."

"Well, it's your first heartbreak, Ems," Abigail sighed. "And I know how horrible that feeling is. You need a shoulder to cry on, and not just alcohol."

"Abigail is right, Emily. Take it easy with the alcohol," Janine uttered. "You know how bad your hangovers get. Should I just order ice cream for you? That should be a better option than liquor."

"Don't worry about it, Janine. I need something strong to help me forget about Joe for tonight," I said. "Then tomorrow, I will start picking the pieces of my heart gradually. Take care, you both. I'm hanging up now."

"Alright, bye, Ems. We love you and please stay safe, hm?" Janine replied.

"Love you too. I will try. Bye, Abigail." I said.

"Bye, babes. Take care of yourself." Abigail replied, to which I hummed before ending the call.

Thereafter, I downed the remaining alcohol in my glass cup before staggering out of bed.

I was now officially drunk.

Walking to my wardrobe, I grabbed the bag of lingerie that I'd been saving to wear on my wedding night.

"Guess I'm wearing you tonight," I slurred, nearly falling over nothing as I placed the bag on my dresser.

Then, I peeled off my clothes, leaving me to stare at my naked reflection in the mirror.

Giggling drunkenly, I took out the lingerieâ€"a black sheer one piece, which left little to the imagination out of the bag and donned it.

My lips curved upward in an intoxicated smile, as I ran my hands down my body, impressed by how perky my breasts seemed, how small my waist looked, and how round my ass was, in the lingerie.

"Y-Your loss, Joe," I drawled, gazing at my reflection in the mirror. "You will never get to see me in this."

Thereafter, I grabbed my phone and took many pictures of myself in front of the mirror, before staggering to my bed and collapsing on the mattress.

It was then I remembered that I had to send a work file to the CEO of my workplace, Donovan Coleman.

With a blurry vision and a fuzzy mind, I sent the file to his email before giving in to the overpowering pressure of an alcohol-induced sleep.

Emily's POV

I groaned as the incessant ringing of my alarm wafted into my ears, worsening the agonizing throbbing of my temples.

Fuck, I was hung over.

I really should have never touched that bottle of dry gin.

Exhaling heavily, I sat in bed massaging my temples, as I thought about how I was now officially single.

My heart clenched with a magnanimous type of pain as I thought about how I'd planned my future with Joe in it.

We had both planned to have three kids, a set of boy twins and a daughter, because Joe wanted to have his little princess.

There was a new way of genetically modifying the gender of an unborn baby, he had told me in the past.

Pushing the thoughts away as my throat tightened with a bitter lump, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and on seeing that I had an email from my boss, my eyes gaped in shock.

In the past week that I'd started working at Coleman group of companies, Donovan Coleman, the CEO, had never once responded to any of my emails, so it was really surprising to get an email from him.

Opening the email, my brows furrowed in confusion as I read his message;

"Good day, Miss Wright. This doesn't resemble a sales memo."

I must have sent him the wrong file, as I'd been too drunk to even comprehend anything last night.

The moment I opened the file I sent and saw a picture of myself clad in lingerie; one I'd taken last night, my heart nearly stopped working as fear gripped me immediately.

"No, no, please, no," I chanted, inwardly hoping that I was having some sort of alcohol-powered nightmare and this wasn't my reality.

Just then, an even more intense ache gripped my temples, causing me to groan in pain as I caressed the aching site.

I was in soup.

And it wasn't just any sort of soup, I was in a huge pot of boiling soup of trouble.

To think I had never even seen Donovan before. According to my colleagues, he was currently attending a conference in Mexico and was due to resume work today.

How was I supposed to even explain myself to him?

That my ex boyfriend broke up with me on our third anniversary, and I got so drunk that I wore lingerie in a deranged frenzy, then took pictures which I accidentally sent to him, instead of the sales memo.

Clearly, he was not going to believe that.

He would probably think that I'd sent it to seduce him.

Sending sales memo or any work file at that to the CEO was never part of my job in the first place, but that of the accounting department head.

But being the lazy person the HOD, Pamela was, she had assigned me to send him work files, which had been going well for the past week.

The universe could truly never stand seeing me happy.

I mean, how could I get broken up with yesterday, and then make a huge mistake like this today?

Coming clean to Pamela about this mess wasn't even on my list of options, because I would never hear the end of it for as long as I worked at Coleman.

Raking my hands through my hair, I placed my phone on the nightstand before getting out of bed, with a heavy sigh.

I would just have to explain myself to Donovan, and hope he'd at least believe me.

With that resolve, I peeled off my trouble-causing lingerie before heading into the bathroom to take a shower.

After donning my bathrobe, I grabbed some pain killers from the drawer before heading to the kitchen, where I drank it with water.

Then, I returned to my bedroom to get ready for work, just as my phone dinged with a message.

Picking it up, I saw that it was from Janine and I smiled as I read it.

"Good morning, babe. I would have called but I'm currently in a meeting. I hope you're feeling better now and I promise to call you as soon as I get some alone time."

"I understand, babe. Thanks for caring and take care." I typed and sent it to her.

An hour and half later, I trekked into the gargantuan building that was Coleman group, with my heart hammering against my chest and my hands trembling with fear.

"Good morning, Miss Wright," The receptionist, Stella, greeted.

"Good morning, Stella," I replied, feigning a smile before heading into the elevator, where I saw the eighth wonder of the modern world in the form of a human male.

The man was easily the most handsome man I'd ever laid eyes on.

Sure, Joe was attractive but in a soft sense, unlike the ruggedness of this man's.

He stood a foot taller than me with tanned skin that shone alluringly, and a brushed back haircut paired with an undercut that fitted his perfect face.

"Good morning," He greeted, jerking me out of my enthralled haze.

"Good morning," I replied, before clicking on the third floor and standing beside him.

We stood in the silence together while I racked my brain, for other options that didn't involve me explaining myself to the CEO.

However, the only option I could think of at that moment, other than explaining myself to him, was tendering my resignation letter to HR, which was completely out of it.

"Uhm, can I ask you a question?" I asked the man.

"Sure," He replied, tilting his head toward me.

"Okay, thanks," I said. "Have you been working here for a while?"

"Yes," He replied, and relief tinged with hope flooded my heart.

"Cool, so you must have met the CEO before, right?" I questioned, to which he nodded.

The image I had in my mind of the CEO was a middle-aged man, whose personality I still couldn't decode.

Based on the response he'd sent me that morning, I still couldn't decipher whether he was mad or nonchalant about it.

"Yes, a couple of times," He replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I may have a meeting with him today, so I'm nervous about it," I fibbed. "Is he a nice person?"

"To an extent," He said. "I hope your meeting with him goes well if it happens ."

"Me too, thanks," I muttered, as the elevator slid open and he walked outside, where a man clad in suit was waiting for him.

"Good morning, Mr Coleman. How was your trip?" The man asked, before collecting his briefcase from him.

At the mention of his name, my eyes gaped into the size of saucers as realization hit me that HE was Donovan Coleman, as in the CEO of my workplace.

So I'd spent the last five minutes asking him about himself.

But then again, jumping into conclusions wasn't good, I chide myself.

Maybe there was another Coleman, like his cousin or something.

Yes, that was probably it.

"Good, thank you, Carlos," Mr Coleman told the man before turning to me.

"I will see you around, Miss Wright," He smirked before walking off, automatically confirming that he was really HIM.

Fuck, what manner of bad luck was following me?

Moaning, I pressed my back against the elevator as the door slid shut.

Soon enough, I was walking into my office, which I shared with three of my colleagues; Nathan, Sarah, and Kushi.

Presently, only Sarah was in the office.

"Good morning, Emily," She greeted. "You seem out of it. Did something happen?"

Where would I even start my explanation from?

I was currently nursing a heartbreak while also hoping I didn't get fired from work, for sexual misconduct or something like that.

"Good morning, Sarah. I'm fine," I lied, before taking my seat in my corner, as my phone vibrated with a call from Janice.

Clicking the answer button, I pressed the phone to my ear.

"Hi, babes. How are you doing now?" She asked. "I hope you are still not drowning yourself in alcohol."

"No," I smiled. "As a matter of fact I'm doing way better than I was last night, and I'm also at work."

"Okay, that's great. I have to go now, my boss needs me. Love you."

"I love you too." I replied, before ending the call.

Thankfully, I narrowly escaped being summoned to Donovan's office that day, as his schedule was packed full of back-to-back meetings.

Emily's POV

As I loaded dishes into the dishwasher, the doorbell rang, causing me to stop, so I could go check who was at the door.

Before I could even walk out of the kitchen, it rang again, and I couldn't help but huff at the person's impatience.

However, when I opened the door and saw Janine looking like she'd discovered the worst thing on earth, I knew something had happened.

And whatever had happened was really bad.

"Hey, babes," I said, hugging her. "How was your flight? I thought you were coming back tomorrow."

"Yes, I thought so too until I discovered something," She said, as we disengaged from the hug. "Abigail is getting married today."

At her utterance, I burst into a peal of hearty laughter but stopped when Janine didn't laugh along with me.

She was being serious.

"What do you mean Abigail is getting married? Are you sure you heard right?" I asked, knowing fully well that Janine wouldn't have left Los Angeles, without having legit proof that our friend was really getting married.

"Look," She said, handing me her phone which I took. "Apparently, that's her pre wedding shoot. No one knows who her fiance is and it's said their wedding is to be attended by just their families and friends. I have no idea when we became Abigail's enemies that she decided to hide something this huge from us."

In the picture, Abigail was standing in front of a door, looking at her fiance who was hiding a bouquet of dahlias behind him, with his back facing the camera.

His hair was red and long, which further confused me, because Abigail didn't like flashy guys like that.

I mean, I had known her for almost a decade now, so I was certain of her taste in men.

Plus, she wasn't even in any relationship that Janine and I knew about.

"This is utterly insane of Abigail," I said, ire coursing through me as I returned the phone to Janine.

"I'm telling you," Janine said, raking her fingers through her hair furiously. "To think I had to find out about our best friend getting married from my colleague at work. I don't even know what to think at this point."

"You don't think she's being forced, do you?" I asked Janine who frowned. "Come in, so we can talk properly."

"Okay," She said. "What do you mean forced to get married?"

"Well, I don't have any other explanation as to how and why she's getting married secretly," I said with a shrug. "What do you propose we do now?"

"Emily, we are going to attend that wedding and see with our own eyes that she is really getting married,'' Janine uttered, sitting on the sofa arm. "Or what else can we do?"

"I support your suggestion, let's do that," I replied. "You know where the wedding is happening, right?"

"Yes, I do," She replied. "You know that my colleague who told me, her sister happens to be Abigail's coworker."

"Can you imagine?" I asked heatedly. "Her colleagues knew about her wedding and we didn't. Who does that to her best friends? Abigail better have a good reason as to why she did such a stupid thing."

"So are you going to change?" Janine asked, to which I nodded.

"Yes," I said. "Give me a minute."

Thereafter, I went straight into the kitchen to turn off the dishwasher, before heading to my bedroom.

About fifteen minutes later, I was ready in a peach pant suit with a pair of silver kitten heels to match.

"You ready?" Janine asked, as I walked downstairs while putting on my earrings.

Nodding, I responded, "Yes, let's go."

Then, we headed downstairs to the parking lot where Janine's car was parked.

Nearly thirty minutes later, we reached the venue, a garden located inside the amusement park downtown, which was also really strange because Abigail hated outdoor weddings.

Now that I thought of it, there were a lot of things that I probably didn't know about Abigail.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw a photo stand of the couple, just by the entrance to the wedding venue.

I was having a nightmare, I thought to myself as I moved closer to the picture stand, so I could get a clearer view.

That had to be the only reasonable explanation as to why Joe was locked in a romantic pose, with Abigail, on some island, with the three words I never thought I'd see, written in bold fonts beneath the picture.

"Abigail weds Joe"

"C-Can you pinch me, Janine?" I stuttered out.

Fear gripped me instantly when Janine sighed and gave me a look of sympathy instead.

At that moment, it dawned on me that this was very much my reality, and not some bizarre nightmare.

My best friend was really getting married to my ex-boyfriend, barely three days after we broke up.

"Pinch me, Janine! What are you waiting for?" I spat, and she exhaled heavily before trying to hug me, an action which I vehemently resisted before pushing past her into the venue.

On seeing Joe and Abigail, I erupted with mirthless laughter, which drew everyone's attention toward me.

Abigail paled visibly, her eyes widening into the size of saucers, with Joe seeming equally surprised to see me there.

Ignoring the hushed conversation and piercing stares, I made my way to the front, anger coursing through me in wild flames.

"Bastard," I muttered, before my hand delivered a resounding slap to Joe's cheek.

Caressing his reddened cheek, he stammered, "Emily, I-I can explain,"

I decided to pay him no attention as I turned toward Abigail, who looked like she wanted to enter the ground.

"Why would you do this to me, Abigail?" I spat, slapping the bouquet of flowers out of her hand, as she looked at me with remorse.

"I'm sorry, Ems. I never meant for you to find out like this," She began. "I really d-"

"Let this be the last time you'd ever call me Ems, am I clear?" I hurled. "An evil person like you does not deserve to call me that. You two are the worst people on earth, and you deserve each other outrightly. Congratulations on the union."

"Young lady, who are you?" The middle-aged priest asked, and I swallowed harshly as tears hitched my throat, forcing me to remain quiet for a moment.

Abigail's mum shot me a murderous glare which I ignored, as I collected the microphone from the priest.

On the other hand, Joe's dad was having a hushed conversation with Joe's mum.

Throughout our relationship, Joe never took me to meet his parents. He would cite various excuses whenever I asked to see them.

Poor me hadn't known that the scheming scumbag had plans to marry Abigail from the start.

"I used to be the groom's girlfriend up till three days ago," I said, and the attendees gasped as the hushed conversations became louder. "As for the bride, we have been best friends since middle school. But from this moment onward, I don't know either of them anymore."

Exhaling heavily, I shook my head in self pity before turning around to leave.

I nearly stopped breathing when I saw Donovan Coleman, sitting in the front row, his face blank as he stared at me intently.

Great, another embarrassing moment in the bag.

Looking away from him, I walked out of the venue while repressing the urge to cry.

"The both of you disgust me!" I heard Janine holler as my eyes turned misty with tears, that I blinked away.

At that moment, I was beyond tired of everything.

I didn't stop walking until I got to where Janine's car was parked, while she followed behind me closely.

"I'm so sorry, babes. I never knew Abigail was cap-"

"Can we like not speak about it for now?" I cut in.

"Sure, babes. If that's what you want," She replied, unlocking the car. "But we are going to my place and that's final. I have ice cream and marshmallows in the refrigerator, so we can stuff our faces till dawn."

"Okay," I muttered, before getting into the car, inwardly thankful that I still had Janine in my life at least.