I’d shirked some of my duties, it was true. But I was here because of her. For her. I focused on that, stepping carefully as I spoke of her past misdeeds. “She’s told me about the ways she’s preyed on innocent people around her. It’s clear that she attempted to play you as well, and that you required leverage to protect yourself. It might not mean anything coming from me, but I can assure you that she isn’t the same person she was when you had to make that move, and I’m certainly not a man who would allow his wife to behave like that in the future.”
He scrutinized me with narrow eyes, his expression calculating the risk of trusting me. “You’re sure that she isn’t currently playing you?”
She had played me in the end, hadn’t she? Though forcing a baby on me should hardly count. It was par for the way we negotiated with each other. The games between us would likely be deemed as sick to anyone on the outside.
None of that was relevant to the conversation. “I’m certain that any way she is playing me has been welcomed and deserved. Point being, she has no interest in playing you.”
“But you see how I can’t take that on blind faith. You could be in on the game along with her. Or you could be a man blinded by a pretty woman. The Celia I knew would never stand for a man ‘allowing’ her to do anything. It’s suspicious that you believe you have such complete control of a woman I’ve always thought of as a dragon.”
“Dragon?” I let out a gruff laugh. She’d tried to convince me of the same and failed. “Hardly. She’s a little bird. Menacing only if you’re an unearthed worm.”
I sobered. “However, I do understand your plight. Which, I believe, gives you even more reason to want me in the lead position at Werner. You lose your power over her as soon as Warren steps down. If I were to replace him, your thumb would be on her once again.”
He nodded an acknowledgment. “Or the two of you have figured out a way to ruin me from the inside out. I have a lot of money wrapped up in Werner. It behooves me to see it do well.”
“Please. Even if I ran Werner into the ground, it wouldn’t ruin you. Pierce Industries is as solid as they come.”
“Unless you discover a way to bring both companies down.”
It wasn’t on my agenda, but if it were necessary, I would do just that. It was possible he might see that in my eyes, which I wasn’t sure was a bad thing. If he thought I was against him, he had even more reason to keep me in his sights. Keep your enemies closer and all that.
I let silence be my response, allowing it to fully settle before I spoke again. “There’s no way anything I can say will persuade you one way or another. All I can do is offer you a solid business plan and give you my assurance that I want to see Werner succeed, and that I am fully convinced that with the power of Accelecom behind it, I can take Werner to levels you’ve never even imagined.”
It took a beat, but eventually he smiled. “I do like that sort of certainty in my CEOs,” he admitted. “But I’m going to need more time to make a decision. You’re not the only candidate I’m looking at.”
I refused to let any disappointment show on my face. It was standard phrasing. It didn’t mean that I hadn’t gained any ground. It didn’t mean I didn’t have him exactly where I wanted him.
He confirmed my confidence a second later. “You do currently have a nice lead, however. So let’s discuss next level. The prospects you’ve shown me are ambitious compared to the ones I’ve had drawn up myself. I’d like to look closer at the discrepancies.”
“You can only reach as high as you dream,” I said smugly. “I’d be happy to justify the differences. It would please me to show you where your team has been small-minded.”
“I would find that quite interesting. Do you mind?” He stood, signaling me to stand as well. “My chief financial advisor can show you the projections she’s put together. Her office is just down the hall. Let me walk you over.”
I followed behind him like the moon in the shadow of the sun. On the surface, he may have appeared to have the superior position. But the sun only ruled the day. Everyone knew when the night dawned, the throne belonged to the moon.
Two
Celia
I stepped out of the sunk-in tub and grabbed a towel from the oversized bathroom counter. While I greatly missed the house in London, the Presidential suite at the Park Hyatt was nothing to frown at. We’d been here for more than two months, and I was already addicted to the luxury amenities and sleek modern design.
I’d give it all up, though, in a heartbeat, to have things go back to the way they’d been in England.
No, that wasn’t true. I wouldn’t give it all up.
I put my hand over the bump that had just begun to protrude noticeably from my abdomen. I couldn’t feel my baby move yet, but I was always aware of her presence. She’d changed my body completely, high-jacked it like she was an alien invader. Besides the constant exhaustion and the intermittent nausea, nothing about who I was felt the same. Food tasted different. The taste in my mouth was different. The temperature of my body was different. My head spun differently. My muscles and joints ached differently.
I hated it, and I loved it. I’d already decided one would be enough because of how miserable the ordeal of pregnancy was. I also already knew without any doubt that she would be worth it.
“Totally worth it,” I told my belly. I imagined she found the sound of my voice comforting, so I spoke to her often like this. Or maybe I spoke to her because I knew she couldn’t respond, unlike my husband who had taken to spending long stretches of our time together in silence. There was a sexiness about the way he brooded, as there was about almost everything he did, but knowing I was to blame for his taciturnity put a damper on the visual benefits.
Would he be like this forever? Distant and withdrawn. He didn’t pick out my clothes anymore, didn’t dictate my days. Didn’t command me or boss me around.
And I resented him for it, which was ridiculous since almost everything I did was meant to push him away. If he tried to care for me like he once had, I’d most likely argue or ignore him outright, and since he surely knew that—because didn’t he always know everything?—why would he make an effort to connect?
I didn’t even know why I pushed him away anymore. At first, I’d been angry. He demanded to know the identity of the man who’d taught me The Game, and if it were simply because he wanted me to share everything with him, I would have told him long ago. But it was because of his stupid quest for vengeance. A quest that had come to mean so much to him that he’d lost sight of the person he claimed to be looking after. Me.
And that felt worse than the anger. That hurt.
Add to that his secrets—what he’d done to Camilla’s husband, the lengths he’d gone to for other acts of justice. I was scared on top of hurt. Not for what he’d do to me, but what he could do—what he would do—to Hudson. To my father. To himself.
But then I found out I was pregnant, and my anger and hurt and fear became centered around something else. Someone else. Around her, the child living inside me that I was certain was a girl despite not having confirmation yet. She was everything, and I’d hoped beyond hope that she would be everything to Edward too.