Chapter 25

Oliver

I knew that I owed Becka more than just a basic explanation.

“Go take a shower,” I said. “How did you get here?”

She smirked and looked at me out of the tops of her eyes. “I stole Ethan’s car,” she shrugged.

I laughed. “Well played! How many times has he called you?”

“I don’t know, fifteen? Twenty? I shut my phone off. After I realized I didn’t have any messages from you.”

I heard the bite in her voice. She was willing to joke, but only to a point. She didn’t want me to forget that she was angry.

“Ah. Got it,” I said. I needed to change the subject. “When you’re done in the shower, I’ll have coffee and breakfast made. Then, we can sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”

She seemed satisfied with that, and she set her phone, Ethan’s keys, and her purse on the table along with her own keys. She disappeared into the shower. I heard the door lock, a final reminder that we were doing things today on her terms, no one else’s.

I had spent the last few days out of the country, away from the prying American media, but not a moment had gone by that I hadn’t missed Becka. I had thought it would be safer for me to leave her behind, but the more time I’d been gone, the more I had wished she was with me. Of course, saying that to her now amounted to no more than an empty platitude. I needed to prove it to her; I knew that.

She got out of the shower and she took her time getting dressed. She finally emerged from her bedroom in sweat pants and a tank top, her hair wet and hanging in strands around her shoulders. She looked gorgeous.

I had, as promised, prepared coffee, bacon, eggs, and toast. I asked her if she wanted pancakes.

“I want answers,” was her response.

I sighed. It was time.

I served her breakfast, then made a plate for myself and sat across from her at her breakfast bar. Then, I began to fill her in on the history of Neurotova, and my relationship with Ethan, and how it had all gone so wrong.

“When we’d started,” I said, “Ethan and I had our hands equally in everything. It was a partnership, and it looked like we were going to pretty much run the world. We were the perfect partners: brothers, we knew the other inside out, we could communicate… we could even fight without it being that big of a deal. In short, it was perfect.” I sipped my coffee.

I knew I had Becka’s full attention; she had barely touched her food. “But,” I continued, “after a few years, it became clear that his interest was more on the financial and business front, whereas mine was far more on the food science and chemical part. I should have known right then that bad things were about to happen. He was so greedy.” I shook my head.

“When I’d realized how greedy Ethan was, that he cared not about the production of healthy alternatives to some of our most harmful foods, I began to investigate him privately. Neurotova was booming at the time; we were considered by both Fortune and Time to be the next up and coming investment opportunity and our stock was rising daily.” I paused and looked at Becka.

“The success made me spend more time in the lab; I was there day and night, working with the scientists we hired to maintain quality and consistency, to make sure that every procedure was followed to the letter. I had visions of being not just the world’s most lucrative company, but the most ethical as well.

It seemed that every other company, food science or not, faced scandal after scandal with corrupt CEOs, employee embezzlement, or unethical practices such as animal testing, human testing, or mislabeling of ingredients. I wanted more than anything to rise above all of that.”

“It had been a few years before I realized what Ethan was doing. He had covered his tracks so well. And, actually, it wasn’t me who ultimately found out what was happening; it was an intern from the local college, the same college you attend.” Becka perked up here; I could see the wheels turning in her head, wondering if she knew the intern.

“The intern had come to me with concerns about evidence of animals in the lab; he had found fur, feces, and scraps of litter used for rabbits, rats, and other small animals.

‘What do you mean?’ I had asked.

‘I think, Sir,’ the intern had said nervously, ‘that someone, or maybe more than one, is performing tests on animals in the Neurotova facilities. And trying to hide the evidence.’

Well, you can imagine my shock. The intern had been one of my best scientists at the time, regardless of his intern status, and I set him to work immediately on a private, separate assignment to find out what was happening in the lab. With use of video equipment, special access to the company emails and records, and an all access key to any lab and office in the facility, a month later, the intern had returned to me with a full report on what was happening.”

I stood up and began to pace around Becka’s kitchen, the emotion of the entire situation still raw, still active within me.

“I had been disgusted, almost physically sick, as I watched the testing going on in the labs after hours. Animals were, I’d realized, in cages in Neurotova that very moment, waiting until the majority had gone home and the lights had been turned off.”

“What did you say to the intern?” Becka asked.

“I asked him, ‘Who do these people report to?’

The intern looked uncomfortable, shifting in his seat and speaking quietly. ‘They report to Ethan, Sir,’ he had said. ‘There are agendas of meetings with Ethan’s name on them, and Ethan can be seen in some of the video footage. I can’t determine if he’s facilitating the experimentation, but he’s supporting it at the minimum.’

Well, you can imagine my rage. I destroyed nearly everything in my office that day, and I scared the shit out of that poor intern.”

“What did you say to Ethan?” Becka asked.

“First, I had to reward my intern. I told him that he’d done exceptional work, and his work would be reflected in a few weeks when he was offered a formal position with Neurotova.

The intern’s eyes had widened and brightened at the same time, a smile beginning to spread across his lips in spite of the situation.

‘Really, Sir?’ he said.

‘Absolutely,’ I had declared. ‘Your loyalty is unwavering and your research is impeccable. I’d have hired you regardless, but this investigation of yours shows me that you are exactly the type of person I want in this company moving forward. Because there are going to be some changes very soon.’

Those changes had begun by me calling Ethan in to a meeting. I presented him with the evidence.

‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ I’d yelled. ‘Do you know this could ruin us? What’s the matter with you?’ Ethan had stayed surprisingly calm. “You’re out of touch, Oliver,” he’d said. ‘You think that you can become top dog by just playing along with everyone else’s rules, but that’s not how the business world works.

Yeah, a few bunnies might get hurt,’ he said dryly, ‘but that’s the price. We’re lagging in manufacturing and in creation; we need to be moving faster if we’re going to stay competitive. This is a shortcut, a harmless one, that can help move us straight to the top.’ ”

I watched Becka as she turned white, as if she could hear those specific words coming out of Ethan’s mouth. I knew that she had his number. I also wondered, briefly, if they had slept together. A surge of jealousy rolled through me, but I shut it down, reminding myself that she was mine, that she loved me, and that anything Ethan had gotten out of her, he had gotten the same way he had gotten pieces of my company: deception and robbery.

“What did you do?” Becka asked.

“I continued to confront Ethan,” I said. ‘It’s stopping, right now,’ I’d said. I couldn’t believe his thought process and how cold and separated he was from everything. He looked like a sociopath, cold and calculating. Even though we had never really gotten along when we were growing up, I mean, we fought just like any normal siblings, I couldn’t believe that this was my brother standing in front of me.

‘No, it’s not,’ he’d responded. ‘It’s never stopping. And I have safeguards in place to make sure that things will continue to go as long as I want them to, in case you’re thinking of interfering.’

The safeguards, it turned out, were to pin everything on me if I chose to go public with the animal testing. I had spent more than a year pulling my reputation out of the tank with investors and the media… and I had fired Ethan. Ethan hadn’t gone cheaply, though; every month since I’ve been sending checks to E.H. Enterprises, which was Ethan’s blackmail account. Ethan had agreed to not speak to anyone in the company as long as he got his money.”

“Blood money,” Becka said.

“Exactly,” I said. “So, now you know everything.”

She looked at me, her head cocked as though she couldn’t quite fit all of the information I’d given her into her brain. I didn’t blame her; it was a lot. It had taken me years to absorb it all, and I still wasn’t sure I believed everything that Ethan was capable of.

Then, she asked me a question I hadn’t anticipated.

“So, what are you going to do about it?”

That was Becka, living in the present and the future, not the past. What was I going to do about it—a problem solving approach. Stop whining, that comment said, and figure out your shit so you can move on with your life.

I thought about how I might answer that question for the majority of the rest of our breakfast, which we shared in silence. The obvious answer was that I had to, once and for all, take Ethan down. The question that resulted from that answer was, of course, how.

I knew Becka had been researching Neurotova to an incredibly deep level, and I knew that she knew more about Ethan, me, and even the company than she was letting on. She did much of her research on the computer in her office while she was my assistant, so of course I could see everything she did. I knew she had far more information than she realized she had.

“Well?” she asked, after several minutes had gone by.

“Well,” I said, my mouth full of eggs. “I guess I’m going to use the people around me, the people who I know have been onto something for a long time, and hope that they’re willing to fight for the right side.” I looked at her pointedly, then I held up a mimosa and waited for her to hold up hers. “Cheers,” I said. “To those in the know.”

“Cheers,” she said back, slightly hesitating.

“And now,” I said, standing up and walking toward her, “I have missed you.”

I waited for a moment to make sure that she would be receptive to my advances, and, when I saw her face flush deep in her neck and all the way up her cheeks.

“Wait,” she said, putting her hand on my chest.

“What is it, my dearest?” Her hand on my chest aroused me, sent a spike of energy through me. I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms at that moment and have my way with her, to push myself into her and feel her wrapped around me, breathing hot in my ear, smelling her, feeling her beautiful, smooth skin pressed against mine.

“How did Ethan get into your house?”

I could see suspicion in her eyes. She thought I’d let him in. Perhaps, she thought the entire thing was a set up. I thought for a moment about the best way to answer.

“I don’t know,” I said finally. “My guess is he had a key made at some point. That seems like something he would do. I’ll get my locks changed so it doesn’t happen again.”

She kissed me, then, and I carried her to her bedroom. She was so soft, pliable in my hands, and I laid her on the bed gently. I was aroused, had been from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, but I took my time with her, getting to a level where I knew she would experience all the pleasure she was entitled to, all of the pleasure she had earned from my absence and all of the drama with Neurotova.

I slowly pulled her top over her head, and she slid her sweat pants off with her feet. I pressed my hand between her legs and felt her soft flesh. I kissed her, her tongue sweet and warm as it connected with mine.

It felt absolutely perfect to be back in her arms again.