Chapter Forty-Three
Blake
I sighed with contentment and settled back into the private train carriage that I’d booked for Indi and myself the second we arrived back in Vancouver. We needed to get back to Seattle, but after the sight that greeted us at the Vancouver port, I couldn’t stand for us to travel on public transport.
The media had been alerted to the incident that went down on Fremantle Island, and the frenzy upon our arrival had been insane—cameras flashing in our faces, reporters screaming at us for interviews, the general public staring and trying to take photos with their phones to stick on their little Instagram accounts or whatever it was people were using these days.
I didn’t want to put Indi through any more of that, and so I booked the private carriage so that we’d be left alone during our journey home. We were both exhausted, and the last thing we needed was to be stalked around by journalists or gawked at by random passengers.
Indi was snoring to my right, curled up on the seat. I smiled as I watched her, and then I leaned down and reached for my suitcase.
I grabbed my iPad and switched it on, waiting for it to pick up some roaming internet connectivity. When it did, the tablet was immediately inundated with thousands of emails, along with several Facetime requests from my secretary, Jess. I ignored them, but then another Facetime request came through. She was trying to reach me for a video chat right now.
I guess it was time to face the music.
“Hey, Jess,” I said, answering the call and holding the iPad close to my face. I moved away from Indi so I didn’t wake her.
“Finally!” Jess said, her forehead crinkled with anger. “I’ve been trying to call you for so long!”
“Sorry. We weren’t allowed phones or computers on—”
“On I Do Or Die?” She finished my sentence for me. I wasn’t surprised she knew where I’d really been. Everyone was bound to by now, given the media frenzy surrounding the show’s dismal failure due to the presence of a real-life murderer.
I nodded. “Yep.”
That was all I said. She (or anyone else) wasn’t going to get an apology from me. I went on the show for Indi, and I didn’t regret it for a second. Maybe the board would fire me for the unwanted publicity, and maybe they wouldn’t. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Indi, and if I hadn’t agreed to go on the show, we might not have ended up together.
Jess sniffed. “So much for the corporate retreat in Brazil,” she said scathingly.
“How long have you known for?”
The annoyed look vanished from her face, only to be replaced with a devious smile. “I’ve known all along. I love trash TV, you know. And I’m not blind. I knew right away that the dressed-down ‘Blake Summers’ was actually you—bigshot CEO Blake Marsden. C’mon, boss. I’m not dumb.”
“I wasn’t aware you liked reality TV,” I said. “Anyway, how long has the company known? Am I fired?”
“That’s why I’ve been trying to call you,” she said. “The board found out when all this stuff appeared on the news two days ago. Some crazy shit about a bunch of murders on the show. Did that really happen?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, they weren’t happy. This kind of publicity is exactly the kind of thing they’d hoped to avoid when they let you head things up at your age. I mean, a super-rich CEO on a freaking reality TV show? It sounds pretty bad. But…”
She trailed off dramatically. “But what?” I asked, my eyebrows raised.
“But I convinced them to listen to this friend of mine. He’s a social media director. He gets hired by a ton of companies to promote their images, and he does super well. Anyway, he turned them around. They’re all on board with you being in the public eye now. With your...erm…wife.” She snickered and went on. “You know how things have been steady over the last few years, but not like… absolutely amazing?”
“That’s a very businesslike way to describe the company’s turnover,” I said with a sarcastic smile. “But yes, I know what you’re saying. Things are good, but not terrific.”
“Exactly. Anyway, the social media director thinks that having a company head who’s popular— or at least well-known—with the general public could actually help. A lot of laypeople are getting interested in buying stocks these days, but most of them have no clue where to start. They end up going for stock options with companies they’ve heard of. Companies they remember. Like Google, Amazon, and so on.”
I nodded. “Go on.”
“But if there’s a young, hot guy heading up Marsden Shipping, and he’s doing wild stuff like participating on reality shows and almost getting murdered…well, that sticks in people’s minds. And guess what?”
“What?”
“It’s already working. Everyone knows it was you on the show now, and our share price went up today by more than it’s gone up within the last year altogether. That’s just in one day!”
“Jesus.” I let out a low whistle. “Gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. I would’ve thought people might still prefer a company that keeps under the radar. Seems more stable and trustworthy, right?”
“Well, lucky for you, that’s not what’s happening nowadays. The future is here and a lot of people want ‘cool’ CEOs heading up the companies they invest in,” she said, putting the word ‘cool’ in air-quotes. “Otherwise you’d be out on your ass.”
I chuckled. “I’d still own the company even if they let me go, Jess. They’d just bring in someone else to run it after they fired me.”
“Whatever. You know what I mean.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, are you on your way back?”
“Yep.”
“With Indi, your beautiful childhood sweetheart?” She snickered again. “Oh, man. You’re lucky that your private life has been kept under wraps so far, because if it hadn’t, everyone would’ve already figured out that you two aren’t really married.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “So no one knows?”
“Not about that, no. Except me, and I guess your close friends and family. But don’t worry, my lips are sealed,” she said. “You know, you should lock that down for real, boss. Indi is awesome.”
“Yes, she is,” I said, looking across the carriage at my sleeping girlfriend. She was still snoring softly, her chest rising and falling with each adorable sound. Only she could make snoring cute and sexy.
Now that I thought about it, I was sure she could do anything. I felt like I could too, as long as she was by my side.
In the last month, we’d both been pushed to our limits. It felt as if we’d been thrown in the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim, but we paddled our way to the edge together anyway. As if we’d walked through a forest fire and made it out without succumbing to the smoke and flames. As if we’d been thrown from a plane without parachutes, but refused to shatter upon impact.
Together, we survived it all.
Together, we were our strongest selves.
“You know what, Jess? You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’ve gotta go,” I murmured into the iPad.
She frowned. “What? But I wasn’t done. Don’t you want to hear about who had an office affair while you were gone?”
I cut her off, holding a hand up. “Not now. Later. I’ve got something important to do…”