Chapter 26
Ian
I tried to give Kate a reassuring glance before I continued. But she looked as nervous as she probably should have been considering.
“Seriously, Ben…Congrats,” I said, trying my damnedest to let it be known that he was a son of a bitch without actually calling him a son of a bitch. “You had me fooled. I really thought you were a decent man.”
Michael held his hand up again, like he was God controlling the earth. “Can we get on with it?” he asked, calmly. “We already know you went against Ben’s deal.”
I cleared my throat. “None of it matters now. I’m done. Done with all of this.”
Both of them set their attention on me fully at this point.
“I’m prepared to hand over the technology to Bio-Research.”
Both of their eyes widened, and I could tell that they were both completely stunned. I turned my focus back to Michael.
“I did some investigating of my own, and I know that you and my father both were working on the technology when he worked at Bio-Research. That means, even if a patent wasn’t filed that it should probably go to the company in which it was first introduced. Even if he did develop it into something better, and more competitive, it was still wrong. It was also wrong to sue you over it, knowing that it wasn’t solely his technology to begin with. Whether he did it because he was afraid you’d sue him first, and tarnish his good name, or if he just wanted to be a petty asshole, I’ll never know. I just want to make this right.”
The look on Michael Murphy’s face was priceless. He never saw it coming. And Ben, he leaned forward and tilted his head like he was waiting for some kind of demand to be added.
I took a deep breath. I had said it all in pretty much one single breath. “So to make it right, to show that MTS isn’t under-handed and isn’t dirty, I want to do what’s best and give it back to you, Michael,” I continued. “It is rightfully yours.”
“Just like that?” Michael asked. “No negotiations?”
“The only stipulation is that BioResearch employs the technicians and marketing people that have been working on this for years. They don’t deserve to lose their jobs because of a decision my dad made.”
“How did you find all of this out?” Michael asked after I paused, but I held my hand up to stop him.
“Doesn’t matter. I know the truth. How I know it is irrelevant.” And that really was all I was prepared to say. I wasn’t about to pull Kate into the battle. It was bad enough that she was in there in the first place.
I wish I hadn’t brought her along, because I could tell she was nauseous about it; sick to the core.
“All I want is to correct the past,” I said, before letting my stomach drop completely and the next bit of information spew out.
“And by the way,” I said, visibly and cockily smirking, ready to throw them for a loop. “I’m stepping down as CEO of MTS.”
It was something I’d been thinking about all day. It was the right thing.
I wasn’t my father.
I was Ian.
And I hadn’t been Ian in quite some time; and being with Kate made me want to get that back.
“There will be no more Cross/Murphy feuding. It’s now Jerome Pfeiffer’s fight.”
And just like that, I buttoned my suit jacket, grabbed Kate by the hand, and walked out of the room. The equivalent of a boardroom mic drop. I didn’t even wait for them to respond. I knew they’d be happy.
I wanted to jump up and down. I wanted to pump my fist in the air until the fucking cows came home; but I had to keep it calm and collected. At least until I made it outside.
I felt like I was on autopilot. I didn’t even realize how far we’d gotten until I felt the cool air fill my lungs.
I felt free — lighter even — as soon as I got outside.
Almost like I was a prisoner seeing the outside for the first time in a long time. I felt like I’d escaped, and I knew right then that trying to make it work at MTS was never going to be the right thing. I knew that I’d done the right thing.
“Kate, I love you,” I sighed, happily, before I even turned to look at her. “I can’t believe I haven’t said it sooner.”
She looked stunned, but happy. She had a grin and a glistening sparkle in her eye. I wasn’t sure if I hadn’t said anything sooner because I was nervous, or if I was just waiting for the right opportunity. Or hell, if there was a right opportunity given the short length of our relationship. I just knew that it was true, and that I could feel it coming on for a while now.
I watched her mouth open and fall, and for a minute, I felt a little nervous. I wasn’t sure if she was struggling on her words because she couldn’t reciprocate the emotion, or if it was just because I’d taken her by completely surprise. I thought it was the latter. Hoped it was. But until I heard her whisper out to me, I couldn’t be sure.
“I love you, too,” she whispered, still grinning. I pulled her to me and kissed her tenderly. Kissed her so she knew I meant it. Then I stretched my arms out over my head, breathing heavily and smiling widely.
It felt good that there wouldn’t be any more of a lot of terrible things.
No more ridiculously early mornings and late, late-nights. No more dressing to the nines every damn day of my life. No more wishing I had time to go to the gym. No more Jerome. No more trying to live up to something that I wasn’t.
I took another deep breath, relishing the crisp air around me, which was something that I never thought I’d think in my entire life. We lived in New York. Not in nature.
There was smog everywhere, air pollution galore.
But yet, the air that I was breathing in was the cleanest, crispest, nicest air I’d ever experienced.
I turned to Kate and she gave me that look and smiled knowingly. It was like she knew what I was thinking. It was like she could read my mind.
In truth we hadn’t really known each other for all that long, but she was still the person that I felt knew me best in the entire world.
She knew that beneath my confident, kick-ass billionaire exterior was a yearning. A deep yearning for freedom; and hell, I hadn’t known it until I met Kate, but also a deep yearning for love.
I was just glad it wasn’t unrequited.
I could see it in every look she gave. She loved me too.
I couldn’t believe it. How much had changed in the past few weeks; how different I felt…
All because of her.
It was good to be loved as I really was, and not my money or my position.
Kate loved me as the asshole billionaire; and even now as an unemployed and super confused asshole billionaire — because let’s face it, I still owned the company. I just didn’t want to run it.
I knew I didn’t need to change for her. I knew she would have been fine even with me still working against her father. She cared about me either way. She would have been just fine making it work. No matter what her family said.
I turned my attention back to her, and said, “Can you believe I did that?”
My breath was heavy, and the world around me was spinning all of a sudden. I felt my heartbeat quicken. I was almost dizzy.
“Are you okay?” she asked, concerned, grabbing my forearm with her warm hands to steady me.
I took a deep breath, before finally realizing what it was. It was adrenaline. Mixed with nerves. I laughed, “I’m good!” as I tried to regain my breath.
“Just breathe,” she grinned. “Are you sure you did what you wanted to do?”
I nodded, my smile widening. Her voice was resonating with me in a way that it never had before. I wasn’t sure why exactly, but it was like I was hearing her even more clearly than I ever had. Like her voice did even more to me and my senses than it usually did. “Never been more sure.”
And that was the truth.