Busted
(Liam)
The phone is at Darcy’s ear, but Timothy’s yelling and I can hear him loud and clear. He found out about the takeover. I told Victor to make sure it wasn’t released until next week.
Timothy’s yelling stops, but Darcy remains silent. Her face is pale, her expression a mix of pain and confusion.
I take the phone from her hand. She does nothing to resist.
“When are you going to stop being so hard on her,” I say into the phone.
“What? Is this Liam? Did you put her up to this? She was happy before she started dating you,” he screams into my ear.
“Calm down. And look at who’s really to blame for once — you.” I don’t raise my voice, but speak with such authority that he shuts up. “You can phone her later to apologize,” I add and hang up.
I hold the phone out to Darcy, but she doesn’t move. She’s frozen in thought.
“You okay?” I ask, wrapping my arms around her.
“I didn’t know Elite Exhibitions bought the interior design show,” she says, her voice flat.
“Well, you haven’t started yet. It’s not the sort of thing they would mention in an interview, is it?”
“But after I accepted the offer?”
“I’m sure they’ve bought and sold lots of small conventions in the past month.”
“I wish my father had listened to me, and put in a better bid.”
“You should be glad he didn’t. The company you’re now in charge of got it instead.”
“I suppose,” she says, but doesn’t sound like she believes her words.
“Hey,” I say, squeezing her playfully, “think of the future. You’re the CEO of Elite Exhibitions. That’s an amazing achievement, and I’m incredibly proud of you. We’re going to have the most amazing future.”
Darcy looks up at me, blinking back tears. “We are?”
“Yes, we are,” I say, and kiss her cheek.
“My father will never forgive me.”
“He’ll come around. Once he’s had time to think over everything. He’ll realize how he pushed you away by treating you like shit.”
“You keep saying that, but I’m not sure I believe it. My father isn’t the kind of man to let something like this go. And I can’t help but think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I should’ve tried harder to fix things at my family’s company before bailing on them.”
I can’t have her getting cold feet about this move. There’s no way I can handle her going back and working with Timothy. He’d treat her even worse than before. Assuming, of course, that he forgave her in the first place.
That’s it, Timothy won’t give her the option to go back. She’ll have to go to Elite Exhibitions. What choice would she have? I breathe a sigh of relief. She’ll be safe from his abuse.
“Stop thinking that way. He’s the one who should be forgiving you. Hell, he should be on his knees groveling for your forgiveness at being both a terrible boss and a terrible father.”
Darcy sucks her lower lip between her teeth. I use the silence to steer her deeper into my apartment. With my arm around her, we leave the entrance, pass the grand living room, the media room, my office and end up back in the sitting room beside the wine room. We sit down on the sofa where I first told her who I am.
She remains quiet and I don’t say anything. Instead I give her time to digest the situation.
After several minutes, she says, “I shouldn’t have accepted a position at a competitor. It was wrong to go to Elite Exhibitions.”
Here we go.
“No, it was the best decision. You have all this industry knowledge and insight that your father doesn’t care about anyway. But the new company will, they’ll listen to everything you say.” I give her a chaste kiss and continue. “You’re the boss now. They have to.”
Darcy smiles, and the tension in my shoulders eases. “Yes, I do like that part.”
“I thought so, I know how good you are at taking control,” I say, glancing at the wall of wine where she first dropped to her knees.
“You’re going to be a much better CEO than Tom.”
“Tom?” She asks, furrowing her brow.
“Yeah, Tom.”
“Tom,” she states again.
“Elite Exhibition’s current CEO.”
“Thomas Schumann?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes widen and her face drops. “Hold on, how do you know that?”
My mind races, deciding on what to say, but before I can say anything, she says, “Holy fucking shit, do you own the company? You fucking own Elite Exhibitions, don’t you?”
“Darcy, wait.”
“Wait. What the fuck? So it’s true, Elite Exhibitions is another one of your many companies. You didn’t think that little piece of information might’ve been important to tell me? Like all the times we were talking about the industry, and I was telling you my insight, and you never once thought you should stop me because I work for the fucking competition?” Her voice raises until she’s yelling and she stands.
“It’s not like that. I’m not hands-on with that business, I don’t do anything other than know I own them. I just really enjoy talking to you about business.”
“And that’s why Elite Exhibitions went and bought the chocolate convention and the interior design one. I’m supposed to believe that was a total coincidence? How stupid do you think I am?”
“You’re not—”
“You know what? Don’t answer that. You’ve been playing me this entire time, and now I’ve ruined my relationship with my father and my family’s company. I feel sick,” she says, and grabs her stomach.
“How long have you owned them?” She asks softly.
“Six years,” I say and leap up off the sofa, intending to take her into my arms and soothe her. To make her understand why I did what I did and that it was nothing to do with the reasons she thinks it is.
Before I can touch her, she turns and half runs out of the room.
“Darcy,” I call after her.
Unwilling to let her leave, I run and catch up to her, grabbing her by the forearm to stop her in her tracks.
“Let go of me. This is done, Liam. I won’t be taking the position at Elite Exhibitions and I sure as hell won’t be seeing you again.”
“Listen to me. Just hear me out,” I say, not letting go of her arm.
“There’s nothing you can say that would make things any better. There’s no excuse in the world for what you did to me. You used me, plain and simple, and for that I can never forgive you.”
“That’s not true,” I say, my mind racing to figure out a way to prove myself to her.
“Let go of me.”
“I need you to listen.”
“No fucking chance.”
Do I let her go and cool off? I can’t make her listen now. But if she walks out that door now, there’s a good chance she’ll never come back.
“You’re right. I should’ve told you before.”
“Like when we first met. Or the night of my cousin’s wedding. Mentioning it on the jet as being the real reason you wanted to go to the chocolate exhibition would’ve been a good time. Or how about when I asked you what companies you owned? You didn’t think it was relevant to say you owned my family company’s biggest competitor? What kind of dick are you? How do you think I can forgive you?”
“Because I only did it for you. I can’t stand the way your father treats you, I wanted to get you away from him. I did it because I love you. I love you, Darcy. I can say it in five different languages, and I’ll learn a hundred more. Anything to make you understand how true the words are.”
She pauses, her blue eyes softening as they bore into mine. Her chest heaves with emotion and tears well in her eyes.
After a moment, she shakes the arm I’m holding to loosen my grip. She says, “That’s fucking bullshit, you used me to fuck over Knight Global Events, and you planned it from the night we met at the Fat Kok.”