Chapter Twelve
Aaron
“Mr. Townsend, Daniel has informed me that he is headed to Townsend Industries on instructions from your wife.”
“Have her set up in the lounge room to wait until I am finished with this meeting.”
“Yes, sir,” Mark answered.
I grunted, signaling to Mark that I was ending our call, before pressing the end button.
“Little early for lunch isn’t it?”
I picked my head up from my phone’s intercom to see Joshua peering at the Rolex on his wrist. It was close to nine-thirty. Any moron could’ve deciphered that Patience wasn’t arriving for lunch.
I merely stared at my brother for a heartbeat and then turned my attention on the other three men in the room, sitting at the conference table.
“So it seems that the golf course is trying to play hardball,” I stated, pushing my hands into my pants pockets.
The three men looked between one another.
“Seems that way.” Joshua came up on my right side, standing over the table as well. He was the head of the real estate division of Townsend Industries. He’d been in negotiations to purchase a recently shut down golf course to turn it into a luxury home complex. The location was about three hours from Williamsport.
“What is the hold up, gentlemen?” I inquired.
“Mr. Townsend, I’m sure your brother has shared with you–”
“Joshua.”
He blanched. “Excuse me?”
“In this office, his name is not my brother. It’s Joshua. Or Mr. Townsend.”
“Joshua,” he emphasized, “is asking a much lower selling price than what was originally offered.”
“So, you decided to set up a meeting with me in hopes that I’d convince Joshua to raise the price.”
Another round of looks between the three men. “Not quite–”
“Yes, quite,” Joshua began. “You all hoped that somehow bringing a meeting to the CEO of Townsend would convince me to raise the asking price for your failed golf course.”
I lowered my head, not wanting to reveal the pride I felt hearing Joshua ream out these supposed businessmen.
“Unfortunately, you failed to do your due diligence. Something I never forget,” Josh continued. He went on to explain precisely why the golf course would not be getting their asking price, in addition to telling them why they would still be selling to Townsend. Because if they didn’t Joshua was fully prepared to file a lawsuit against their company for any number of reasons which would hold up any future sales, costing them more money.
“It appears that my brother has spoken.” I looked sharply at the man who earlier had try to downplay Joshua’s importance by labeling him earlier. “Now that that’s set–”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
I turned abruptly from the table to my office door where my very pissed off wife stood.
“Get out.” I turned to peer over my shoulder at the men. “Now!” I seethed.
I eyed them as the three men scurried out of the room.
Patience wasted no time brushing past them. At the same time I saw one of my security guards enter behind her, a concerned expression on his face.
“You son of a bitch!” Patience continued. “It’s not enough you had to ruin my damn life, you couldn’t even let me work in peace!”
I was instantly pissed. “I ruined your life? You kept my children from me for five years!” I retorted angrily.
She gave a derisive laugh. “Are you seriously back to that?” She moved forward, hands flailing.
“Back to it? We never fucking left!”
“Obviously. Why don’t you go talk to your goddamn fiancée about that? You pompous bastard. And while you’re at it, why don’t you just leave me the hell alone! My life was going just fine without you!” She lunged as if she was about to attack me, but was held back when the huge security guard grabbed her by the waist.
I saw nothing else. Just his burly hand wrapped around my wife’s body.
“Take. Your. Goddamn. Hands. Off. My. Fucking. Wife!” I flared, fists clenching at my sides. “Now!” I yelled, stepping forward. A second later, my security guard stood half a foot from my wife. “Get the fuck out!”
“You’re a goddamned bully!” Patience yelled in my face.
“And you’re a deceitful liar!” I retorted.
Her head snapped back. “I’m the liar in this non-relationship?”
“You went behind my back. Used your maiden name to apply for the job. And never once told me about it.”
“When?” She threw up her hands. “When was I supposed to tell you about it? During the day when you’re totally consumed by your job, or at night when you go down to your office to work some more?”
“You had plenty of opportunity to tell me.”
“And because I didn’t, you acted like a petulant child and went behind my back to get the library to not hire me. But I’m the deceitful liar here?” She pushed me by the shoulders.
I barely budged.
“I fucking hate you!” she shouted.
My fists balled again and I crowded her space, lowering my face to hers. “That’s too damn bad, sweetness.” I held up my hand, bringing the finger that wore my wedding band in between our two faces. “You’re mine!” I gritted out between my teeth.
Her walnut-toned face screwed up, sepia eyes narrowing. “Not for long,” she retorted, low, but firmly. A second later, she turned sharply, her locs nearly grazing my face, and rushed out of my office, slamming the door.
Lifting the globe paperweight that sat on my desk, I threw it against the window just next to my door. The glass cracked but didn’t completely shatter, as it was bulletproof. I moved around my desk, picking up my phone to call Daniel.
He answered on the first ring.
“Do not take her anywhere except back to the house!” I hung up, not waiting for his reply.
I needed to leave but I also had to get a grip. I pinched the bridge of my nose and that’s when I heard it. I blinked open my eyes, lifting my head to see Joshua standing by the conference table, laughing.
“Care to explain what the hell is so funny?”
“You. The both of you. And me, but mostly, you two.”
“I don’t do riddles.”
His laughing reduced to a smirk and he nodded, moving closer to my desk. “I didn’t get it at first.” He shook his head. “She seemed like the sweet, quiet librarian. Not what I imagined your speed to be at all. But that,” he nodded in the direction of the office door my wife had just stormed out of, “was a whole side I didn’t know was there.”
I wrinkled my forehead at him, wondering what the hell he was talking about.
Stepping back from my desk, Joshua nodded. “Yeah, I think you two have a chance.”
I didn’t have time to question Joshua any further. I had more important matters to tend to, one being my wife, who’d better be at home or all hell would break loose.
****
I burst through the front door, tossing my briefcase to the side, and looked around. The only evidence of Patience were the black pumps she’d had on earlier, that now laid at the foot of the steps. I knew she was there since Daniel still remained outside, having only dropped her off a few minutes prior.
I charged up the staircase, taking two at a time. I knew where I’d find her, and sure enough, as I entered our bedroom, I found her in a flurry of motion. On our bed was a pile of clothes, haphazardly thrown in a suitcase. A few heartbeats later Patience came charging out of her walk-in closet, more balled up clothes in her arms. She barely glanced at me as she moved to the bed, tossing the clothes in the suitcase.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice low, and tight with anger.
“The hell does it look like I’m doing? As soon as I’m done packing my things, I’ll pack the children’s.” She turned her back to me as if going to the closet again, only to stop short at the loud crashing sound of the suitcase hitting the wooden dresser.
My chest heaved, not due to the physical activity of tossing a large suitcase halfway across the room but the idea of her thinking she was going to leave me.
“You’re insane.”
“You’ve known that for a very long time.”
“I’m leaving, Aaron,” she affirmed again, but more cautiously that time around.
“I wouldn’t say that again if I were you.”
She took a step back, folding her arms over her chest. “You just want to control everything. I’m not you–”
“You do remember what happened the last time you said those exact words, right?” The stirring in my cock, which had started when she angrily burst in my office, began to build.
Her mouth clamped shut and her eyelids fluttered.
Yeah, she remembered.
“You don’t want me here. You want to be a father to Kyle and Kennedy? Fine. We can still work out a custody agreement. I won’t keep them from you–”
“Because I would never let you.”
She sighed. “But there’s no need for us to be married to co-parent. W-we haven’t even consummated our marriage. It’s a sham.”
I glowered at my wife, not saying a word. I let my gaze glide over her smooth brown skin, pinched, heart-shaped lips, down to the vein in her neck that had begun beating wildly since I reminded her of where her words would get her. My cock began to throb painfully in my pants. I took a handful of steps backwards to the door, closing and locking it, all without taking my eyes off of her.
I loosened my tie, completely removing it.
“Don’t,” she warned.