Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman
Chapter Forty-Three
LAURENT
My phone’sbuzzing wakes me up. Rolling away from Bethie, I grab my phone and slide out of bed. Walking out of the room, it takes me a moment for my eyes to adjust to the screen and when I see the name flashing, I quickly slide my thumb across to answer.
“Talk to me,” I demand.
There is a moment of silence, then I hear a heavy sigh. “I’ve been combing over this thing all evening,” Sebastian begins. “Your mother may not be the most business-savvy person I know, but she does realize when to hire an attorney and that man knows how to write a loophole.”
“Just tell me what it is,” I grind out.
Bash chuckles and I’m on the verge of screaming at him, but I don’t. There’s no point to it. This is a creation of my own ineptness and stupidity. I knew better, and I signed those fucking papers anyway, out of pure selfishness, which is why my mother brought it to me in the first place, because she knew that I would sign them without looking too hard.
“What it is, is that you don’t own the building. It’s still very much hers. She has full control over who is inside. When you leave, you can’t sell it.”
“Fine, sounds good to me, less bullshit to deal with,” I snap, even though I’m pissed off because the sale of that building was going to pay for whatever house we buy. My condo doesn’t have enough equity to do shit.
“It’s more than that, Laurent,” he says. I don’t ask him what, because I know that he’s going to tell me. And he does. “You’re bound to operate Astor Investments until she is out of prison.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not only that,” he continues. “If something happens and Astor Investments no longer exists, you are not allowed to work for a competitor.”
“That means I can’t run the Denver office,” I state.
“It means you can’t run the Denver office, and if you were to get married, your spouse can’t work for a competitor either.”
I don’t say anything for a long moment. Mainly because I’m not quite sure what to say. This shouldn’t be a surprise to me, and yet, it is. My mother isn’t stupid, never has been. She’s been a cheat, a liar, a drunk, impulsive, and a million other things, but stupid isn’t one of them. I should have known and I should have expected all of this.
“What does this mean for me? How fucked am I?” I ask.
He doesn’t say anything immediately, so I walk over to the kitchen and open the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water before I make my way over to the door that leads to the balcony area. I don’t go outside, but I do stare at the cityscape in front of me, wondering just how I’m going to get out of this whole fucking mess.
Susan Astor has fucked a member of her family again. Shocker.
“There are options and work-arounds,” Bash says, his voice is low and lingering, then he lets out a sigh. “Put everything in Bethanie’s name, but don’t marry her.”
I didn’t plan on marrying her anyway, and I had every intention of putting our joint things in both of our names, but business? I didn’t even think to commingle that.
“If I can’t work for a competitor, I can’t run LoneSTAR Investment in Denver,” I point out. “My only experience is in investment banking. I don’t even know what I would do otherwise.”
Saying those words out loud makes me feel like a fucking loser, but it’s true. I’ve only ever worked for my daddy. I have no fucking anything to fall back on. Nothing at all and my heart slams against my chest in a panic. I have nothing to provide for my family with.
“We will figure this all out, Laurent. I don’t want you to worry. Astor Investments will go bankrupt. There is a whole clause in that so your mother can deal with the building. It’s better that way, that building is a huge liability empty and very hard to rent at the size it is.”
“And my career?” I ask.
He hums, but he doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he makes me sit there in silence while he thinks about it, or maybe he knows what he’s going to say, but he’s not ready for me to hear it yet. That’s probably more the case since I’m feeling really fucking useless and foolish right about now.
“One step at a time, Laurent.”
“That’s not real fucking reassuring, Bash,” I grind out.
He clears his throat. “Your trust dividends payout would be enough for your living expenses for the rest of your life.”
Shaking my head, I pinch my eyes closed and try not to scream at him because none of this is his fault and all of it is mine.
“Bash,” I rasp. “That’s not something I’m comfortable with.”
“It’s your money, Laurent. Your father has signed off on you getting it a few years early. Nobody is going to give a fuck. He’s in full control and he trusts you.”
My dad shouldn’t trust me. I’ve done absolutely nothing to prove that I’m trustworthy. In fact, all I’ve ever done is prove otherwise. I got Bethie pregnant and we weren’t even together, I ran Astor Investments into the ground, I signed a document that I didn’t fully comprehend, and I’m broke without my trust fund.
“What other options do I have?” I ask.
He clears his throat. “You can put everything in Bethie’s name, including your paycheck. I don’t recommend that though, Laurent. It’s skirting a line that I don’t think you want to skirt.”
Fuck me.
“Thanks, Bash,” I mutter, not sure what to do next.
“Talk to your dad, talk to Bethie, call me back when you decide what you’re going to do. I absolutely would be relieved to have that big ass building off my back, though. Let Susan deal with it.”
Ending the call, I drop my head, resting my forehead against the glass of the door. “Laurent?” Bethie’s voice calls out.
Turning around, I see her standing at the top of the staircase. She’s gorgeous. The way the moonlight hits her light blonde hair, the way her short nightgown just skims the tops of her thighs.
Fucking stunning.
I give her a small smile, then head toward her, setting my empty bottle of water down on a side table as I climb the stairs to get to her. She is wearing an expression of confusion on her face. Her brows are knit together and her lips are pressed tightly.
“It was Bash. He finally went through the contracts with a fine-toothed comb, he wanted to talk to me about it,” I explain.
“And?” she asks.
As much as I want to hide it from her, to tell her that everything is fine and that we’re going to be good. I can’t. She deserves to know everything.
“I fucked up,” I admit.
She shakes her head and lifts her hand, cupping my cheek with her palm. Her eyes search mine and for a moment, I get lost in their depth. Her thumb glides along my bottom lip and she gives me a small smile.
“No you didn’t, Laurent. You trusted your mother, and you thought that you were making a good move for yourself, for your future.”
Closing my eyes, I reopen them slowly, my eyes finding hers again immediately. I’ll need to tell her the details.
“I trusted Susan Astor, and I did it because I was so greedy and selfish, I could only see one thing. Laurent Astor being the boss. My father made it clear I wasn’t ready when I worked for him, but I wanted to be in charge so fucking bad. Now I’m fucked, Bethie.”
“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what is going on,” she says, urging me to come clean.
I’m so fucking embarrassed, and I know that she’ll offer to let me use her name, but I can’t ask her to do that. I’m going to have to come up with another plan, I just don’t know what the fuck that could be yet.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get this taken care of. I’ll meet with Bash and my dad in person tomorrow. I got this. I just want to keep you and Tucker safe here at home. Can you do that for me?”
She eyes me suspiciously but thankfully doesn’t ask me any further questions. We make our way back to bed. I hold her, but I don’t think either of us sleeps the rest of the night. I know that I don’t for sure.
BETHANIE
Laurent leaves for work,giving me a kiss on the cheek and nothing else. I don’t mind, I’m pretending to be asleep anyway. Last night was long, but it was also scary. I don’t know what is going to happen and Laurent isn’t talking to me about it either.
When he leaves, I force myself out of bed and into the shower. I decide I’m going to spend the day organizing and cleaning a bit. Laurent has a service that comes and cleans every week, but I really need something to do while he’s at work all day. Something that will keep my mind off of what is going to happen to us—to him.
Once Tucker is up for the day, I feed him and strap him to my body as I start to clean. He loves being in the baby-wearing contraption and since I’ve been at work, he hasn’t been in it nearly as much as he would probably like.
I’m really getting my clean on, scrubbing the baseboards when there is a knock on the door. I ignore it, knowing that the only person who would even visit me is Tennessee and she’d call because she’s a new mom, too, and knows that you always call before popping up at someone’s house.
There is another knock a few moments later, this time it’s a bit louder. I frown, wondering who it could be? The front desk man usually calls if we have a visitor or a delivery. When there is a third knock, even louder and more urgent feeling, that’s when I walk over and look through the peephole.
Zara.
I don’t know how she even got up here or knew where we lived. Yanking the door open, I narrow my gaze at her. She doesn’t even flinch at my look, which probably means I’m not that scary, which isn’t surprising, because I don’t think I really pull off that bitch-face look, ever.
She doesn’t find me scary in the least. She walks right past me and I blink at the sight of her standing in the entryway.
“Can I help you?” I ask.
Leaving the front door open, I’m not sure if I should stay here or run away. I don’t know what this woman is capable of, all I know is that she was causing some problems with Laurent. She was hitting on him and who knows what else, so he had to let her go.
“Laurent,” she purrs.
The way that she says his name, with that heavy fake-French accent, it makes my skin crawl. Tucker starts to fuss, so I sway my body back and forth as I pat his bottom. The last thing I want to do is take him out of his safe cocoon. I don’t know why, but it feels too personal for this woman to see my son.
“What about him?” I ask.
She places her hand on her stomach and I smirk, lifting my gaze from her belly to her face. I know what she’s trying to imply, but I don’t believe her at all. It’s not that I don’t think that Laurent is capable, I know from the past that he is, it’s just that I know Zara is not his type.
“You need to pack your shit and leave,” she hisses.
I blink, shaking my head once, then clear my throat. “Excuse me?”
She leans forward, her eyes looking beyond wild. “He’s mine. You need to go. There is nothing here for you now. Nothing for you and your bastard kid.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention at her words. I’m not getting into a verbal argument with this woman. She is clearly unhinged.
“I’m just going to …”
Zara takes a step toward me, and I step backward. “I’m going to go,” I whisper.
My heart starts pounding against my chest and I open my mouth to tell her that I’m going to go again when a hand wraps around the front of my throat from behind. It’s not Zara’s hand and it’s not Laurent’s.
Turning my head, I let out a scream, but it dies in my throat. Wrapping my arms around Tucker, I attempt to protect him as well as I can, as everything goes dark.
