Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman

Chapter Forty-Four

LAURENT

I haven’t even steppedinto my office building in well over a week. What’s the point? There is no work to do. Today, I need to meet with everyone on my management team and let them know that we’re closing up shop.

This was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do, but I failed. I have to admit it not only to myself, but to them as well. Walking into the building, the first thing that I notice is the absolute silence.

There is nobody around. It’s not unusual to have it this empty at midday. It’s not like we have a lot of foot traffic in here anymore, we aren’t doing anything. It’s odd to have absolutely nobody anywhere in sight though.

I make my way toward my office and that’s when I see him. Like the cockroach he is, Cody is sitting behind my desk as I walk into the room. Thankfully, I don’t have much of anything in this office. All of my personal effects are at home.

“Can I help you?” I ask, hiding my surprise at seeing him.

His lips curve up into a grin. “I want Astor Investments. In order for you to stay out of jail, I’ve decided I want your company.”

I almost laugh.

“You want Astor Investments?” I ask. “Like what? The name? The building? The clientele? Explain.”

“The name and the clientele,” he clarifies.

I almost burst out laughing, but then I think about his demand and I decide if he wants a failing company and to deal with my mother the cunt, then by all means, he can have exactly what he deserves.

“I’m meeting with my attorney in about two hours. I’ll have him draw up the paperwork, see what we can come up with,” I say, probably too quickly.

Cody drowns, then it turns into a grin. “I like that,” he announces. “A lot.”

You can fucking have it, I think to myself. Every goddamn piece of it. He leaves with a smile on his face and I avoid laying off everyone in the building. Picking up my phone, I call Bash.

“You’ll never guess what just happened …” I begin and then I tell him a little bit about Cody and our history and what he just demanded. “So can we do this?” I ask.

There is a moment of silence and I expect him to say, no, that there is something in the contract that prevents me from signing the company over to someone else, but there isn’t.

“I’m going to write my own contract for him, one where he can never come back and demand anything else from you or even try to fuck you over. But Susan owns the name and the building, however, she passed the name over to you and use of the building to you rent free. There is nothing that says it has to stay in your name or your control.”

Ending the call with Bash, I promise to be there for lunch. A lunch meeting is definitely what I need at this point, along with a goddamn cocktail. I can’t help but laugh at my luck.

I don’t know what would possess Cody to attempt to blackmail me into taking my business, but he can fucking have it. He’s a piece of shit and I want absolutely nothing to do with him or his deranged wife. Whatever shit they’re into is on them and I’m cool with it, I just don’t want anything to do with it.

Before heading out to lunch, I do decide to go ahead and meet with my managing team, they need to know what’s coming and I want them to have the opportunity to look for employment elsewhere.

This whole thing with Cody doesn’t get me out of my situation in the slightest, it just gets me out of dealing with my mother, nothing else. I’m still broke as fuck, I still have zero assets and I still don’t know what I’m going to do for a career.

But Cody being forced to deal with my mother in any capacity makes me smile. Those two are probably going to be best goddamn friends, they’re one and the same.

My top managers arrive a few minutes after I place phone calls to them. I have to do it all myself because I haven’t replaced Zara, but also, I want to. Something like this needs to be personal.

So personal.

They arrive a few moments later and I can tell by the looks on their faces that they’re expecting what I tell them. It’s a short and painless meeting, but I feel really fucking bad for failing. I didn’t want to put anyone else in the situation that I’ve put myself in.

“If anyone would like to relocate to Denver, Colorado, there may be an opportunity there. I can’t talk about it yet, but it looks very promising,” I offer as they’re leaving.

One of the men who has been here since my dad brought me on right out of college stays behind. “Steve?” I ask.

He nods his head a couple of times, then clears his throat. “Wherever you go, I want in,” he says.

“Steve?”

He grins. “You and your father are golden, Laurent. I stayed on at Astor thinking it would be job security, but I saw what happened, and I know how it happened.”

Arching a brow, I don’t give him anything, but I want to know what he thinks.

“Your mother and father’s divorce got ugly, and I know that you were just trying to keep this place afloat. It’s hard to go through something like that, but I think teaming up with your father in Colorado is exactly where you need to be.”

“How’d you know?” I ask.

He chuckles. “This industry talks, a lot. I heard your father was starting up a new office in Denver, didn’t take much to connect the dots.”

I let out a sigh of relief. His explanation is enough that I don’t think my mother could possibly know anything yet. He’s right, this industry talks and it would be the talk of the town that my father was opening a second office in Colorado. I would have known about it sooner had I not been so invested in this Cody, stalker, Zara, and Bethie situation.

“You absolutely can join me, Steve. You’re amazing at what you do and I would be proud to bring you aboard.”

He grins and thanks me before dipping out of the room. I sit behind my desk and look around a bit. I wonder how on earth this has become my life? How did this even happen? And then I realize that there is no way possible we can plan for the future.

I thought that my future was always safe. That this was something that I would do the rest of my life. That I would work for my dad, then just take over when he retired.

I couldn’t have known my parents would get a divorce, that he would remarry, that I would have my own family, and that my mom would create that goddamn clause where I can’t compete and leave.

Life isn’t something you can plan, but it’s not something that just happens to you either. You make decisions that impact your future without even realizing it until it’s already done. That’s what has happened with me—with us.

And even though I’m broke right now, I wouldn’t change a goddamn thing. I have a beautiful woman at home, she’s willing to love me without demanding more than I can give her. I have a son that I never thought I wanted and can’t imagine my life without. I have my father and my entire family, all of which I love and appreciate every day.

Yeah. Life is good.

Even if I’m broke.

BETHANIE

My eyesopen and I’m suddenly filled with panic. It consumes me and I wrap my arms around myself to feel for Tucker. He lets out a whimper and I look down to see that he’s still there. Then I look around the room and I nod my head.

Okay. I’m in his nursery. I can deal with that.

Unwrapping him from his carrier, I try to stand, but I can’t. My legs are completely and totally jelly. Lying Tucker down on the floor, I scoot over to his changing table and grab a new diaper and the wipes. He’s starting to fuss and I know that he needs to be changed and fed.

Right now, my body is moving off of instinct alone and nothing else. I don’t know what else to do. My hands are shaky and I can feel my legs, but I can’t move them very well.

I decide that all I can do is focus on Tucker. I need to compartmentalize exactly what is going on and right now, all I can do is ensure that Tucker is safe. I don’t know how I got up to the nursery, but I know right now that I can’t get out.

There is no way I can get down the stairs, not even if I tried to crawl. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is Tucker. I have full faith and hope that Laurent will be home soon and he’ll fix all of this.

That’s what I tell myself over and over again.

Once Tucker is changed and fed, I can feel my legs a little more. I’m still not able to stand, but I can walk on my knees to the crib and I lie him down. Thankfully, I think he’s just as exhausted as I am and he falls asleep almost immediately.

Looking around the room, I try to come up with a plan. With Tucker asleep and safe, I can finally start thinking about what to do next. My excitement is thwarted when the door flies open and the strange man is standing there. The man that has been stalking me and showing up randomly.

The same man that has been threatening to rape me. I knew something was going to happen, I just knew this wasn’t going to go away, even with the police involved. I just knew and now it’s here.

“I told you that your time was up,” he announces.

Clenching my teeth together, I watch him as he stands in the doorway and just watches me. He doesn’t say anything right away, and I’m terrified to speak.

I don’t know what is going through his mind and it’s clear that whatever he’s thinking cannot be easily read. His eyes are darting all over the room and he is wearing an odd half-smile-smirk-grin look. I don’t know what it is, what it means, or what’s next, but I don’t like it at all.

It was really easy to say that he could do whatever he wanted and that I was going to live my life the way that I wanted to when he wasn’t standing right in front of me ready and able to do whatever he wants.

“I don’t have the complete go-ahead yet,” he announces as if he’s talking to someone else in the room too, like he’s going through things in his mind or with another person.

His gaze flicks down to me and he grins again. “Those drugs sure do work. I think I’ll give you more when the time comes.”

When. The. Time. Comes.

I shiver from disgust at his words. He can shove his time up his ass. He’s not going to give me shit. I’m going to fight him until I die. There is no taking anything, not from him, not from anyone. I’m going to go down protecting myself and Tucker, if it’s the last thing that I do.

“What are you doing?” a woman’s voice snaps.

The man’s spine straightens and he turns his head. I see Zara standing behind him, her eyes narrowed. She is definitely not the same woman she was the day that I met her for the first time in Laurent’s office. She attempted to come off as shy and quiet, but that’s not her at all. It’s all been a game, one that I’m positive Susan orchestrated from the very beginning.

“Laurent fucked up,” Zara announces as she pushes past the man and into the room.

Her gaze shifts from me to the crib. I watch her upper lip curl into a snarl at the sight of Tucker, then she flicks her eyes down her nose at me. I want nothing more than to knock that snarl off of her face. Tucker is beautiful and the fact that she has even dared to give him a dirty look causes my hackles to rise to attention.

“Did he?” I ask, attempting to find my false bravado.

She crosses her arms just beneath her chest and pushes her boobs up. I don’t know if she’s trying to impress me, but I don’t really care. I can’t even stand, so there’s not going to be a face-to-face match off or anything at this point.

“He was supposed to be with me. I am the one who is going to save him and his company. Not you. All you’ve done is ruin his life. Look at him. He’s broke, he has no future, and now he’s got your bastard kid to worry about. He won’t leave you because he’s Landry’s son. As much of Susan that is in him, there are equal parts of Landry.”

I don’t tell her that there is more of Landry inside of him than Susan. In fact, I don’t see any of Susan at all in Laurent when I look at him, nothing.

But I don’t say a word.

There’s no reason to.

I just want all of this shit to be done. Whatever it is they’re going to try and do, I want them to just try so that I can fight them off and we can end this stupid shit once and for all.

“Susan knows what’s happened and she’s not happy. But don’t worry, Bethie,” she sneers. “Peter will make sure you’re nice and taken care of.” When she says that name, the man standing behind her, his eyes light up and I know that must be him. The fucker.