One Week to Claim It All

by Adriana Herrera

  “Slow down. I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying.”

  “Sorry,” she said, sucking in a breath as if she’d just come up from being underwater. “I’m just freaking out.”

  He sighed, heart already galloping in his chest from whatever she was about to tell him. Jimena was the single most coolheaded person he knew. Hearing her admit she was freaking out surely meant something really bad was happening.

  “Tell me.”

  “I just got an interesting call from one of my friends who works in the legal counsel office at Global Networks. Word is that Carmelina and her kids have a meeting with Burt Deringer tomorrow.”

  Rodrigo’s hackles went up at the mention of the CEO of the company that had made a previous aggressive attempt to buy Sambrano. He knew Carmelina was callous, but selling out to Deringer was downright evil.

  “She’s selling him her shares,” Jimena said, ominously. Damn the woman and her unstoppable greed. “Apparently Onyx and Perla’s, too.” He felt the surge of anger rise in him like a fireball. Deringer’s previous bid to buy Sambrano was six years earlier, right after Rodrigo had taken over as chief content officer. The money they’d offered had been excessive, but when they presented their plans for the network, Patricio had backed out. They’d intended to gut the programming and take out all cultural nuance. They had no interest in preserving Sambrano’s brand, they just wanted to own everything they could. And now, barely a year after her husband’s death, Carmelina was looking to sell out to the absolute last people Patricio would have wanted in control. “How could she do this?”

  “Because she’s a money-hungry witch?”

  “No, it’s more than that. She’d rather see this place in ruins than let Esmeralda be the face of Sambrano. She hasn’t wasted the chance to remind Esmeralda of that in the past few days. I really thought even if only to save face, she wouldn’t sink to this, but I was wrong.” He shook his head as he paced the small space between Esme’s bed and her desk. The warm and easy feeling from just minutes earlier now transformed into sick dread.

  Jimena sighed again, tongue clicking. “I can’t believe Perla’s going for this.”

  “She’s nowhere near as bad as Onyx,” Rodrigo agreed, “but she’s always let Carmelina steamroll her.” Patricio’s youngest daughter was no match for her mother’s malice. “There are still Esmeralda’s shares, which she can’t touch, but she technically doesn’t need her to sell the rest.”

  “No, she’s got the three votes.” Jimena’s voice was tight with worry as she confirmed what they both knew. Sambrano’s only provision regarding selling shares to an outside party was that three out of the four majority shareholders agreed on the sale. As things stood right now, the shares were equally divided between Carmelina and Patricio’s three children. With Onyx and Perla on their mother’s side, Esme would not be able to stop her father’s widow from essentially selling the company out from under her.

  Rodrigo’s fury rose as he surmised the repercussions of what Carmelina was planning. If she got her way she’d not only get rid of Esme, but would finally get him out of the picture, too. Anger burned in his gut like hot coals. Almost twenty years of this, of Carmelina scheming and destroying because of her fucked-up sense of entitlement over everything Patricio owned.

  Esmeralda at least deserved the chance to have a say in the future of her father’s company. That was something that had never been in question—even if he was determined to keep his job, he had never intended to see Esmeralda cast out. But if Carmelina did this, there was no saving Sambrano. He looked at the door and heard the women on the other side chattering happily and swore to himself he would do whatever it took to stop that woman from pushing Esmeralda out.

  “Wait,” Jimena said, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I just got a really cryptic text from Magdalena. I told her about the meeting with Deringer and she’s been doing some digging around of her own.” The CFO from Sambrano was a straight shooter and if there was anything amiss, she would find it.

  “What did she say?” Rodrigo asked, his focus back on Jimena.

  “She’s asking me to come to her place in an hour,” Jimena said, and Rodrigo could hear her fingers tapping on a keyboard. “She says she called in some favors and she’s got some information about Carmelina’s finances.”

  Rodrigo had heard enough. He stormed out of the room after promising to meet Jimena at Magdalena’s penthouse in an hour. When he stepped into the living room he found Esme smiling as she chatted happily with her mother and aunts. He’d be damned if he let Carmelina try to break this woman again. “I have to go,” he told Esme, who stood up from where she’d been sitting with her mother when he appeared.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, probably noticing the tension coming off of him in waves.

  For a second he considered telling her. Maybe it would be good to let her know what was going on. But then he thought of the blow that would be. To know that Carmelina had not even considered playing fair. That her siblings were colluding with their mother to end Esme’s chances.

  He didn’t want Carmelina’s machinations to mess with Esmeralda more than they already had. Besides, he was still CEO of the company and it was his job to fix this, not Esme’s. No matter how much he wished for them to be able to find a way to continue to spend time together—perhaps even more than that after this was all over—he had a job to do.

  “I’m fine,” he lied, as he leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Something came up that I need to take care of. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”

  She nodded slowly, her face doubtful. She could tell something was up, but she didn’t pry. “Okay, I’m going to try to finish my presentation tonight. Would you be able to take a look at it in the morning?”

  “Sure,” he said distractedly, his mind already racing with all the things he needed to do. Hoping it would be enough to thwart Carmelina and her kids. “I’ll look at it as soon as I get in.” With that he did a round of kisses and apologies for having to take off, and within minutes he was back in the town car. His phone buzzed and his stomach clenched in response when he saw Carmelina Sambrano’s name flashing on the screen.

  “How could you do this?” he growled into the speaker before she got a chance to get a word in.

  “Wow, Rodrigo, you actually do have the ability to emote?”

  He breathed through his nose, trying to manage the consuming anger this woman was inciting in him. “Are you really going to throw away your husband’s life work just so Esmeralda doesn’t have a chance to be the CEO?”

  “I’m not really interested in talking details over the phone, querido, but I do have an offer for you.”

  “Why would you think I’d ever agree to do anything with you?” he asked as rage tore through him.

  “Because I can make sure you can keep your job—and more importantly, that fifty-million-dollar salary you’re always saying you sacrificed so much to get.”

  There it was. He’d known she’d do this. She thought she finally had the thing that would lure him to her side. He felt his back molars grind together at the derision in her voice. Like he hadn’t earned every fucking cent he made. Like it wasn’t a fraction of the money he’d brought in for Sambrano over the years. “Deringer has agreed to keep you on as CEO if you help facilitate the negotiations. With your support behind the sale, the board will be more amenable.”

  All the blood rushed to his head at once and he felt like he was going to be sick. This woman really thought she could just buy him off. That he would betray Patricio, Esmeralda and himself for money.

  Then again, Carmelina didn’t understand loyalty; she didn’t get what it was like to stand by something because you believed in it. She only believed in one thing: herself. She only cared about winning. And that’s where he would beat her at her own game.

  Fifteen

  “Where the hell is he?
” Esmeralda was trying not to panic. But it was now a full eighteen hours since Rodrigo had stormed out of her apartment and had stopped answering her texts.

  She winced, remembering what they’d been up to right before whatever he saw on his phone caused him to take off without an explanation. After he’d left, she’d shut everything out and gotten to work. She’d used the files she’d gotten from Mr. Piera and worked all night on her presentation. She was pleased with what she’d come up with, confident this was a plan the board could get behind. It was bold and it was more ambitious than anything the studio had done in decades, but she believed it was the key to taking Sambrano into the future. Except she had no one to run it by, and Rodrigo was MIA. He’d promised her he’d be here today to give her feedback, but no one had seen or heard from him all morning.

  Maybe he was ignoring her because he was going to let her go into that board meeting and fall on her face. Had she been a fool for thinking that the way he’d been with her mother and aunts meant something? That it would somehow change the fact that he was still hoping she failed? Her phone buzzed and her heart practically came up her throat, but it was just her meditation app reminding her to breathe. She took the excellent advice and focused on letting air in and out of her lungs, and tried to stay grounded in facts, not feelings. She was good at her job, she knew the market, she knew the industry. She knew she was on to something.

  “I don’t need Rodrigo to do this,” she told herself for the hundredth time since she’d gotten in at 8:00 a.m. “I got this,” she said now, feeling stronger.

  “Do you got this? Because it looks to me like your nerves are getting the best of you.” Esmeralda snapped her head up from the slides she’d been reviewing...again, to find Onyx standing in front of her. He looked just as mean as he had at the reception.

  “Why are you here?” She didn’t even try to hide her animosity.

  He sneered at her and lifted a shoulder as if he had all the time in the world. “Oh, just came to check if Rodrigo gave you a heads-up about the meeting with the buyers.”

  “Buyers?” Even though she had no clue what that even meant, her heart still pounded in her chest, apprehension pooling in her stomach. “What are you talking about?” She didn’t know her brother very well, but she did recognize a smug jackass when she saw one. Esmeralda had a feeling that whatever Onyx was here to tell her would almost certainly ruin her day.

  “Oh, he didn’t tell you? He’s on his way to a meeting with Global Networks. They’ve made an offer to buy the studio. He’s going there with my mother.” Bile churned in her stomach as Onyx walked in a little closer, for the last piece of gossip he had to share. Esme braced for it. “They want him to stay on as CEO, so he’s all in.”

  “You’re lying,” she said, even as her mind reeled.

  “Am I?” Onyx asked, showing her rows of perfectly white teeth. “Has anyone even heard from him today?” He was speaking so casually, like they were just chatting about the weather. God, he was cruel. “Mr. Workaholic is usually at his desk at 7:00 a.m. sharp, but no one’s heard from him since yesterday. Ask his assistant.”

  He was right.

  All the wind went out of her lungs at once, the pain of Rodrigo’s betrayal like a knife in her gut. But she would be damned if she let Onyx get the satisfaction of seeing her undone. She quickly regrouped and tried her best to send a withering look toward her brother. She gathered as much strength as she could, even as she reeled from the bomb that he’d had just detonated.

  How could Rodrigo do this? Had he been in cahoots with Carmelina even as he told her that the woman was a snake? Even as he assured her again and again that he would not interfere with her presentation, that he wanted the CEO position only if he got it fair and square? But maybe that was the problem, that he thought Esmeralda didn’t deserve it. Maybe the way he saw it was that she’d sauntered in and tried to claim the position unfairly. And she’d let him distract her with sex and her messiness. He was probably using her unprofessional behavior as an excuse to push her out at this very moment.

  “Get out of my office, Onyx,” she demanded. “Unlike you, I have work to do. If Rodrigo is scheming with your mother then good luck to him. Just two days ago she was telling him he was a nobody, and today she’s doing business with him. Sounds like they deserve each other.”

  With that she turned her attention to the monitor in front of her in an attempt to ignore Onyx’s ugly sneer.

  “I’d start cleaning out my stuff if I were you,” he said in an awful singsong voice.

  “In case you forgot, I still own twenty-five percent of the shares in this company.” To her surprise, the comment seemed to make him even more smug. If that melodramatic laugh was anything to go by anyways.

  “You’re in for all kinds of surprises today,” he gloated maliciously before rushing off.

  Esmeralda felt a sob closing her throat, and she savagely pushed it down. She would be damned if anyone in this place saw her shed a single tear. She had vowed to never cry over Rodrigo Almanzar again. And she would not break that promise to herself today. Esme had really thought her heart was done breaking for that man.

  She’d been so wrong.

  He’d literally left her apartment, after kissing her mother and tías, to go meet with Carmelina Sambrano and concoct a way to push her out. She counted to fifty after Onyx was out of her office before she stood up and hurried to shut the door. Not that it gave her much privacy since all the office walls were made of glass, but at least no one would be able to hear her. She grabbed her phone and quickly dialed the only person she knew who would help her figure out what to do.

  * * *

  “Mami.” She could barely choke the word out at the relief of hearing her mother’s loving and familiar voice.

  “Mija, what’s wrong?”

  Esmeralda let out a shaky breath, relief coursing through her. She could always count on her mother’s unfailing steadiness. Even when nothing else worked, her mother was always there for her. Her rock, the person who always stood by her no matter what. For a time she’d believed that Rodrigo could be that for her, too. But he’d proven again and again that his only loyalties were to himself and to the Sambranos.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on, but Onyx was just here and told me that Rodrigo and Carmelina are meeting with an outside buyer. That he’s working with her to stay on as CEO and get rid of me.” Saying that last part out loud almost broke her. She could not believe she’d trusted him again. Was she so desperate for acceptance that she’d put herself in this position again with a man who had proven to her she was expendable to him? “I can’t believe I let Rodrigo play me again.”

  She was pathetic.

  “Esmeralda, take a breath, mi amor. What are you talking about? What happened?” Her mother’s voice was taut with tension. She hated worrying Ivelisse, but this felt too familiar. Like those times when her mother had reluctantly let Esmeralda go spend time with her father only to see her return in tears after being humiliated by Carmelina’s venomous words.

  “Rodrigo’s going to help Carmelina sell the studio so he can stay on as CEO.”

  Esme squeezed her eyes shut when she heard her mother’s shocked gasp. “Ay, mija. Are you sure? I can’t believe he would do that.”

  “He is, Mami,” she cried, sick to her stomach with regret. “I get that she’s scheming against me, hell, I even expected it.” She fought to keep her voice low. “But to know that Rodrigo is in on it with her... I should’ve known he hadn’t changed.” She scoffed, shaking her head as her belly roiled with nausea and uneasiness. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised. He’s done this to me before.”

  Esme heard her mother suck in a breath, as she sat there steeped in misery. For a moment she wondered if she should just leave. Grab her purse and her laptop and leave these people and their drama behind. “Maybe this is for the best. Maybe I just need to walk away from
all this.”

  “Esmeralda, I’m going to tell you something right now and I need you to understand that I kept this from you because I thought it was for the best.”

  “Mami, what are you talking about?” Esmeralda had never heard her mother sounding so serious. Ivelisse Peña was one of those people who managed to maintain a positive outlook even in the darkest of moments, but right now she sounded subdued. Scared even, and that, more than anything that had occurred in the past hour, terrified Esmeralda.

  “I need to tell you the truth about the reason why your father evicted us from that apartment and why Rodrigo disappeared on you that weekend.”

  Esmeralda felt the skin on her face tighten at her mother’s words, sickening dread roiling in her gut. “He left you because his mother called him and told him what Patricio was doing and he jumped on a plane to come help me.”

  “What?” Esmeralda’s voice sounded distant to her own ears, like she was speaking from somewhere far away. “Why didn’t he tell me that, Mami?”

  “He was so careful back then, Esmeralda. He had so much to lose.” Ivelisse sighed tiredly. “I still don’t know how he managed, but within twenty-four hours that boy found me this apartment, figured out the down payment and had movers coming to the house to pack me up and take our stuff the two blocks down from our old place.” Her mother clicked her tongue, a sound Esme knew she made only when she was thinking hard. “I swore I would never tell you this, but I think it’s important for you to know what you’re up against there.

  “Your father sent me that eviction notice after Carmelina showed him a fake paternity test. One that said you weren’t his.” Her mother’s voice broke as Esmeralda sat there in stunned silence. She knew Carmelina was vicious, but this was monstrous.

  “She did what!” she shouted on the phone, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.