by Claire Adams
Back when we were a team.
“What was that Miss Harte?” the judge asked.
“I said no.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Stella
“The company is rightfully Christian’s,” I said.
“Stella, no, it’s not.”
“Mr. Gunn, you had your opportunity to speak. I have heard you and your pleas, regardless of how you’ve changed your mind. Now, sit down and afford Miss Harte the same courtesy she gave you,” the judge said.
Christian looked incredible. Even though my mind was hazy from the whirlwind of emotions I was experiencing, I couldn’t take my eyes off that suit. It hugged him beautifully in all the places I wanted my body to be, and the white shirt against the navy blue suit made his beautiful eyes stunning. He’d grown into a handsome businessman. One I had almost ruined with my selfishness and self-pity. And I was no longer going to allow him to be selfless.
This was his company, and rightfully so.
“This company has always been Christian’s,” I said. “No, he didn’t sit at my father’s side and watch him work. No, he didn’t travel with him to the office when he was a child, but what child wants to do that anyway? I was weird, and I loved my father, but who cares? Just because you get a degree and take a couple jobs in the health and wellness industry doesn’t make you equipped to run a company. But, my mistake was I thought it did. I thought my personal knowledge of the company coupled with the fact that my father’s blood courses through my veins suddenly made me apt to take over his entire legacy. But, it doesn’t.”
“Stella, don’t.”
“Shut up, Christian,” I said, smirking.
“Motion granted,” the judge said as he eyed Christian carefully.
“Was Christian fit to run a company when it was first given to him? No. I was shocked, stunned, and thought that my father handing him the company meant he somehow thought I wasn't fit to run it. Like I had disappointed him in some way. The moment I heard our former company lawyer read out that Harte To Heart Medical Supplies was going to be given to Christian, I had the last of my father ripped from me.”
I felt tears sting the back of my eyes as I steadied my hip against the desk. This wasn’t going to be pretty, but it needed to be said.
“I was using my father’s company as a way to hang onto him. To keep him alive so I wouldn’t have to deal with the fact he was gone. I lost my father and the only woman I ever considered to be my mother on the same day, and I never stopped to think Christian had lost the same. That he had lost his mother and the only person he had ever considered a father.”
I felt my chest hiccupping and tried to calm myself down. I had to get through this speech. I didn’t know if I was going to see Christian after this, and I needed him to hear me.
To hear what I’d learned in the last couple weeks.
“I started this crusade to get the company back because I thought that giving the company to Christian meant my father trusted him more with the best of him than he did me. I thought this was my father’s way of communicating how much of a disappointment I had become to him, and I wanted to get it back so I could provide myself the opportunity to show that I wasn’t a disappointment. That I could be better. That I could be more than whatever it was I thought he had reduced me to. But, that wasn’t what happened. That wasn’t what he was planning, and it was Christian who brought that to my attention. Your Honor, Christian is a genius. He might have been wading in thick waters there for a moment, but he was made for this business, and my father knew that. But, more importantly, Christian was right earlier. My father had a plan. He knew the company needed both of us, both of our respective knowledge and skill sets, for his company to thrive. It’s why he split his personal stock in the company between the two of us the way he did, and it’s why he gave Christian the company: because he knew if he handed it to me, I wouldn’t hire him on. Because of how our relationship was.”
“So, you agree with Mr. Gunn on that, then?” the judge asked.
“Yes, Your Honor. If there is one thing Christian and I can agree on, it’s the fact that my father was a cryptic son of a bitch.”
“Language, Miss Harte.”
“Sorry, Your Honor. He always had this roundabout way of implementing a plan and then giving you time to digest, figure it out, and grow in the process. We followed his plan accordingly without even realizing it. Until now, that is. Your Honor, Christian influenced the company in a way I had never seen before, even under my father’s control. And he only sat in that seat for two weeks. Imagine what he could do in two months, or two years, or two decades! Imagine the people we could help, the charities that could benefit monetarily. It would be—”
“Miraculous?” Christian asked.
I whipped my gaze over to him, relishing in his voice. For the first time in over a week, he was talking to me. He was addressing me, looking at me, studying me with those eyes that brought me so much warmth and comfort. I locked my gaze with him, never wanting to let it go. Because I knew if I did, there was the risk I’d never get it back.
Not after all I’d done and put him through.
“Miraculous,” I said, grinning. “Your Honor, I want to drop this case.”
“It’s not your case to drop, Miss Harte,” the judge said.
“Then I want to drop the case,” Christian said.
“If you drop the case, the company defaults back to Miss Harte. If the two of you would sit down and listen to what I have to say, I think you are going to enjoy it,” the judge said.
The two of us sat back down into our seats before our eyes finally broke from one another’s. I had no idea what the judge was going to say, but in my book, this company would always be Christian’s. That office would always be his, and those responsibilities would always be done better at his hand.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“My order of this court, I hereby give the company Harte To Heart Medical Supplies over to Christian Gunn as per Charles Harte’s will.” the judge said. “Whatever the two of you choose to do with regard to who runs the company and who doesn’t, that is up to the owner. But as of this court hearing, Harte To Heart Medical Supplies is under Christian Gunn’s ownership.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Christian and I said together.
“Good.” He banged his gavel on his desk before he went to sign the official order, and I saw Christian get up and go to the judge’s desk. I felt a slight pang of disappointment as I watched him walk away from me. Holy hell, he looked incredible in the suit he had bought, and I felt tears crest my eyes before I got up and began to exit the courtroom. I looked back, taking one last look at Christian before I left. One last look to commit him to memory.
I was going to miss him and the relationship we had developed.
I walked out of the courtroom and down the steps of the courthouse before I headed for my car. I would have to make a note to inform Christian that I didn’t know if I was coming back to the company, but I would also have to let him know that he would need to hire a new company lawyer.
It was finally done. The company was back in the hands of the person it needed to be in, and I started to come to grips with the fact that my father was gone. Maybe this was to try and get Christian and I to work things out. Maybe all of this was orchestrated by some man who had some grand plan to bring his two children together.
Or maybe this was the move of a man with wisdom beyond his years who simply knew more than I did.
All I knew was that now, I could start coping with my loss. Now, I could start coping with my grief. With my heartache and my sleepless nights and all the things that spawned the moment I had to pull the plug on my father’s life-support machines.
I panned my gaze over to the courthouse one last time before I gritted my teeth to start my car. I saw Christian come running out, his head darting in every direction. It looked like he was looking for someone, possibly the lawyer I was with.
A part of me deep down
inside hoped he was looking for me.
But, even if he was, I couldn’t face him. Not the way I looked and not after everything I had put him through. He had suffered enough at my hands, and he didn’t need to endure it any longer.
So, I pulled out of the metered parking space and drove off, watching as Christian continued to look around while he faded slowly into the background.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Christian
I saw her walking across the road as I hit the doorway of the courthouse. I wanted to catch up to her. To see how she was doing. To find out what was going on with her and why she wasn’t sleeping. I wanted to talk with her and take her into my arms. To hold her and tell her that I listened and digested every single word she said in that courtroom.
I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, and how I couldn’t get my mind off her even after everything that had happened.
“Christian!”
My lawyer’s voice caught me off guard as I watched Stella cross the road. He had a huge smile on his face and was coming in for a congratulatory hug, but all I wanted to tell him to do was fuck off. If Stella drove away without me getting to talk to her, I wasn’t sure if I could ever forgive myself. I wasn’t sure if she would take my phone calls after ignoring her and I wasn’t sure if she would answer her door if I came knocking.
“You have the company back. The papers are already signed by the judge. All I need to do is officially process them so we can be done with this nightmare,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah, thanks. Thank you so much for all your help,” I said.
“What do you think you’ll do with Stella? If it were up to me, I’d fire her and hire someone better just to stick it to her,” my lawyer said.
“I have no intentions of doing that to her. If she wants to stay, I’ll welcome her with open arms. If she doesn’t, I don’t think anyone could blame her,” I said.
“You know, for a man who just won his company back, you sure as hell don’t look like it,” he said.
“That’s because I don’t feel like I’ve won.”
I turned around to find her. I darted my head in every direction, trying to see where she could have gone. I looked for her swinging cast or her sleek black hair. I looked for those green eyes that might have been watching me from afar.
But, when I caught sight of her car, the only part of it I could see were the taillights before she rounded the corner and disappeared.
“Shit!” I exclaimed.
“Don’t tell me you don’t want the company anymore. Mr. Gunn, I don’t know if I could take it.”
“The company isn’t the issue,” I said. “I’m sorry. Thank you so much for helping me win the business back. Bill me for your time, and send it to my office. But, as the owner of this company again, I have a lot of things I need to address.”
“No, no. I completely understand. Congratulations on your win, Christian,” he said.
“You, too.”
I raced to my car and cranked it up before I whipped out of the parking space. I followed the path I saw Stella’s car take, hoping if I drove far enough, I would see her sitting at a stoplight or something. I turned down every side road searching for her car while I ventured to all the places in town I thought she might go. I pulled into every doctor’s office and every coffee shop. I drove by every bakery and surveyed every park bench I could see from the road. I didn’t know what the hell I expected to find, but I was hoping someone would throw me a bone.
That somehow, she would just be sitting somewhere I could find her.
But, when I didn’t, my mind set itself to autopilot. While I drove down the road, I thought back to the courtroom and all she had said. I thought about how desperate her eyes looked. I recalled the haggard form that had replaced a body she had once stood tall in. The shine in her hair wasn’t from her apple cinnamon conditioner, but from the days she had gone without showering.
I felt my eyes water as I remembered back to some of the things she’d said. How she had called me a genius and told the judge the company grew better under my leadership than it ever did with her father. I recognized that same sparkle in her eye. The last time I’d felt her.
The last time I’d kissed her.
When I came to, I was pulling into Todd’s coffee shop. I sat there and wiped the tears from my eyes before I took a deep breath. I knew the moment I walked in Todd would want to talk about the case, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk about it without telling him everything.
The whole story.
Just as I went to get out of the car, the passenger side door opened. Todd slipped in and thrust a coffee over to me, and I grabbed it without even looking at him. I just kept staring at the entrance to his coffee shop while he kept his gaze trained on me, then he finally decided to break the silence.
“Start from the beginning,” he said.
“I had this speech all planned out for the trial. My lawyer kept reassuring me we would get the company back, and I was out for blood. I was ready to sink my teeth into Stella and not let go until she bled out from her jugular,” I said.
“Well, shit. What the fuck happened?” Todd asked.
“She finally got to the courtroom, and she looked like hell, that’s what happened. Her hair was slightly greasy, and she had on no makeup. Her clothes were wrinkled and her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. She looked like a fucking mess, Todd.”
“Holy hell. She alright?” he asked.
“I have no fucking clue. But, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. And she was alone. No lawyer. No briefcase, no argument, no nothing. It was like she didn’t even come to fight it.”
“Did you give your speech?” he asked.
“Yeah. I told them about how it was her father’s wish for me to have the company, but that I had no intentions of kicking her out unless she wanted to leave. I told the judge how we worked well as a team, and then I provided evidence to my argument.”
“Which was?”
“What started all this was misallocated stocks in the company. There was 10 percent or some shit like that of stocks that were still in Charles’s name. They weren’t given to anyone in his will, and no one could find paperwork on it, so it hung up his entire fucking estate in court,” I said.
“That doesn’t really sound like Stella had much control over the outcome,” he said.
“Had she controlled her anger from the beginning instead of instating a witch hunt, we could’ve tackled it as a team without all this bullshit. But, once it was found, it was out of her hands. At least, that’s what my lawyer told me. But, he advised me to not allow that to soften me. So, I didn’t let it,” I said. “But, I did end up finding paperwork on the stock eventually. It’s not actually allocated to Charles. Not technically.”
“Then whose stock is it?”
“He set it aside for the charities he supported. That’s how he was doing all the donations to them. It’s made me rethink my entire donation strategy for the company,” I said. “He set aside that stock in his name, but in the ‘allocation’ box, it has the list of charities that he splits it evenly with. At the end of every year, he scoops a bit off the top and the company matches the donation. That’s what he’s been doing.”
“Did the judge side with you on that argument?” he asked.
“Yeah, but not before Stella had a chance to speak. I was standing up and telling the judge I was wasting their time. Stella had to go to the bathroom, and for a split second I actually convinced myself that maybe me running the company wasn’t the best scenario for that moment in time,” I said.
“And all because Stella looked like shit?” he asked.
I registered the tone of his voice, and I knew he was getting suspicious. I took a long drink of the coffee before I swallowed it hard, and that’s when Todd let out a heavy sigh.
“Keep going, dude,” he said.
“Stella came back in and interrupted me. She told the judge about how selfish she had been and how she had started her
whole crusade to get the company back because she wasn’t ready to let her father go. She said that taking the company back would be like allowing him to take a few more breaths or something before she let him die, and it killed me to hear her say those words, Todd. She called me a genius and said the company was going to flourish under me better than it ever had under Charles, but all I could think about was the reason why she started it in the first place.”
“Because she missed her dad,” he said.
“Yeah,” I breathed.
“So, the judge signed the company back over to you?” he asked.
“Yep. He executed the whole of Charles Harte’s will right there in court so it couldn’t be overturned. My lawyer’s filing the paperwork as we speak, and come the beginning of next week, the company will default back to me,” I said.
“I’m proud of you, man. I really am. This is what you're supposed to be doing, and I’m glad you’re going to get to continue to do it.”
“Still no chance of convincing you to open your own coffee shop?” I asked.
“Not a fat ass chance,” he said, smirking. “Why? That coffee suck?”
“It’s terrible, dude. The fuck did you give me?” I asked.
“Some shit they had out front. It’s gross,” he said.
“Then why the hell did you bring it to me?”
“I wanted to see if you would keep your mouth shut like always or if you’d finally grown the balls throughout this entire process to speak your mind.”
I could feel his stare on me, and something told me he knew. He knew I was holding something back and he knew it was about Stella. He was just waiting for me to say something.
Waiting for me to grow a pair and be a man.
The man Stella deserved.
“I have to tell you something,” I said.
“Figured you weren’t done. What’s up?”
“Remember when we went surfing and I asked you that question about the stepbrother and stepsister I saw on TV?” I asked.