“Either way, you are fucked.” Max declares, chuckling to himself as he gets up to go back to the front of the plane.
He probably knows I need to be alone right now. To stew in my own problems.
“Thanks man.” He knows for what.
When he leaves, I think back to the night in my penthouse with her. What I told her was true, my word is my bond.
I gave my grandfather my word that I would find this girl and that I would help her.
But I lied to her.
That knowledge doesn’t sit well within me and I don’t know why. I mean, I don’t owe this girl anything.
But I feel like she is owed all the time she lost over the years, trying to survive in this dog eat dog world. Fighting not for relevancy, but for revenge. It seems that’s all she has been living for all these years.
I was supposed to be back in New York last night but some last-minute meeting was thrust upon me out of nowhere.
But even then, all I could think about was her.
I can’t wait to see her. Even though she might act like she despises me, I know she feels the same craziness between us, as I do.
I know I have to come clean one day, but for now, I just want to stay in her presence.
She unknowingly provides a soft, respite for me. She calms my mind like no one else can. Then she can also light my fuse so fast, it’s unbelievable.
She is beauty and brains personified. She has power in her stride and the weight of death over her shoulders. One thing I know is she will raise hell.
I just hope she doesn’t burn me, yet I think I’ll be the one most affected.
Maybe that’s my reward for lying to her, roping her into this.
But I won’t ever regret it. I would do it all over again, just to have those eyes looking at me with all the emotions swirling within them.
I want to see her with her real eyes.
I want a lot of things but one thing I know is that mentioning that about her, will be the end of the beginning.
I can’t afford that. Everything else I can sacrifice.
Just not her.
Chapter 13
Chloe
IT’S BEEN A WEEK SINCE Stefan Demetri went to D.C and now he is back. It’s Saturday today Gideon still hasn’t contacted me, it’s almost as if time never really moves forward, yet it’s sprinting ahead whenever you are not looking.
Oh, and I’m at the office. On a Saturday.
Running around like a headless chicken, working for a man who I despise with my entire being. But, something about this week was different.
The way Stefan was acting, the way he was constantly frazzled, now that had my interest piqued.
I remember the cryptic call he had with someone when he came back from D.C. Something about a deal that might just ‘come back to bite them in the ass.’
In essence, there is some digging going on from the feds and it seems like the search is hitting close to Stefan’s dealings and so he called someone and threatened their life. Ordering whoever it was to fix it or else everything he has ‘worked’ for would come crashing down.
He was really stressed out and is even more so now.
I still don’t know who he was talking to or what he was referring to but something tells me that whatever it is, it must somehow connect to Gideon. Or Black House Inc.
What other deal is there that Stefan might have made that will potentially come back to destroy him? Potentially speaking, there could be many like that, but I have a sinking feeling this is related to Black House Inc.
He was really passionate in his loud rant, telling the person on the other end that he will ‘have their head’ if something surfaces.
I don’t have all the details, hell, I don’t even have proof.
All I have is a gut instinct. Demetri has been nastier to everyone this week, since he came back from D.C, including toward the many women that he usually likes.
This week he had me turn them away when they came to see him. Claiming he was busy and didn’t want to be disturbed.
When it was his wife, he would tell me to tell her that he isn’t in his office. But I think poor Mrs. Demetri knew I was lying.
There is something sad about the woman. As if she regrets marrying the man who constantly oppresses and embarrasses her, parading his many mistresses around her.
Then he turns around and demands that she not do anything to embarrass him. I hate telling her these lies whenever she comes around looking for him. Why does she even bother though?
Apparently. Mrs. Demetri is now required to call from the lobby before being admitted to the Executive floor.
This time, I decide to go downstairs myself.
I see her by the waiting area, looking out the windows to the streets of New York City beyond, vibrating with life.
Yet the look in her eye was just, dead. Unfocused and maybe a bit wistful. I can only imagine what this woman has been through, especially married to a man like Stefan Demetri.
She is dressed in the finest, designer threads as always. Her blond tresses swept into an elegant updo as if she just came from the stylist.
She is wearing the latest shoes from Christian Louboutin and I feel a tad bit of envy.
I love shoes. Sue me!
She is wearing expensive jewels, including a bracelet that blinds me as I walk towards her, glittering from the sun rays coming through the large windows.
She seems preoccupied, unaware of the world around her as she stands there, with her quality clothes.
She looks like a lone island, alone with herself. With her trouble and pains.
I guess it all goes to show that money doesn’t buy happiness. Sometimes, it only destroys morality and the beauty of life.
In her case, I think it has taken much more of her than anyone would know. The pain of the soul. I know all about it. I might not be going through whatever she is going through, but I can feel the palpable air of pain and hurt around her.
“Excuse me Mrs. Demetri.” I say as I come to a stop behind her.
I’m suddenly a witness to myself as I watch her compose herself.
She straightens her neck and I imagine her slipping on a mask over her face.
I also know what that feels like.
She turns around and gives me a soft, sad smile. But it doesn’t quiver, nor is it crooked. She is perfect and flawless with her public mannerisms.
“Hello dear. What brings you down, is he coming down?” she asks with no trace of emotion anywhere.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Demetri just came back from a very important meeting and has another one coming.” I explain sympathetically, knowing all too well that I’m lying to her.
From the way she takes in my words, it seems she knew what I was going to say.
She was expecting it. Her light brown eyes are not as bright as they once were when the two married almost eight years ago.
I met her on my first day here and I remember having mixed feelings about her.
On one hand, she never mistreated me the way her husband does and on the other she is still his wife. Any Demetri to me is poison. But this woman seems to be suffering her own personal hell.
See, Sofia Alez Demetri is not as old as Stefan. She is in her early thirties looking as if she is my age with her slender, athletic build, while Stefan is in his early fifties.
But she seems older somehow, as if she is being beaten down by life. Or more accurately by that scumbag.
“Oh alright. I just wanted to talk to him about something.” she softly says. “He is hardly home and I never get the chance to talk to him” I think she knows, that I’m aware of the infidelity.
“Would you like me to give him a message. I think he will call you back.” I offer, knowing damn well the deluded man upstairs would not do such a thing.
“You know what,” She sighs heavily, as she looks around the scarce lobby, it’s a weekend after all. I’m only here under duress, “you don’t have to tell him anything. Don’t tell hi
m I came here please. Unless you have already” her sudden change in appearance shocks me and I wonder what must be going on in her mind or what new idea just came to her.
To my horror, I spot a tear leaking from the corner of her left eye. Just one, but she doesn’t seem to notice nor is she bothered. I don’t know what to do with crying females! What should I do?
“Why don’t you just divorce him?” I blurt out.
The words are out my mouth before I can stop them. I slap a hand over my open mouth, shocked at my own audacity.
I’m usually very good at being impersonal and keeping to myself.
Sofia looks down at me, since she is taller than me with her model type of body and she seems shocked at my words as well.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.”
Well I did, just not out loud.
“It’s okay Chloe. Most days I even scream at myself to do just that.”
Her shoulders drop instantly, as if finally showing her burdens.
She sighs and more tears leak out from her left eye. She turns and takes a seat on one of the lobby couches and pats the spot next to her, inviting me to seat.
When I do, she looks at me head on.
“I know what you must be thinking, that I’m staying with him because of the money. I won’t lie. His influence in and around the city monetary wise is what drew me to him in the first place.” she sighs, as if now thrown back into the past, reliving the scenes that only she is the star of, but is now the audience.
“I didn’t know then what I know now. I hadn’t experienced the pain that I am prone to every single day now.”
Her voice is wistful and sad and I feel for her.
I mean, I don’t know her that well and honestly, I don’t think I should be talking to her at all, about anything other than what I was told to tell her.
To ask her to leave her husband’s office building.
“If you don’t mind me asking Mrs. Demetri...” she cuts me off.
“Sofia, please. You have no idea how I hate being referred to by that name. It makes my skin crawl.”
“I understand. Sofia, if you know all of that now, why are you still with him? Why do you stay?” I ask, really curious.
Why do we hold on to things that hurt us?
The longer we tighten our grip on it, the more bruising and scaring we get.
Sometimes, somethings in our lives don’t want to be kept. You could even get super glue to hold a person in one place, to keep them with you, but that too would never stop them from leaving.
“Because I love him.”
I look at her like she has lost her mind.
I wonder if she is kidding but the expression on her face is still serious, though a bit sad.
“You love him?” I repeat just to get clarification.
Maybe I shouldn’t have come down here.
I should have just told Pam at reception to relay the message from her husband. Now I’m going to dislike her just because of her preference in asshole kind of men.
In men who kill other people. I wonder if she knows about that.
“Well that’s the reason why I married him to begin with. Now though, I don’t think I can carry on. At the time I didn’t know how... evil he is. A vile man who does despicable things.”
Her voice is dripping with disgust, horror fills her eyes and I wonder again, what she knows.
What has she seen over the years? I desperately want to ask her but I know that would be a step in the wrong direction.
“Do you two have children?”
To the best of my extensive knowledge of my boss, I know he has a van full of children, just not with Sofia.
“Urgh, that’s another reason why he doesn’t want to be with me. It seems like I missed my window of opportunity when it comes to fertility”
Out of all of the things she said since we started talking, this admission seems to crush her the most.
The brokenness I witness on her face not only makes her slender shoulders shake a bit, but it also makes me feel her pain.
This isn’t something strangers should be witnessing from other strangers. I don’t know this woman that much, yet I feel her anguish so acutely as if it were mine.
Here we have two women in different stages of their lives. One grew up with everything. Loving parents, a social lifestyle with many friends and the joys of having connections.
But the one thing she wants out of life is to be a mother, and it seems like she can’t have that.
Then there is the other woman. Her anguish engraved in the grief of losing her parents at a young age, going about life, meandering in the dark.
The only focus and aim she has in mind, is to get vengeance for a mother and father she longs for with her entire being.
The perils of life are a lot more far reaching than we realize.
We carry pain much similar to the next person regardless of who they are.
Pain is a strange company keeper, it brings the oddest people together.
And wow, here we are. I don’t know much about pregnancy and fertility woes but what I do know is that she is not alone in her pain.
We are more connected as humans, as women, than we realize.
“I’m sorry to hear that” but sorry doesn’t do anything, I understand that more than anyone, “but I need you to hear what I’m about to say. How you take this is totally up to you.”
I would have reached for her hand like what Sam does when she is comforting me or hug her the way Margaret, Sam’s mother, does, but I don’t. Another step in the wrong direction.
“There are no guarantees in life. Sometimes things don’t work out and I hate to break it to you, but time is moving along, and you are still young. Fight for yourself.”
I stand up because really, I have to get back to work and have no idea who is watching me talk to the boss’ wife.
She stands with me when she notices that I have to go.
“But most importantly Sofia, fight back. Just remember all the pain you have been through. Fight back.” I urge her.
I have no idea how she will receive my words. I don’t know if she will tell her husband about our nice little chat, but I hope, for her sake, that she comes out of this.
Comes out as the victor of this nightmare.
I turn around to head back to the elevator bank when she softly calls my name.
I turn back and I see her.
With tears rolling down her face, her flawless makeup getting ruined in the process, no doubt her heart is beating fast and aching at the same; she looks at me with a kind of fire in her eyes I have never seen before.
She slightly nods her head in my direction, with her regal poise back intact, and utters two words that I think change her life.
“I will.” Her voice is clear and strong despite her obvious pain.
I see myself once again.
I really hope she will, for her sake.
I nod my head to her, give her a small smile and head on back to my hell of a job.
On my way up, I glance at my phone and notice I have one missed call from Gideon made a few minutes ago.
The nerve of him. I won’t call him back. He can stew for all I care.
When I get back to my office, I switch off my phone and stuff it in my handbag and focus on the tasks I was given by my yelling boss, with hostility in his eyes.
What else is new?
Chapter 14
Chloe
I FINISH WORK A LITTLE after three in the afternoon. It’s a weekend and the streets of New York are flooded with people. The Big Apple is a dazzling cornucopia of things to see and do, so it’s not surprising to see how alive and active this city is.
I spot trendy shopping bags from retail stores. I take in the tantalizing smells infused in the air, making my mouth water and reminding me that I haven’t eaten yet.
Though there is still a little chill in the air and spring is almost here, the streets are lively.
With the flood o
f taxis on the streets and daring pedestrians that cross them. I love this city, but I only came here for one thing. And one thing only.
When I step out the front doors, I spot the suits immediately, standing beside an all too familiar car that I have grown used to but haven’t quite accepted yet.
Moving around in that car makes me feel, odd. I’m not rich and I sure as hell am not connected to rich people, yet here I am, going down the steps to the waiting car.
I remember the day Gideon told me about the security detail he placed on me. That day I tried to ditch them by going out the back and running down the street, but somehow, they caught up with me.
The black SUV had been following from a distance and when I finally stopped, they stopped too and asked if I was ready to get in the car. The audacity!
It was clear from that moment, they were not going anywhere. And now, I have two good friends. Fred and John.
I was surprised to hear that they have been working as security detail for Black House Inc for years now.
They even told me that their boss, Gideon, was a great boss. To which I just snorted and they laughed along with me.
“Seriously though Miss...” I groan at the miss and Fred chuckles again, “Uh Chloe. Mr. Black is a great boss it’s just that he took over his father’s role much earlier than he anticipated. Only to be hit by a tidal wave so big, he had no choice but to face it head on, though no doubt, the effects knocked him a few.” John explains..
I suddenly look back and I see him. The sternness and strict degree at which he holds himself. The way his eyes are so worldly, like he has seen a lot at a young age. As if he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. I would know all about that.
This week, I discovered that it’s the weight of the company that he carries on his shoulders. There must be some other underlying issues too, but I guess we’ll never really know. Most likely, some personal issue. Nothing affects us as people than [personal affairs and matters of the heart. It’s actually annoying.
I don’t know much about his family, what I do know from my research is that Gideon took after his father, who in turn took after his own father before him making it a family business.
The Billion Dollar Plan: Incongruity Series Book 1 Page 10