Nate shoved his hands into his pockets. “I was having lunch with a friend, who has a business partner who was speaking with Peter.”
Vince couldn’t unclench his teeth to say anything.
“He told me that there’s another company, a start-up who have a similar product. They’ve been in talks with several cities to launch a pilot project to prove their facilities can convert pet waste into energy. I’ve heard that Simon has sent out feelers to them. If you don’t lock him down now, not only will you not sell GreenPro, you’ll lose the edge on the industry. Simon will take that company public and you’ll get left behind.”
All of the potential he saw for GreenPro to make an impact would be lost.
“Shit.” Vince was never one to succumb to the pressure of a deal gone wrong. He’d learned to fight his way through the problems, and more often than not, he’d come out on top. But time was against him, as was Simon Berry. If he didn’t move quickly, then everything he’d put into GreenPro would be lost. “I need to get him on the phone.”
“I agree. But you also need to deal with Marissa.”
“She’s at her mom’s place. I’m sure she’ll be fine there and no one will bug her.”
Nate shook his head. “Fine. I’ll leave you to it.”
But as he left, Vince got the impression that Nate didn’t believe him. Well, fuck him. Marissa had problems, but together they’d work it out. He’d help her as soon as he dealt with Simon.
He took a breath, picked up the phone and prayed he’d be able to pull this off.
* * * *
The coffee mug was warm between Marissa’s hands. Unlike the sinfully amazing coffee she’d had at Vince’s this morning, she was currently drinking the hours-old, grocery store brand coffee her mom favored. There was something disconcerting about sitting at the kitchen table while her mom hummed as she made cookies. Sure, she was at a safe place, and she loved her mom more than anything, but this small apartment wasn’t home.
Her mom had sold the house she’d grown up in a few years back, when it was clear Marissa had finally moved out for good, and moved here. It was perfect for her, close to work and transit, and small enough for her to manage on her own.
Marissa would love to have a place like this, but it was becoming more and more unlikely the longer her financial troubles continued. Maybe she could convince Vince to let her move in with him. It wasn’t as though he didn’t have the room. Yeah right. Despite what had passed between them last night, she knew that the disparity in their background would make any sort of real relationship difficult at best.
No, she’d have to be prepared to walk away from Vince. Even if she was now beginning to think it would break her heart.
“That’s some serious thinking you’re doing over there.” Her mom came over to the table with a plate full of still-warm chocolate chip cookies. “These will help.”
“Thanks.”
“So, what’s going on? And don’t say nothing because you don’t show up here on a Tuesday morning. Ever.”
Shit, she was going to have to ask Naomi for today’s notes. “I didn’t want to bother you with everything.”
Her mom shook her head as she reached out and covered Marissa’s hand with hers. “Baby, I’ve tried to tell you this before. You’re never a bother. I know you’ve had problems in the past, but we worked through them together. Whatever is going on, we’ll get through this too.”
It was strange how a few choice words from someone who loved her could slip silently through all the emotional barriers that Marissa had erected. Tears blurred her vision, before the sob popped from her. She couldn’t hold the tide back, and instead let it slam into her. Marissa put her head on the table and cried.
“Oh baby. Oh my God, what’s wrong?” Her mom stroked the back of her head and pressed kisses to her hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
“No, I don’t think it will be Mom.”
“Look at me.” She waited until Marissa complied before reaching over to wipe at her tears. “You can’t take the weight of the world on by yourself. No one can. You need to share the burden, even if I can’t do much to help practically, I can at least be here for you.”
For the past three years Marissa had done her best to keep her problems from her mom. Not because she thought her mom wouldn’t be supportive, but because she’d wanted so desperately to prove to herself that she could handle everything herself. The pain had grown hard, like a ball of lead that lived in a corner of her chest. The more she’d avoided talking to her mom, the more that weight had grown.
Marissa sat up, wiped her face, and took a cookie from the plate. “I’m in financial trouble.”
“You mentioned that you needed money for your meal card. I was wondering what was going on.”
“Andrew. Andrew is what was going on.” She took a deep breath and let the words she’d been holding back come spilling forward.
The look of concern on her mom’s face morphed to horror, then fury by the time Marissa had told her everything that had been going on for the last six months. “I spoke with Shelia on my way over here. She’s getting everything cleaned up, but because of the sheer number of things she has in her house, the process is going to take far longer than normal. I’m going to have to find a place to live in the meantime.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me what he’d done? I could have helped you. God, Marissa, I gave him your new phone number.”
“I know. But I also know that you don’t have extra money yourself. And don’t try and tell me that you do. You work hard enough to pay for your own things. I know you don’t have extra for me.”
“That’s my decision to make. Not yours.”
“Mom—”
“Don’t mom me. You made assumptions about me. You’re my daughter, my only one. Knowing that you were hurting, struggling and you didn’t feel you could come to me for help…” It was now her mom’s turn to wipe tears from her face. “That kills me, baby.”
Marissa moved her chair across the floor so she now sat beside her mom. “I’m so sorry. But I didn’t want to be a burden to you anymore. I was so much trouble to you when I was younger, and you never really liked Andrew to begin with. I didn’t want my bad judgment to cause you problems.”
“Your problems will always be my problems. That’s probably not the healthiest mentality for me to have, but that’s how I’m built.”
“Well, I thought I’d come up with a solution and that I wouldn’t have to tell you any of this.” She shoved the last of her cookie into her mouth, immediately regretting what she’d said. Because there was only one logical response to what she’d said.
Her mom frowned. “What did you do?”
Yup. And now, Marissa was going to have to tell her. She shifted, wanting to move away, but knowing there was no point. The truth would have to come out one way or the other. “So, there’s this website.”
“Marissa, what did you do?”
She closed her eyes. “I signed up for a sugar daddy site. But only millionaires. Though Vince is a multimillionaire, practically a billionaire, and he gets all particular when I don’t say that correctly. My friend Naomi was the one who got me on it because she’s there too and it’s not even all about sex. So yeah.”
When she opened her eyes, her heart sank at the look of horror on her mom’s face. “You’re prostituting yourself.”
“No. Vince in fact didn’t want anything from me other than to go on some work dates with him. He didn’t want a relationship, but he needed some arm candy.” She shrugged. “He bought me some dresses. And what’s wrong with that? We’re both consenting adults who negotiated exactly what we wanted from the arrangement before we did anything.”
Well, mostly. Things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan since they’d come back from New York.
Her mom stood up. “I need to go for a walk.”
The little flicker of hope that she’d accept what Marissa had chosen to do was snuffed out. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I just…” She grabbed her sweater. “I’ll be back.”
Marissa sat alone in her mom’s apartment, staring after the closed door. Her mom hadn’t taken her purse, which meant she wouldn’t be gone for long. Marissa had always known she was a crap daughter, but this certainly confirmed things. In the span of half an hour, she’d made her mom cry, feel as though she wasn’t wanted, and be horrified by her actions. Wonderful.
The kitchen counters were covered with the dirty bowls her mom had used for baking. It would give her something to do while she waited for her mom to come back. She filled the sink with hot water and soap, enjoying the way the bubbles filled the sink and scent of fake lemon filled the space around her. She’d gotten through most of the bowls when there was a knock on the door.
Marissa wiped her hands on the dish towel and went over to the door. She opened it without looking through the peep hole, or else she wouldn’t have gone near it.
There, standing as smugly handsome as ever, was Andrew.
“Hey, baby. I think we need to talk.”
Chapter 21
Marissa wanted to puke. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I missed you.” He shifted his foot so it was now against the doorjamb, preventing her from closing it. She tried anyway, slamming it as hard as she could. “Shit, stop that. I’m serious, I just want to talk.”
“Fuck you. You’ve ruined my life.”
“What? I’ve done nothing.”
“That’s exactly the point, Andrew. You haven’t paid any of your bills. I have debt collectors chasing me down at home and where I work. I’ve had to change my phone number because they won’t leave me alone.” She tried to close the door again, but this time he caught it with his hand. “Get out.”
“I promise I will as soon as we talk.” His brown hair had been cut recently, giving him a GQ look. His day-old scruff looked as though he’d simply forgotten to shave, but she knew the effort he put into his appearance. She should have been prepared for the pleading look he’d perfected, but it caught her off guard. “Please.”
This was a horrible idea. But then, she seemed to be full of those these days. “Five minutes. Mom will be back soon and if she finds you here she’ll call the cops.”
“I’ll be long gone before that happens.”
Marissa didn’t immediately move. Stupid, horrible idea. He’s fucked you over and now he’s going to try and talk himself out of it. She backed up, letting him into the apartment, at the same time she grabbed the baking timer from the counter and turned the dial. “I’m serious. Five minutes. Starting now.”
If Andrew felt the time pressure, he certainly didn’t show it. He came into the apartment, and made a beeline for the cookie plate. “God, I have to say I’ve missed your mom’s baking since we’ve broken up. My mom doesn’t cook and the store-bought stuff isn’t anywhere near as good.”
“Four minutes, twenty seconds.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about you since we parted ways. I mean, we were together for five years. That’s not exactly an insignificant period of time. I’ll be doing something and think, hey, Marissa would love this. And then I remember that we’re not together and get sad.”
Coming from anyone else, the words might have come across as sincere. But it was hard to buy what he was selling when he was eating a cookie and smirking at her. “You’re the one who left me, even though I told you I wasn’t cheating on you. You didn’t believe me. That’s not my fault. It’s yours, and I’m not going to accept even the suggestion of blame from you.”
“You’re right, I didn’t believe you. Not at first. And for that I’m sorry.” Andrew had an annoying habit of saying the right words, without appearing to mean them.
“You’re sorry?” She got to her feet as she threw the dishcloth at him. “You’re fucking sorry? You’ve ruined my credit. I can’t afford to cover all these debts that you racked up with your business. I never even wanted to co-sign those papers, but I thought we were going to be together forever and that this was an investment in our future.” She didn’t want to cry in front of him, but she couldn’t stop the angry tears from falling. “Three minutes.”
“You have a student loan and your mom won’t let you starve. I knew you’d be okay.” Andrew also got to his feet, taking another cookie. “I especially know you’ll be okay now that you’re fucking that rich asshole.”
Marissa’s world bottomed out on her. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play coy. I heard all about your rich boyfriend who took you home and punched my friend.”
She wanted to throw up. She’d worked so hard to move on from him, and her relationship with Vince—while not exactly what she’d initially set out to achieve—had been a wonderful bonus, a positive change she’d needed more than anything. That Andrew knew she was now spending time with Vince somehow tainted what she’d hoped to build with him.
Doing her best to relax and stay calm, Marissa cleared her throat. “How did you find out?”
“It was the strangest thing. Some guy called me out of the blue a few weeks back. Don’t even know where he got my number.” Andrew’s smirk had her skin crawling. “He told me you were banging some sugar daddy, getting all sorts of cash from him.”
“Oh God.” There was only one person she suspected would throw both her and Vince under the proverbial bus that way—Geoff. “What I do with my life now is none of your business.”
“I wouldn’t dream of stepping on your new man’s toes.” His lips pursed and eyes narrowed. “Who you fuck is up to you now.”
“Then why are you here?” When he didn’t say anything else, Marissa shifted impatiently. “Andrew?”
“I couldn’t figure out why he looked so familiar when I saw a picture of him. Then it hit me. I had the DVR and checked and I was right. He’s that prick from the show you never let me delete. You must have shit yourself when you saw the chance to screw him. And it turns out that the paparazzi are really interested in this guy when I called them.”
Marissa swallowed hard. Why would Geoff do this to them? Vince had done everything to make him happy, to sell his company to the person Geoff wanted. None of this made sense. “One minute.”
“Then I’ll make this quick.” He got right in her face and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her. “You were mine. You like to play all innocent that you hadn’t done anything wrong, but that’s a lie too. Five years we were together and you just moved on. Naw, you’re out for his money.”
“I’m not—”
“I want his money too.” His leaned in so close she thought he might kiss her. “If you don’t get me fifty thousand dollars from your boyfriend, then I’m going to go to the media with all the juicy details of who you are, and what you’ve been doing. I know about your sugar daddy thing. And so will the rest of the world.” He then stepped back and gave her a little wave. “I’ll be in touch.”
Marissa froze, could do nothing by watch Andrew leave. The door snicked shut as the baking timer rang.
* * * *
Vince’s head throbbed and his back ached, but there was no way he was going to move now that he’d finally gotten Simon on the phone. “I understand your concerns, Simon. But GreenPro is far more established than other companies. Not to mention I have connections here in Toronto. If you’re looking to start with a pilot program, what better place than here?”
“The Canadian market is not exactly my area of expertise. If I’m doing this, I want to be sure everything is going to be transportable to the States.”
It was an excuse, and a flimsy one at that. Vince could spend hours beating around the bush on this, but he was tired and wanted nothing more than to wrap this up so he could call Marissa and make sure s
he was okay. “Let’s cut to the chase. I know you’ve been looking at other prospects. What’s it going to take for you to buy GreenPro?”
The silence on the other end of the line wasn’t exactly reassuring.
“Simon?”
“Did you know that I went in on a deal with your father, oh, it must be about fifteen years ago now. Did you know that?”
“I did.” The fact Simon was bringing up his father was unsettling. “What does this have to do with my proposal?”
“It had been not long after your mother had walked out on the two of you. Geoff had been drinking and started carrying on…well, you know. He never came out and said it was because he wanted to get back at your mother, but it was obvious.”
Vince knew exactly the time period Simon was referring to. He was in high school, nursing his own shattered heart because his mom had simply gotten up and left them, with little explanation. She’d left him a letter, one that did nothing to ease the pain that encompassed him. He’d tried to connect with his dad, to offer solace and hoped to receive some in return. Instead, his father had gone out, dating and chasing every woman who looked at him. Vince had never felt so alone.
Vince cleared his throat. “Her leaving us broke him.”
Simon ignored him. “He too came to me with some amazing opportunity. We’d been acquaintances for a few years at that point, and I was willing to take a chance. He too, came to New York in the hopes of wooing my wallet. He did. He also slept with my wife.”
Shit. “I’m not my father.”
“It’s been my experience that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”
“They why speak with me at all? If you hate my family, why continue to do business with us? I haven’t hid the fact that Geoff is a partner in this, nor have I hidden what we hope to get out of it. I’ve done my best to keep him as far away from this deal, from you, as I could.”
Simon said nothing for a long moment. “The business your father got me to invest in made me close to half a billion once I eventually sold it. And he showed me that my first wife was a cheat, which helped me get rid of her. Because of our prenuptial agreement, it didn’t even cost me anything, so it worked out. But I never trusted him again. But as you said, you are not your father.”
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