“Oh, Sash. You’re not broken, don’t say that.”
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair for him to do this to me. This fucking bullshit.”
“I know.”
“What am I going to do? I don’t even know if I’ve done the right thing. I mean, he has a point. We can’t go outside because of this, you’ve seen them hanging around out there like a pack of wolves. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have even made it here.”
“He’s putting his business before you. That should tell you all you need to know about his priorities. Look, Sash, I know you love him, but he needs to demonstrate to you that he loves you too, and that means showing you that you are the most important thing in the world to him.”
“Dante will never do anything that will destroy his reputation and jeopardize his career.”
“Then maybe you need to do it on his behalf. If you talk to the press and give them your side of the story, then Dante won’t have a choice.”
“It’ll ruin him.”
“So what? If he truly loves you, it won’t matter.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
“Then at least you’ll know, you’ll be able to move on and you’ll have given him what he deserves for what he’s done to you. You can’t help the way you feel about him Sash, but if he doesn’t truly feel the same way, then you need to cut him loose as quickly as possible no matter how much it hurts you to do it. If he doesn’t love you, and he refuses to be there for you and your baby, then all he amounts to is dead weight.”
Abbey puts her hand on Sash’s belly while she lets the weight of her comments sink in. After a while and to shift the subject to something more positive she says, “I knew there was something different about you, even before you went to L.A.”
Sash closes her hand around her best friend’s, happy too that the subject has been changed. Could she go to the press, do an interview and hope to win him back like that? Or would it only serve to push him away further?
If Dante denies what they have together, where does that leave the three of them? What good is a relationship if it has to be so secret they have to virtually lock themselves inside for fear of the repercussions? That would be like living in a prison. Living in denial.
Does she really want that? And anyway, now that they know, the press will be stuck to both of them like glue.
As far as she can see it, it’s either a complete and total declaration of acceptance of their relationship, regardless of the consequences, or nothing at all. And nothing at all means no Dante and Sash together, no happy families and a world full of tears and broken dreams that will never be able to be put back together again.
It’s a fucking shit choice.
Either she speaks up and risks losing Dante, or she doesn’t and she risks never being able to see him again. That’s if he wants to anyway, of course. For all she knows, Dante has completely used her. Now that he’s got what he wants, he’s decided to get rid of her. It was Abbey’s arm under hers at the tower block to rescue her, not Dante, and if she means so much to him, where is he now?
She doesn’t want to think about it anymore. Once again, her stepbrother has made her feel like running away and the earth swallowing her up are the only two viable options.
“You won’t be able to feel it kick you know. They don’t do that for another few months at least.”
Abbey takes her hand away. Really, Sash doesn’t even look pregnant. If she hadn’t been told, she wouldn’t know. Sure she has a glow, but people have glows for a number of different reasons. It could be that she’s just in love.
“You know, I can’t believe you are pregnant. I mean, I totally wasn’t expecting that. Ok, so I suppose I wasn’t expecting the hymen reconstruction, nor the fact that Dante already has another kid as well, but this is, like, way out there. I mean, you’ve got a little thing growing inside you!”
“I know.”
Suddenly Sash feels immensely proud, a tiny little bit embarrassed and very scared all at the same time. “Nobody knows that either”, she adds. “Only me, you and Dante.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Abbey performs the corresponding action to indicate that fact. “Your dad is going to freak when he finds out though. I mean, I’m still freaking out. About everything.”
Sash lowers her eyes.
“I know, me too.”
Chapter 43
Dante stands by the window in a brand new suit, the last swallow of a limited edition Skye island whiskey in his hand, looking at the enormous crowd that has gathered below. When Alex comes into his office to cough nervously and tell him what he already knows, he takes a deep breath, sinks the golden liquid and turns towards her.
“Lets go”, he says, the corner of his lips turned up into a smile and a storm already brewing in eyes that a thousand women have fought to lose themselves in.
This is a God about to greet his people. This is a movie star about to come face to face with a million adoring fans. This is Dante Hix, the billionaire owner of Hix Industries, who will do anything to keep things that way.
The elevator journey to the lower floor is taken in silence. This press conference could have been conducted anywhere, but Dante didn’t see the reason for having it anywhere else but the ground on which he has built his empire.
If Alex had her way, she would have insisted on a script, several pre-agreed questions and a time limit. Dante being Dante, cocky and confident, what they are actually about to involve themselves in is nothing like that. He’s refused a scriptwriter, has indicated that he will answer any question that are put to him, by journalists or civilians, and will not leave until he is satisfied that his message has been communicated and understood. They are both of the agreement that Sash not being by his side is a perfect way to demonstrate what he is about to say.
News channels from across the state have gathered, and the press conference is going to be broadcast in over a hundred and sixty countries across the world by over thirty network stations.
Almost a million people have gathered outside Hix tower, and a thousand times that amount, including Sash, her father and Tracy, are sat watching at home, waiting for the controversial billionaire to appear. If Sash was going to get dumped on live TV, three times the population of America watching, she wanted to be in the audience to hear it. Like that, at least, she could start to get on with her life.
Dante straightens his tie. He checks his hair in the wall mirror. The numbers count down. Finally the doors whoosh open, and immediately, even through the thick glass of a double layer of entrance doors, the crowd can be heard screaming for him.
As the two of them walk towards the wall of noise, and just before they leave the office tower and throw themselves into it, Dante leans over to Alex. She can feel him there even before he speaks, and expects him to utter words of encouragement, or perhaps even tell her to cancel the whole thing completely. Instead, his mouth so close to her ear he could bite her earlobe if he wanted to, he says - his voice firm and filled with menace -
“After this is over, you’re fucking fired.”
Alex feels like someone has just kicked a hole through her chest. She looks up to him to see if he’s joking, but he doesn’t look back to her. Instead, his head held high and his arm raised to wave at the crowd, he pushes through the entrance doors alone, and moves confidently to the pre-constructed lectern.
A moment later, a flustered Alex is by his side. Even though she’s just as tall as her former boss, next to him she looks like she’s wilting. The crowd don’t care who she is, they’ve come to see Dante, and hear the story from the horse’s mouth.
The crowd bays, hungry for information. Some hold placards of support, others hold placards of hatred. There are boos and insults and words thrown from the crowd that mash together and lose their sense completely.
Dante smiles at them as though he’s about to make an Oscar’s acceptance speech and this is a standing ovation for his winning role. Cameras flash and journa
lists jostle each other for the best position. Alex tries her best to look confident, even though she feels like dying inside. The world waits with baited breath. Sash sits on the edge of her stepbrother’s bed, her hands hugged tightly around her. Eventually, after what seems like an eternity, the crowd finally settle down.
Dante taps the microphone.
“Hello”, he begins, his voice hooked up to a huge stack of speakers that spread it all over New York and almost as far away as where Sash is sat watching. “Thank you for coming.”
The crowd erupts in a wave of noise. From where Dante is stood he can’t tell what is a cheer and what is a boo, and he couldn’t care less either way.
Up on his podium, he looks like a newly elected president giving his first national address, although Dante feels way more important than that. Sash stares at the deflated figure of Alex and knows she should be there standing in her place instead. Her stepbrother looks incredible in his suit, but he’d look incredible in anything he decided to wear.
If he stood there in Bermuda shorts and tie-dyed vest top he’d still be the best looking and most appealing man in the room, and the room in this instance, at least as far as Sash is concerned, isn’t just New York or even America, it’s the whole damn world.
When the crowd finally settle down enough to allow him to talk, Dante continues.
“My name is Dante Hix, and I am the CEO and owner of Hix industries and several other companies across the world. I have investments in gentleman’s clubs, casinos, property, technology and telecoms, software, hardware, oil, mining and travel.”
There are more outbursts from the crowd, but this time they last less time.
“My net worth is valued at forty billion dollars. According to Forbes magazine, I’m the tenth richest man in the world, and the youngest of the top thirty five. I began my career with a small inheritance from my father which allowed me to begin my computer programming company at twenty one. At twenty four I was a billionaire.”
Sash seethes at the TV, her finger hovering over the standby button on the remote control, ready to turn it off as soon as it gets too much. The crowd murmur while Dante pauses, letting them take his words in.
“In short, I’m a big fucking deal, and I’ve got a hell of a lot to lose.”
He sees it almost as soon as it is thrown, deciding to duck at the very last minute to make his escape look all that more spectacular, so the lanced egg breezes past and explodes impressively against the glass doors behind him. Undeterred, Dante continues, while the police work hard to settle down the crowd.
“Sash”, Dante says, looking directly down the barrel of one of the cameras in front of him and instantly he appears on the huge screens that have been hung either side of the stage against the enormity of the black tower behind him. Across town, in the house that they both grew up in, his stepsister’s heart stops dead as soon as she hears her name.
There is a silence that descends on the group now, a general sensation that they have reached the climax of the story and will either hear the confession in full from the main suspect, or an out and out denial.
Cameras flash like crazy. Police push people back from the metal cordon, and at the center of it all, the eye of the storm, the corner of Dante’s lips curl up into a smile. “I hope you are listening to this, Sash, because you of everyone here needs to know what this has done to me.”
The whole world waits, on the very edge of their seat.
“What this will do to me. What this means to me, and what I’m going to lose trying to keep it.”
“Fucking asshole”, Sash shouts at the TV, loud enough that Henry and Tracy, also watching Dante’s address, can hear her from downstairs.
“Sash”, Dante says again, addressing her directly. “All of this. The billions of dollars, the several businesses, the clubs, the companies, my whole life, it means nothing at all if it doesn’t have you in it.”
There is a collected intake of air that sounds like a rocket ship firing up. What starts as a murmur ends up as a rolling wall of noise directed straight at Dante. Did they hear him right? Did they misunderstand? Is it a trick or a double bluff?
“I love you, Sash”, Dante continues. “I always have. Fuck this. Fuck all of this.”
Sash watches him step away from the podium. She can’t believe what she’s hearing. She’s stood in front of the TV now, trying to get as close to Dante as she can, the remote control long since thrown to the side, one of the batteries still spinning, yet to come to a rest.
“I don’t care who knows about us. I don’t care who we upset or what we lose. If people want to hate us for being in love, so what? So fucking what? Sash and I are bigger than all of this.”
Dante is walking off the stage and towards the crowd, and Alex is just looking at him with her mouth open, wondering whether she’s heard him right.
The cameramen struggle to keep up with him, and when one trips, another one takes his place so anyone watching at home has to quickly shift channel. The noise from the crowd is insane, it’s almost impossible to hear him. Sash doesn’t need the volume though. She’s stared long enough at those lips to be able to read what he’s saying, just from the movement.
“I almost lost her once, I’m not prepared to do it again”, Dante says, and then just before he drops the microphone, climbs the barrier and loses himself in the crowd, he shouts, loud enough for anyone across the world to hear, “Sash, I’m coming for you and our baby.”
Chapter 44
Somehow he fights his way through the crowd and finds his way to his car. Somehow, by some incredible miracle, that car is then led away from downtown New York by an escort of camera trucks and network broadcast vans all intent on filming the continuing story. In front of him, carving through the gathered crowd lead six of the city’s best mobile news reporters, six more behind to sandwich him in and close the road up again like a zip as they escape.
They take him out to the freeway in a chain, where Dante pushes his way to the front, all the power under the bonnet of his car to leave them for dust, but happy to have them trail him. He wants the whole world to see this and there is absolutely nothing he would do to stop that. It was always going to be Sash, and the narcissist in Dante wanted it to be done this way. Fuck his business, he’d make another. There was nothing about what he had that was indispensable, except for Sash. The camera trucks hog the two lanes behind Dante with three helicopters in the air above them, recording footage that looks like a bunch of undercover cops trailing a suspect.
Sash can hardly move for nervous excitement. On her screen, Dante is driving the route she has taken hundreds of times, out from the city and towards her house. Towards the house they grew up in together, and the one she stands in now, like a nervous wreck. Half of her can’t believe what’s going on. The other half doesn’t want to, just in case it’s another cruel trick. It isn’t though, and she knows it. Dante has chosen. He’s given up his business so they can be together. He’s chosen her.
When the car pulls into the drive, Sash is still watching it on the TV in Dante’s room, trapped in a weird bubble where fantasy meets reality. She can hear the roar of engines behind her like Dolby surround sound. When Dante gets out of the car, and she sees him, first on the TV screen and later through the window, she finally feels a whole world awaken inside her, and she can’t wait to go to him.
Dante waits patiently, three rows of camera lenses behind him all clamoring for space, while his stepsister bounds down the stairs, two steps at a time. She moves so quickly, she doesn’t even notice her dad and Tracy, who have risen from their seats in shock, nor Ghost, who she almost trips over as she speeds through the kitchen. With the cord of her dressing gown trailing behind her, Sash hurries to him, throwing the front door open so quickly the glass almost smashes out of the frame as she powers through it.
Her heart stops when she sees him, stood there casually waiting, sixteen cameras in behind him, broadcasting the story across the world to almost a billion viewers.<
br />
She’s crying and she can’t help it. Crying and laughing, completely overwhelmed by emotion. She’s about to say something but it just won’t come out. She doesn’t even know how to begin. It was here, six years ago that she first saw him. Dante Hix, the most beautiful, most complicated man in the world.
“Hello, Sash”, Dante says, and just to hear him say her name breaks her. She runs to him, and while a whole world watches, not a single person with a dry eye, he gathers her into him.
“I said all along you could trust me”, Dante says, his arms around her tightly. “I love you, Sash. I always will.”
Chapter 45
After Dante broadcasts news of their relationship and their forthcoming baby across the world and answers as many questions as he considers to be acceptable, he asks the journalists to respect their privacy, takes Sash by the hand and leads her back inside the house. There, still in shock at the news of their pregnancy, stand Tracy and Henry, who look at their progeny with barely concealed concern.
“Pregnant?” Tracy says finally, the word too hot to keep inside. “With a baby?”
A silence descends on them. Until now, Sash had forgotten they didn’t know. She looks to Tracy, over to her father and finally up to Dante. Dante squeezes her hand to tell her it’s ok.
“We’ll speak about this later”, he says firmly. “Sash and I need to talk in private first. We have a few things we need to catch up on, and iron out. Believe me, we are just as shocked as you are.”
“But-.” Tracy begins to say, her head still shaking in disbelief, before Henry grabs her wrist to cut her off.
“Take as long as you need. Congratulations, the both of you, we are very proud of you two.”
“Thank you, Henry”, Dante says. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
As Dante advances towards the stairs, keen to get on with what he came here to do, Henry and Tracy take a step back to let them through.
“Don’t wait up”, Dante advises, just before they climb the stairs. “We may be some time.”
Charged: A Stepbrother Romance Novel (With FREE Bonus Novel Heated!) Page 41