The Scion: A Billionaire Romance (The Holbrook Cousins Saga Book 3)

by Alina Jacobs

  "Holbrook can extend it," she said.

  "I was thinking maybe I could crash at your place when I'm in town."

  She looked at him. "Do you want to?" she asked him, searching his eyes for the truth.

  "I want to spend every minute with you."

  58

  Wes

  Wes was so happy he felt like he could fly. He was in love with Liz. He wasn't going through with the revenge scheme. His employees had been taken care of, and Walsh Systech was growing. Life was good.

  He thought about Liz being sad that he hadn't proposed to her last night. He didn't know why Rhonda had lied to her. He couldn't bear the thought of telling her that he hadn't even entertained the idea of marriage.

  As he walked back from a meeting, he passed by a high-end jewelry shop. It couldn't hurt to look.

  "You look like a man who's looking for engagement rings," the saleswoman said when he stepped inside the shop. The lights inside were dimmed, the darkness punctuated by spotlights that accentuated the fine jewelry displayed in glass cases.

  "I'm just looking," Wes said.

  The salesperson insisted on showing him their new collections. Wes's phone kept going off in his pocket. He finally was able to disentangle himself from the sales pitch after promising to come back.

  When he stepped out onto the street and pulled out his phone, he had twenty missed calls and several cryptic text messages from various members of the Holbrook family.

  Feeling apprehensive, Wes called up his voicemail box. Their call quality wasn't good, and he could barely make out a tearful message from Liz.

  He took a car back up to the Holbrook offices, drumming his fingers on the seat. What had happened? Was Liz hurt?

  His stomach churning, Wes entered the conference room once he' arrived back at the Holbrook tower. The majority of his family was in the room.

  Grant's expression was thunderous. "I knew it," he spat. "I knew it! I knew we shouldn't have trusted you."

  "I don't understand," Wes said slowly.

  Liz was sobbing at the other end of the table, and Kate was next to her, consoling her. Wes started to move to her, but Carter blocked him. He had a crazy look in his eye.

  Walter wouldn't look at him at all.

  "I don't understand," Wes reiterated, but as Allie slid a tablet across the table to him, Wes finally realized what was happening.

  He peered at the tablet in disbelief. There were pictures of him and Liz in a… compromising position. Wes recognized the screenshots. It was' from the two of them in his apartment.

  He scrolled down the email. There was a message too.

  This is a preview of a website. The videos these screenshots were taken from will all go live by next quarter unless forty percent of the company shares are handed back over to Wes.

  "This wasn't me," Wes said, willing his family to believe him.

  "We're going to find out," Mark said as he entered the room, carrying several cases of computer equipment.

  As he started to set up, Wes pleaded, "I'll fix this, Liz. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love you, and you know I would never hurt you."

  "Was it all a lie?" she yelled at him. "You were just sleeping with me and lying to me for blackmail." Liz threw a chair at him. It was an expensive chair, and it didn't go far, just scraped along the conference table.

  Wes righted the chair and said, "I didn't take those videos."

  "It's in your apartment," Liz hissed, tears streaming down her face.

  "I know how it looks," Wes said.

  "I've traced the email," Mark announced.

  "That was awfully quick," Allie said with a frown.

  "It traces back to Wes's IP address in his apartment. The signature is the same as his laptop. We already have his information in the system, and whoever sent this didn't do a good job of covering their tracks."

  "Someone set me up!" Wes yelled. "Liz, you have to believe me!"

  "Mark knows computers," Carter said. "He would be able to tell if someone faked it."

  Rhonda knew computers, too, Wes thought. But he didn't think he should tell them about her and Robert and the revenge plan. It sounded incriminating. He needed to solve this on his own, somehow, without losing Liz.

  "You're a fucking psychopath," Walter said to him.

  "Just admit what you did!" Liz screamed. She sounded heartbroken. Allie wrapped her arms around Liz as she sobbed.

  As he watched Liz break down, he realized that he had done it—here was his revenge. It didn't feel good at all.

  Wes turned to leave the room and was met with Grant's fist. Reeling from the blow and wiping at his split lip, Wes fled.

  59

  Liz

  Liz was heartbroken.

  After Wes left, Walter swore and punched one of the glass walls. Liz winced as she heard it crack. "I am so sorry, Liz," Walter said. "This is all my fault. I should never have let him near you."

  "None of us had any idea he was harboring such deep-seated resentment," Grant said.

  "I don't understand why he would do that," Carter said.

  "Revenge," Allie said. "Liz stole his company, and he wanted her to pay."

  "The whole plan seems excessive and convoluted," Carter said. "It's very Hamlet-esque."

  "Yeah," Grant said. "The pictures, the blackmail. It's all so psychotic."

  That caused a fresh round of crying for Liz.

  "That's enough," Kate said. "I'm taking you home, Liz." Liz allowed herself to be led to a waiting car, then Kate sat with her in silence on the way to her parents' house.

  "I knew something was wrong with him!" her father bellowed as soon as Kate told Liz's parents what had happened.

  Liz hid in her childhood bedroom for the rest of the week. She spent the majority of the time revisiting where she had gone wrong with Wes. The entire future she had imagined with Wes was not only a lie, but it was also some sick ploy for revenge.

  Her moments of wallowing in self-pity were broken up by various visitors, none of whom she wanted to deal with.

  "I'm going to kill him," Eric said, storming into her room.

  "Go away, Eric," she yelled. She was tired of people being angry on her behalf. Her friends and family were making it all about them.

  She heard a knock and saw Mark standing in the doorway.

  "I just want to ask you some more question about the, uh, email," Mark said. "Is now a good time?"

  "I'm not doing anything else."

  Mark walked in hesitantly and stood in front of her. Liz was sitting on her bed, surrounded by her stuffed animals. She didn't have any makeup on, and she knew she looked terrible.

  "I've been looking into the images more," Mark began. "After deeper analysis, they aren't photoshopped or anything like that."

  "I know it's not photoshopped!" Liz said. She couldn't believe that all her friends, her family, had seen pictures of her having sex, like some sort of cheap porn actress.

  Mark shifted on his feet, visibly uncomfortable. "We confiscated Wes's work laptop, but I didn't find the originals," Mark said. "Unfortunately, they could still be released at any time."

  "I'm so humiliated," Liz said, starting to cry.

  "What are you Holbrooks going to do?" Eric asked Mark. "Are you going to give Wes the shares that he asked for?"

  "Grant says we will not negotiate with terrorists," Mark said quietly.

  "I can't have those videos out there!" Liz sobbed.

  "Mark will think of something. Won't you, Mark?" her brother threatened.

  "I'll keep digging," Mark said as he left.

  It was hopeless. She was going to have to change her name and move to Idaho.

  The visit with Mark sent her spiraling into an even deeper funk. Then she received the visitor she had been dreading—Allie. Her friend came in and sat down on the bed next to her.

  "Did you come to gloat," Liz said. Her voice was ragged and nasally from crying.

  "Of course not," Allie said, patting Liz on the shoulder. "I wan
ted to like Wes. I really did. Sometimes there are just bad people, and you can't do anything about it."

  Though Liz was heartbroken, the worst of it was that she didn't believe Wes was a bad person. What if he was telling the truth and someone else took the video?

  Logically, Liz knew that Wes likely arranged the blackmail himself, but she craved an explanation, no matter how implausible. She needed some shred of hope to hold onto.

  Peeking her head into the hallway to make sure no one was coming up to check on her, she locked herself in the bathroom and dialed Wes's number.

  "Liz," he said when the call connected. "You shouldn't be talking to me."

  "I just… I just wanted—" She needed him to say he loved her and that someone was toying with them.

  "What?" Wes asked, his voice cold over the phone. "You want me to tell you that I love you and you're the only girl for me?"

  Liz stifled a sob.

  "I promise I didn't take the video," he told her.

  "Then who did?" she asked, her voice quivering.

  "I'm trying to find out."

  "Wes?"

  "Yes, Liz."

  "Please just tell me, was any of it real?"

  She heard him sigh. "No, Liz. I made it all up. There was no ring. There was no engagement. There was no us." He sounded sad, but it was probably her imagination.

  "I hate you," she hissed into the phone.

  "I know," he replied.

  60

  Wes

  Wes slumped to the floor after Liz hung up on him.

  He had wanted to tell her the truth, wanted to tell her that of course he loved her and he wanted to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her, but he was worried. He knew in his gut that Rhonda or Robert had sent the email.

  If anything spooked them, then they would probably send all the detrimental photos and videos to the tabloids. That would ruin Liz, and he would rather spend the rest of his life miserable and alone than allow even a chance that those videos be made public.

  He had been so stupid. He never should have started on this revenge scheme. He tried calling Rhonda and Robert, but neither of them picked up. He went down to Robert's apartment, but no one answered the door.

  He needed to talk to them. He needed the original files.

  "How did they take that video?" Wes asked aloud when he returned to his apartment. Kal cocked his big furry head at Wes.

  Of course. The camera. Wes pawed through his box of robot parts and found the little black box with the camera Rhonda had given him. Then he went through his apartment, knocking books off the shelves, feeling around corners. He found three tiny hidden cameras identical to the one Rhonda had given him.

  "That bitch!" he yelled. Wes knew there were more cameras hidden in his apartment. He tore through it and found several more.

  "I bet she put some in Liz's place too," he muttered as he grabbed his coat and his toolkit of tiny tools and raced out the door.

  Wes knew Osman wasn't going to let him in, so he snuck into the building through the loading dock. When the service elevator stopped on Liz's floor, Wes looked around, hoping the elderly Mrs. Burbank didn't see him.

  It didn't take him long to pick the lock with his tools. Once the lock clicked, Wes slipped inside and started pawing through Liz's stuff, looking for the cameras.

  He found several in the living room and pocketed them. As he looked through her kitchen, he saw the wedding scrapbook lying on the table. She had started to bind some of the pages. Wes flipped through each immaculately decorated page, his face staring out at him, surrounded by ribbons and loving quotes Liz had carefully crafted.

  Wes felt sick. He cursed himself for ruining the only good thing in his life.

  As he examined the pages, someone reached out and grabbed him by the throat, flipping him over and slamming him onto the floor.

  "Look who returned to the scene of the crime," Grant said as Wes wheezed and blinked rapidly, looking up into the angry faces of his half brother and Eric.

  "I'm trying to find the truth," Wes said.

  "And here the rest of us are looking for revenge," Eric drawled as Grant hauled Wes up, pinning one arm behind him. Eric punched him over and over. Eric kicked Wes one last time, and Grant let him fall to the floor.

  "You fucked up, bro," Grant said. "The only reason you aren't in jail right now is because I'm not dragging Liz's name through the mud, and the only reason you aren't dead is because there's a board meeting tomorrow."

  Wes desperately wanted to tell them about the cameras and about Rhonda and Robert and the revenge scheme, but he didn't want to force Rhonda's hand. He needed those original files. He owed that much to Liz.

  "Get out of her apartment," Eric said.

  Wes shakily stood up. He was bruised and sad. "I'm sorry," he said. "This wasn't what I wanted to happen." Grant marched him out the door to the service elevator.

  After an agonizing car ride back to his apartment, Wes slowly limped inside. Kal licked the blood off his face as Wes grimaced, gingerly placing ice packs on the worst of the quickly forming bruises.

  As he lay there, trying to take the shallowest breaths possible, his phone dinged with a text. On the cracked screen, he read the message from Brayden.

  Heard you deployed the nuclear bomb

  Can't wait to see Liz

  I know she's going to need some cheering up

  61

  Liz

  After her call with Wes, Liz felt an odd sense of closure. The next day she went back to her New York City condo against the protests of her parents.

  As soon as she walked inside, she saw the scrapbook on the table.

  "You' going to be all right, sis?" Eric asked her.

  "Yep," she said, forcing herself not to start crying. "This place is a mess. I'm just going to clean, I think."

  "I'll help," her brother said, rolling up his sleeves.

  Liz started with the scrapbook. She threw it out, along with all of the fancy paper, the stamps, the special scissors, and the glittery pens. Then she cleaned her whole apartment.

  With Eric's help, they were finished by the evening. Ginny stopped by with dinner, and Liz forced herself to act bubbly while the three of them ate. When Ginny and Eric left, Liz felt very alone.

  She couldn't sleep. Part of her missed Wes, but she stamped it down. She would have to see him at the board meeting tomorrow, and she didn't know if she could face him.

  The next morning, she put on a designer suit. Smoothing it down, she laughed slightly. She hadn't had much of an appetite the last couple of weeks, and she had finally lost a little weight.

  "You don't have to go to the board meeting," Grant told her when he saw her walking to the conference room.

  "It's fine. It's my job."

  When Wes walked in, he looked at her plaintively. He had a black eye and seemed like he was favoring his arm. Liz felt a small pang of sympathy, but she quickly strangled it.

  Wes didn't say much at the meeting. Brayden sat near him and spent the meeting staring at Liz. Just being in the same room as Wes was almost too much to bear, and Liz practically ran out of the room as soon as the meeting ended.

  Over the next few days, Liz slowly tried to gather the pieces of her life back together.

  After work one day, she met up with Anastasia.

  "How are you holding up?" her friend asked.

  "I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop," Liz replied. "Mark can't find the original images. But I'm done with men and the societal expectations of women and love. No more women's magazines, no more scrapbooking, no more marriage planning, no more romantic comedies. That's what landed me in trouble, so I'm done."

  Anastasia patted her hand and gestured for her to drink.

  Liz took a sip of her cocktail then said, "You know what the worst of it is? I still sort of miss Wes."

  "You were too codependent on him," Anastasia said. "Cut him out cold turkey, and tell Grant to make sure Wes stays in northern Connecticut."

>   As she was waiting for her rideshare, Liz received a text from Brayden.

  I know where the files are

  Liz's heart stopped. Brayden had found the files?

  Where? Can you give them to me?

  She wondered how he had found them.

  I'll meet you at your apartment.

  Alarm bells went off. That sounded like a bad idea. She texted him back with an alternative.

  Can I meet you at a coffee shop?

  Liz did not want Brayden at her apartment.

  We have to meet in private

  They're watching

  Liz struggled internally, but the desire to have this whole embarrassing episode put to rest outweighed any apprehension she had about Brayden. She texted him her address.

  He was waiting for her outside the door to her unit.

  "You made good time," she said.

  Brayden smiled at her. He seemed giddy and hyped up.

  "How did you find the videos?" she asked him as she unlocked the door.

  "I'd do anything for you, Liz," Brayden said as he followed her inside her apartment. "Anything. I love you."

  "So where are they?" Liz asked, crossing her arms.

  He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a book.

  "Is that my wedding scrapbook?" she yelled, snatching it out of his hands. The book splayed open, and Liz saw that Brayden had replaced Wes's face with his own.

  "Wes broke your heart," Brayden said. "I tried to stop him. He's a sociopath. He's not good enough for you. I am, though." He reached for her, trying to pull her into a hug.

  "Don't touch me!" Liz screeched.

  "I know you're sad," Brayden said. "I want to make you feel better. I'm going to make all your dreams come true."

  "Get out if you don't have the files," Liz told him.

  Brayden ignored her. "I knew from the moment I met you that you and I were meant to be together," Brayden said, advancing on her. "This," he held up the scrapbook, "proves it."