Chapter 3: A deal

Jason’s POV

My eyes kept darting between the door and my watch. Every second felt longer than the other.

Aria and I were supposed to meet up here. But eleven minutes had passed, and she still hadn't shown up.

The door creaked open. My head snapped in its direction. But it wasn't Aria, it was one of her workers, probably her assistant.

“Mr. Cross, sorry for keeping you waiting. Mrs. Bennett will be here soon.” She said, dropping the documents on the table.

I didn't respond to her, I just sat there waiting for Aria.

Then finally, the door opened, and this time around, it was Aria.

She walked in like she owned the room, and for a second there, my heart warmed at the sight of her.

She looked better up-close than in the photo. My eyes widened when they landed on her neck. But I quickly masked my emotions.

The necklace I had given her years ago was still wrapped around her neck.

But why?

Why will she still wear it when she dumped me four years ago?

Did she still love me?

No—It couldn't be.

She didn't love me anymore the moment she walked out of my life and aborted our baby.

“Mr. Cross.” Her soft voice pulled me out of my train of thought. “I wasn’t expecting you to handle this situation in person.”

“I handle everything in person when it matters."

“How flattering. Seems like I'm really a challenge.”

“You're an obstacle.” I corrected, gesturing at the chair across from me, but she didn’t take the offer. She remained standing, arms crossed, exactly the way she used to stand when she was furious and refused to give me the satisfaction of raising her voice. “Sit down, Aria.”

“I'll stand.’

“Suit yourself.”

She finally moved, but only to circle the table, putting distance between us.

“Excuse us”, she gestured to her worker, who was still standing there. And her worker picked up the documents she had brought earlier and left.

“Let’s skip the part where you pretend this is a normal business meeting,” she said. “I know exactly what you're doing.”

“Enlighten me.”

“You’re not acquiring Lumina because it fits some three-year expansion strategy. You've had a dozen other firms you could have targeted with less resistance. You chose mine.” Her eyes didn't waver from mine as she spoke. “This isn't business. This is you settling a score.”

She wasn't entirely right. But knowing that company belonged to her made me want to destroy it more.

"Careful," I said. "That kind of thinking makes you sound paranoid."

"That kind of thinking makes me right." She finally sat, but she only did it to lean forward, with her elbows on the table. "You want to talk about what this really is, Jason? Fine. Let's talk."

Hearing my name in her mouth again did something to my chest I refused to acknowledge.

"There's nothing to talk about," I said. "You had three offers. You rejected all three. Now you get one offer, and it isn't negotiable."

"Because you're angry."

"No. It's because I'm efficient." I corrected.

"You're angry," she said again. "You've been angry for four years, since that day I left you. You know, you're the most powerful man in three industries, and you still can't sit in a room with me without you losing composure."

And somehow she was right.

"How sweet, coming from a person who left me for money," I said. "My mother offered you a check, and you took it. “You loved money enough to kill our child for it.”

Pain flickered across her face, but she quickly masked it.

"You have no idea what happened that night."

"I know you took fifty thousand dollars and disappeared without a single word."

"Believe what you want to believe." Her voice cracked slightly on that last word. "It doesn't matter now,"

"It matters to me."

"No, it doesn't." She stood again, smoothing her dress. "Because you already decided who I am four years ago, and nothing I say in this room is going to change your mind. So let's stop pretending this meeting is about the truth. It's about you wanting to watch me lose the battle."

She wasn't entirely wrong, because it was my plan all along to watch her lose the battle.

"You have two options," I said, sliding the folder across the table toward her. "Sell the company to me, but just so you know, you will have no position anymore. Or sign the acquisition and stay on as creative director under my terms, you will receive a salary, but you will have no board seat. If you refuse, I will make sure no client in this city touches Lumina again. I have the connections to make that happen, and I have the leverage. You have forty-one employees who'll be unemployed within the quarter if you don't agree to this."

Her face didn't move, but her hands curled into fists on top of the table.

"You'd really do that. Destroy forty-one people's livelihoods to punish me for something that happened four years ago."

"I don't see forty-one people. I see a decision that you need to make."

"You've become cruel." She said,

"I've become successful. Don't confuse the two words, though I understand why you would."

She stared at me for a long moment, long enough that I started to wonder if she was searching my face for the man she used to know.

"I won't beg you," she said finally, standing to leave. "Not for the company. Not for anything. But just know you'll get your answer by Friday."

She walked to the door, and just before she reached it, she turned back one last time.

"Believe what you want to believe," she said, "But just know I would never sell my company to you. I'd rather choose to survive and pass through any challenge I come across."

Then she was gone, and I sat there alone in her conference room with the folder still open on the table, and her signature was nowhere to be found on it.