Chapter 5

NATHANIEL

Later that night

“I don’t think Delany will be able to take over the company” Nolan said to me. I was seated by by the small study desk I had in my room, I was on a conference call with Nolan and my lead streategist, Paul.

“She’s supposedly the one you have an affair with, so stepping down for her to step up is not a good plan. It won’t improve the company’s image,” Paul continued, I just stared at them, my mind constantly replying the conversation I had with Delany earlier. She has been avoiding me ever since, why does she seem so cold.

“Sir, what do you think?!” I heard Paul ask. I blinked slowly and turned to his video frame.

“I’m sorry, come again I didn’t get that,” I said to him. Nolan raised his brows at me, but Paul nodded politely and proceeded to repeat what he said.

“My suggestion is to bring in someone who isn’t in any way affiliated with the company presently. I came up with a list of very efficient business men that can take over for time being, while you get stability and the public trust back,”

“Every single user already got their money back, I’m sure our users still have trust in us, if we can play our cards right,”

“He’ll only take over as CEO. You still have your shares and position as owner, just till all of this blows over,” he explained. I slowly picked up the pen on the table and fiddled with the cover.

“Send the list to my mail and let me know who you highly recommend, I’ll look into it” I said and he nodded.

“Okay sir,”

“Yeah. That’ll be all for now,” I said and ended the call. I exhaled deeply and leaned back to the chair.

Almost immediately my phone began to ring, I stretched my hands to pick it up, it was Nolan.

“Are you good?” He asked as soon as I answered the call.

“I’m trying to save my company from going bankrupt, what do you think?” I asked in response.

“Is that the only thing bothering you? We’ve had issues in the past but you’ve never been lost during a meeting,”

“Nolan, get to the point, what are you trying to say?” I asked rubbing my forehead softly.

“Did Delany say something?” He asked. I exhaled with a deep breath.

“We’ve both had a long day today, I think we should rest up now”

“Goodnight Nolan,” I added sarcastically and with that I ended the call and carelessly dropped my phone on the table.

I exhaled deeply again as I got up and headed to the kitchen to get water.

I exhaled for the umpteenth time as I uncapped the bottle of water and gulped down all of its content in one go. I purred in satisfaction as I dropped the bottle in the waste bin. Just as I looked up and turned around to walk out Delany walked into the kitchen.

“Ohh my God!” She flinched as her hands flung to her chest.

“You scared me,” she added in a whisper. I slowly took in my bottom lips and nodded slowly.

“Sorry about that,” I muttered under my breath and proceeded to leave the kitchen. I got to the entrance and on a second thought I paused and slowly turned back.

“Do you perhaps care for a drink,” I asked her, she gently stopped pouring water in the glass cup and looked up at me.

“I just need water, I’ll be heading to bed soon,” she responded softly.

“Delany, please have a drink with me,” I repeated. She sighed and nodded with a small shrug.

“Okay fine,”

***

“Why did you agree to get married to my brother?” I finally asked her. Quarter of an hour had passed with us just sitting, sipping our wine , staring at nothing and saying nothing.

“My mother is sick, I need the money” she simply responded.

“My stepmother’s condition for helping my mother and I, was that I marry the son of their best friend.” she continued after few seconds of silence.

“The Williams family were proposing a marriage alliance between the two companies and they wanted me to marry their son Brett, but my mother couldn’t afford me to have a life better than theirs,”

“So she lied to them I was married and wanted him to marry Lenny,”

“Then, your mother proposed an arranged marriage between your brother and I, it killed two birds. Brett gets to marry Lenny and Adrian gets to be qualified to take over your father’s company since the board wanted him to get married and prove he was responsible,”

“Plus they could easily control me to do whatever they want, it was the perfect arrangement” she explained. Her explanation left me speechless, yeah I knew my mother was a lot of things but I didn’t think she was this manipulative, cunning and vicious. Plus the fact that all of this happened and I had absolutely no idea.

“And my father is aware about all of these?” I asked softly. She took a sip from her cup and shrugged.

“He didn’t really have much say on the matter but he didn’t object to the idea either,” she responded. I scoffed with a deep exhale.

“The funniest part of this whole story is, Lenny doesn’t even want to be with Brett. She’d kill to be with Adrian and I mean this very literally,” she continued.

“After I got married to Adrian, he would literally bring her over and smash her on our matrimonial bed!” She added as she took another sip from her cup. I narrowed my brows and turned to her almost immediately. What did she mean by after I got married, the marriage was literally three days ago and it didn’t happen.

“And you know this, how? You left him at the altar, were you already living with him before the church wedding?” I asked. Her lips slightly parted staring at me, I could see her hand tighten around the cup, then her eyes went thightly shut. When she opened them back up she tried to speak but it came in a disoriented stutter. She cleared her throat and spoke up again.

“I’m sorry. I think I’ve drank too much, I’m starting to say things that aren’t real,” she said as she raised her hands to her forehead, dropped her glass and got up.

“I really should head to bed now,” she added avoiding my eyes, I nodded and I got up to my feet also.

“You should. I’ll clear up. I’m sorry for making you drink so much,” I said. She nodded frantically rubbing the back of her neck.

“It’s fine. I needed it anyway,” she responded and with that rushed out of the varenda like she couldn’t bear to be with me one second more.