CHAPTER 3: Zachary

CHAPTER 3: Zachary

“It sure doesn't feel like a good morning to me. But, good morning Lenny,” I greeted, plopping down on my chair, eyes hidden behind dark sun glasses.

“Well, you shouldn't expect less after staying out all night. I'm sure the city's alcohol reservoir has been depleted, courtesy of you.”

“Well, I wouldn't be devastating the city's population if you had not suggested I go out to unwind last night.”

There was a sound of a scraping of a chair, and footsteps receding. My fingers tried to massage my temples. 

“Here. Drink this.”

I pushed the sunglasses into my hair to see the steaming cup of coffee on the table. 

“Take these too,” Lenny added, popping two tablets into my palm.

“Thank you.”

“I reran the invoices last night, and we still can't be able to restock the incoming Naples shipment. If this Gérard client backs out, we're done. Out.”

The cup froze midway to my lips. 

Lumen Atelier. Custom interiors, curated antiquities, eccentric taste. I had started it with Lenny four years ago. It was our baby. But now it is failing.

I scratched the back of my neck. 

“About Gérard. I think we may have to look for another client too,” I winced uncomfortably.

My best friend dragged her attention away from the tablet in her hand to my face.

 “Why? What do you mean? Did something happen?”

Well, I may have broken his nose last night at the club for trying to feel me down. I was very sure that Gérard would no longer be willing to do business with us.

“Oh come on, Madelyn. That was our last clinging hope. Our rent is due next week,” Lenny cried, pacing the office.

I felt guilty and embarrassed. I met Lenore when I arrived in the city five years ago. There was an instant affinity and camaraderie. She loved our business as much as I did or maybe even more. She was trying desperately to save it, and I might have just blown our last option.

 In all fairness to me, it wasn't my fault that he couldn't keep his sticky wandering hands to himself. The flash of memories it brought to me was as quick as my fist against his nose.

Lenny groaned dramatically. “At this point we really need a miracle, a sugar daddy, or one of your rich exes.”

The coffee suddenly tasted more bitter.

 “I was never that girl.”

Lenny raised a brow. 

“Girl? You once told me that you were married and divorced and married again. You were drunk that day, but I think you were telling the truth. I’m thinking he might even be a French assassin with all the shroud of secrecy that he's cloaked in.”

I chuckled under my breath, but it didn't reach my eyes.

 “He wasn't French.”

“Still an assassin?”

I didn’t reply. 

I never liked to remember Zachary or think about him. As a young schoolgirl girl with a silly crush on her enigmatic guardian, I did a lot of that. However the tiniest thought of him makes me angry and uneasy.

Lenny studied me for a moment, her face softening. “You never told me who really was?”

“Which one? The first or the second?”

“Your husband.”

“That part of my life doesn't exist anymore.”

Her gaze remained on me, silently waiting for me to go on.

“It wasn't about love. It was about damage control, and saving face—his face. And his name. He sent me away to Lyon before the ink on the license papers were dried.”

Lenny frowned. He exiled you?”

 “Basically.”

“Hmm. And you've never heard from him again?”

“Not quite.”

There had been lawyers. Bank statements. Allowances. Quiet monthly stipends. Nothing huge, but just quiet enough to know that I had not totally been forgotten. I was still being punished. It was always formal. Never from him. I had never heard from Zachary since the five years I've been here.

“Maybe you should try contacting him?”

“No. I would never do that. I don't want to see him ever again. Besides, he explicitly told me never to contact him. I don't need him.”

Her face softened with sympathy. I didn't like that look. I dumped the cold cup of coffee, and turned on the computer, eager to change the topic.

“Look, Maddie. I’m not trying to pry into your private matter, but this is my honest two cents. Maybe you just need to stop running from whatever ghost you're running from in your past.”

“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously.

“Hear me out. You don't need to prove anything to your husband. If he can help us, then maybe you need to ask him for help.”

 “I would never ask him for anything, Lenny. I can do this. We can do this. We just have to review our list of clients and ring up some of them–”

“We already did. We're down and out,” she deadpanned.

I picked up the logbook for the shop's sales, frantically flipping through it. I couldn't fail at this. I wanted to prove to him that I could survive on my own—be independent.

“Maybe we need to start preparing ourselves for the inevitable, Maddie. We've lost Lumen.”

The calm finality of her words were like a fatal strike to my heart. 

I turned back towards her and tried for optimism.

 “We can still land the Gauthier renovation. If we pitch the right mix of modern classic—”

Lenny made a sound. Half-groan, half-snort. “You’re brilliant, but delusional. Gauthier’s niece just opened a gallery in Paris and wants to handle it herself. Plus, he's best friends with the one whose nose you broke last night. You need to let this go.”

I ran a hand through my hair and leaned against the wall beside her. 

“I can’t.”

“You can,”she said gently. “You just won’t.”

Before I could reply, the chime of the bell above the front door rang through the room. 

“Maybe we don't have to throw in the towel too soon,” I smiled with optimism as I headed towards the front desk.

My optimism turned to stunned shock when I saw who it was that walked into the shop. His back was turned to me as he looked around. But I knew that profile, and aura from any angle.

Zachary.

He turned immediately and our gazes locked. The air in the room shifted—if there was any left. As always, he did not betray any form of emotions. He had not aged a single day, just sharpened.

The sheer force of his presence, dressed in black suit and long black overcoat in a small art shop looked out of place.

“You’re tresspassing,” I said flatly, even though my voice didn't hold.

“I own the building.”

I held onto the desk. He was lying. But I knew that he wasn't. The man before me was capable of buying the building where I did my business just to have a hold on me. He actually knew where I was and what I was doing all these years.

“Why are you here? Come to check if I have disgraced your precious name and reputation further?” I asked spitefully.

He walked towards the desk with the slow deliberate steps of a man who was used to being obeyed.

“You’ve been busy,” he said, glancing at the folders. “Three declined loan extensions. One lawsuit. Definitely another one on the way after last night. A business on the edge. I see exile taught you very little.”

Last night. He knew about the bar. He's been watching.

“And I see five years hasn’t made you any less arrogant.”

“Arrogance is thinking you can survive this alone, Madelyn.”

Here we go again. He always seemed to show up when I was in a mess. Well, third time is a charm, right?

I scoffed. “So what? Are you going to help me this time too? What price do I have to pay now? My life?”

I wanted the words to strike a nerve, but with the lack of reaction from him, it obviously failed.

“I didn't come here to apologise. I came to take you home.”

I stared at him.

“You can't be serious.”

“I have no time for games. You're my wife. And it is time you fulfill the obligations of one.”

I was puzzled. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by Lenny.

“What is going on back there? Who are you talking—”

She stopped short when she saw Zachary, and looked between the two of us with a mix of curiosity and optimism.

“New client?”

I shook my head. “Give us a minute.”

She was confused, but nodded and disappeared back into the office. I quickly spun back to Zachary. 

“What do you mean? You sent me away five years ago.”

“If you want to get back what rightfully belongs to you, then you have to come back with me.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

He reached into his coat pocket, and placed a sealed envelope on the desk. I picked it up and opened it. Company deeds, land titles, bank statements. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing.

“The Bomers are trying to acquire Kade Corp,” he said casually.

My forehead scrunched. “What is–?”

“Your inheritance. All that belongs to you. Left to you by your parents.”

I didn't know much about my parents. Didn't even remember much about them. I was barely seven when they died in an autocrash.

“Why did you never tell me about this all along?”

His gaze swept calmly over the shop then returned to me. 

“What difference would it have made?”

My fingers curled tightly.

 “I still had a right to know. My whole life, I thought that I was nothing more than an unwanted responsibility which had been thrust on you; which you barely, graciously had to bear. I always thought I had to be grateful to you. But this?” I waved the papers in his face, ”this is too much.”

My outburst did nothing to get a reaction out of him. He was still calm and unruffled while I was simmering with anger.

He said the Bomers. Patricia and Vance.

“The Bomers. Is Vance involved too?”

“Your ex-husband is as eager as his mother to get his hands on the company.”

I hated myself for ever loving Vance. Once again, he had proven to me how much of a mistake I had made by choosing him. Now I was worried. If it made Zachary fly across the world to tell me all this—then it wasn't looking good. I didn't know about this five minutes ago, but I was sure as hell not going to let Vance or Patricia take anything else away from me.

I bit my lip nervously. “Can I be able to stop them?”

He began to walk leisurely around the shop, and I found myself following behind him.

“I've had it under watch by capable hands over the years for you. But I recently found out that some members of the board have been compromised and some of the company assets and shares have been acquired by the Bomers.”

My fists tightened around the papers in my hand. 

“How could that get past you?”

He stopped, and turned to me. There was a quiet, but sharp warning in his almond brown eyes. I gulped nervously, but didn't back down.

“To completely take over, they are set to acquire the last piece of your family's holdings—The Kade Corp. But the shares are bound to blood—and marriage.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means they need your signature and mine to complete the acquisition.”

“Do they know that I'm the—?”

“No. They don't know yet that you're the heiress of the Kade family. Come back with me. I can help you.”

“Why?”

“Why what, Madelyn?”

I’d known Zachary long enough to know that he didn't really care about me. And that he would never really lift a mighty finger unless it affected him. 

“Why would you help me?”

“I will help you reclaim your birthright. But as my wife, you have to fulfill your obligations.”

I rolled my eyes. That word again. “What are you going on about? What do you want from me?”

I don't know what I expected to hear, but the air was knocked out of me when he spoke.

“I want you to give me an heir.”