Chapter 5

Three months had passed, yet Benita’s father had not shown a single sign of recovery. He remained alive only because machines willed it so—tubes, monitors, artificial breaths. A man suspended between worlds.

The company was no better.

Benita had tried everything, meetings, negotiations, silent deals, anything to keep McCracken Industrials afloat before it completely plummeted. She worked day and night to ensure the media stayed blind to the situation. One leak, on social media, and the stocks would crash beyond repair.

She had even reached out to Blackwell Holdings.

Surely, if Damien could be brought into an understanding, it could stabilize things. But every attempt failed. No calls returned. No responses. Maybe he hadn’t come back from Paris.

Paris.

She paused while fastening her earrings, a small smile touching her lips despite everything. She had left without a goodbye, without explanations but the memory of that night had carried her through dark days. Damien had been a good lover. A gentle listener. She smiled, remembering how his face had softened when he tasted her cocktail for the first time. How she had been happy to serve him.

She was about to leave for the office when the phone rang.

“Ma’am,” her assistant said breathlessly, “you need to see this. Mr. McCracken is on the news.”

“Raphael?” Benita frowned. “What does he think he’s doing?”

She rushed into the living room, grabbed the remote and there he was. Her stepbrother, broadcasting their private disaster to all of New York.

This was a disaster.

“Call an emergency meeting,” she snapped. “I’ll be at the office in thirty minutes.”

Already getting worked up as she dialed his number.

“Hey, Benny, I was just about to—”

“Meet me in my office. Now.”

She hung up.

“Have you seen the news?” Vince asked from Damien’s doorway. “Looks like the McCrackens are finally admitting how bad things are.”

Damien’s jaw tightened. “That doesn’t sound like the old man. He never accepted defeat. Something’s wrong.” Vince simply shrugged.

He looked at Vince, waiting.

“What?” Vince asked.

“I gave you a job,” Damien said coolly. “It’s been three months.”

Vince sighed. “Damien, I don’t think your mystery woman is real. No match so far. She could be married, living on some island—”

“She’s real,” Damien cut in. “Even if she’s married, I need closure. Watching her video, imagining her next to me….it’s unhealthy.”

“You have a video?” Vince’s eyes widened.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

Damien handed him his phone.

Vince frowned. “I’ve seen her before. Paris. Hotel lobby. She was checking out, she was look scared and worried. She bumped into me and didn’t even stop.”

Damien froze. “That’s impossible. She didn’t check into my hotel… wait. Are you saying she was already there?”

“I think so.”

“Can you find her?”

“Five days. Max.” Vince smiled. “Mind if I take your jet?”

Damien waved him off.

“Five days,” Damien murmured, watching the paused image of her laughing. “Then you’re mine, mystery woman.”

Rafe strolled into the office lazily. Only a handful of executives were seated, his father’s loyal confidants. Benita waited.

“You called for me?” he asked, knowing exactly why.

“Care to explain that stunt on TV?” Benita said.

“Stunt?” Rafe scoffed. “I just stated the company might be in crisis. Excuse my language, but it takes some balls to do that.”

Her father’s lawyer turned to her. “Ms. McCracken?”

unsure what to expect.

She exhaled sharply. “First of all, Rafe, since you’re talking about balls….you clearly have none. What you did was reckless stupidity.”

“Ben—”

“I’m not finished!”

The room went silent.

“We all know how the media and the stock market will react if the company's crisis becomes public. After a week bank share will fall by half. And in a fucking month, we’ll be forced to sell and fire thousands. Preventing that is what I call having balls. Not public suicide!.”

“And what makes you think I’m on your side?” he shot back.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Watch me.”

“Get out of my office,” she said. in a hush angry whisper. “Now!.”

The next day, the world knew.

 The next day, it was official. The McCracken Industrials has fallen and would be sold to the highest bidder at the “Maison de Elite,” New York’s notorious billionaire enclave. Rafe had made the decision public, leaving Benita stripped bare for the first time in her life. Unsure of what to do, she rushed to the hospital, desperate to see  her father, only to find him lifeless, machines unplugged , his body was being covered from head to toe.

Dr. Peter’s office was empty.

Not sure what is going on she went back to her father's room to stop them from taking him.

“No—no!” she cried, blocking the nurses. “Who authorized this?”

“The guardian,” one replied.

“The guardian? no no you are mistaken I’m his guardian!”

““You’re forgetting someone else,” Rafe said from the doorway, signaling them to take the body.

Rafe stood in the doorway.

She walked up to him and slapped him…hard.

“If that helps you see reality,” he said calmly, “do it again.”

“What reality? That you sold my company and killed my father?” she hissed, tears streaming.

“Our company. And I didn’t kill him,” Rafe snapped. “Second, the company is already on the brink. It has to go to auction,”

“And that was your call to make?” she queried.

“it doesn't matter whose call it is and besides I added a clause to attract buyers.”

Her stomach dropped. This can't be worse than it already has. “Which is?”

“You.”

The room spun. He added her to the clause like some cheap offer?

“You’re selling me?”

“It’s a win,” he said coldly. “ You don't want to let go of the company and putting you in the spotlight as the brain behind the company success so far will give you  the resources, power, to reclaim what’s yours.”

She staggered back, starring at him, realizing this had been planned all along.

Damien saw the news.

The old man was dead.

Vince called. He already switched the news too.

“The daughter’s part of the deal. Sold with the company.”

Like as if that should be his business.

“ I know why you are calling Vince. I’m not going,” Damien said.

“There’s something off,” Vince replied. “The IP address we are tracking, it’s active again.”

“Where?”

“Maison de Elite.”

Damien swore under his breath . This can't be a coincidence “I’ll be there.”

The club was dark. It smells of Corruption. Power.

“Gentleman…” that was Raphael McCracken's bastard son. Out of everyone he'd expected him to fight for the company not want to sell it off with his sister. Unless he have something to gain from it.

Damien took a quiet cubicle, minding his own business.

Damien sat alone until the announcement began, listening to the speech makes him feel disgusted.

Rafe McCracken looks rather too excited to be rid of the company. Strange.

“And alongside the company,” Rafe declared, “my sister…Ms. Benita McCracken.”

Applause roared.

Damien stood without realizing it.

There she was.

 The flawless figure of his mystery woman, walking to the podium.

His heart jumped. skidded to a stop. picked up and started beating again. All at once.

Black gown. Bare shoulders. Hair swept up. Real.

“Fuck me,” he muttered, eyes glued to her every move. 

His phone rang. It was Vince.

“Damien, I just found your mystery woman. You won’t believe who it is.”

“I think I just found her too,” Damien whispered, his chest tightening. “And I can’t believe who she is”.