13: Josh's past

Josh POV

I was sitting in my private car, scrolling through my phone. I had just come out of a meeting with some investors from Italy, a powerful family that owned a vast vineyard with the finest grapes in the region. This family had been our supplier for years, providing most of the grapes used for our wine.

Carter’s Wine Co. was a family legacy, passed down through generations for over two hundred years. But since the company was founded, no previous generation had seen as much profitable growth as we were experiencing now, under my leadership.

That was the result of a lot of hard work and dedication on my part. To be honest, I didn’t have much of a choice: focus on the company or my family. Of the two options, I chose the company, and now I was paying a steep price for it.

I sighed quietly, swiping my finger across the smartphone screen as I focused on Cassandra Millans’ photos and videos on social media.

Andrew and Connor were efficient when they got her phone number from her friend and sent it to me right after, so now it was easy to look her up on social media—something I personally despised using, but Cassandra was worth it.

I was browsing her I*******m posts. Cassie was an incredibly beautiful girl and hadn’t left my mind since the first day I saw her; she even managed to make me stop thinking about work, which was nearly impossible for anyone else.

She also didn’t seem as greedy as most of the women I went out with to unwind. I felt she was special while also being intensely attracted to her.

“We’re arriving at Ms. Bethany’s house, sir,” Butler, my driver, informed me as we pulled into a high-end estate just outside downtown Chicago. I nodded, looking out the window, and turned off my phone. I was so engrossed in stalking Cassie’s social media that I barely noticed we had already arrived at my ex-wife’s house.

“Understood,” I replied to Butler.

As soon as he parked the car, I got out and entered the mansion that used to be my home, where I lived with my wife and son over ten years ago. The place still looked the same as ever; it was incredible that, even after more than a decade since I stopped living there, Bethany hadn’t changed the decor or replaced a single piece of furniture.

Everything was exactly as I had left it. After a brief conversation with the staff, I saw my ex-wife descending the stairs elegantly, heading toward me.

“Finally, you showed up,” she said as she came down.

Bethany was a beautiful woman. Born and raised in high society, she was still stunning even after her forties. It must have been her beauty that led my parents to force me into an arranged marriage with her over twenty years ago.

I gave a small smile and hugged her briefly. Despite our difficulties in the past, I held no grudges against her; on the contrary, I always wished her well.

“It hasn’t been that long since I was here last,” I said, slipping my hands back into my pockets.

Bethany rolled her eyes, her blonde hair shimmering under the chandelier’s light. “Please, it’s been six months since you last came,” she replied, trying to call me out.

“Well, I’ve been very busy, and I don’t want to bother you with my presence all the time,” I said, walking through the house. After all, she and I weren’t close, and my son was no longer a child.

“I’ve told you, this house will always be yours too, Josh,” she said, starting the same old conversation.

Unfortunately, even ten years after our divorce, Bethany had never gotten over it, still trying to convince me to come back home, which was uncomfortable for me after everything we’d been through. So, I preferred to ignore her advances, like now, for example.

“Anyway, where’s my son?” I asked, using it as a way to change the subject.

I heard an audible sigh from the woman beside me. “Nice to know you still remember you have a son,” she teased, hitting a sore spot in my strained relationship with my son.

Like his mother, Mark didn’t handle my divorce well. He often blamed me and pushed me further out of his life, saying he didn’t want a father-son relationship with me. He even insisted on taking his mother’s last name instead of mine and had no interest in succeeding me as CEO of Carter’s Wine Co.

I knew he hated me, and no matter how hard I tried to get closer, he never forgave me or tried to understand my side. To him and everyone else, I was the irresponsible man who abandoned his wife and son for lovers, but I accepted the bad reputation if it meant being at peace with myself.

I was deeply unhappy in my marriage to Bethany. The marriage was forced by my parents, and I couldn’t bring myself to love her during our time together, even though she gave me a son. So, I buried myself deeper in work, using it as an excuse to come home late or stay away for days.

The marriage became even more exhausting when Bethany started suspecting I was having affairs with other women, and the media didn’t help.

Hired by rival companies to tarnish the image of the young CEO of Carter’s Wine Co. that I was, the media published nonexistent cheating scandals involving my name with various women, just to paint a rotten picture of me.

I didn’t care much about my reputation because I knew it was all false, and although I didn’t love or feel attracted to my wife at the time, I never slept with another woman while married to her.

But Bethany didn’t share my perspective; she grew increasingly suspicious until my marriage to her became unbearable. When I wanted a divorce, she filed a lawsuit, claiming damages on my part, alleging I had cheated on her.

I lost the case and had to pay her billions in compensation. I lost a lot of money back then and nearly got ousted as CEO of Carter’s Wine Co.

However, the shareholders had to be impartial and agree that I was an excellent CEO, practically working miracles with the company’s profit growth, which kept me in the position to this day.

Rival companies and my ex-wife did everything to destroy me, and people always associated me with anything bad that happened to the company’s image, trying to harm its reputation. But it was the quality of the wine that kept Carter’s Wine Co. at the top, the largest distributor in the region.