All Chapters of Making My Ex-Husband Crawl: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

80 Chapters

21| SAY IT OUT LOUD

Dante's PovShe was on her third call of the morning when I set coffee down beside her and sat across the table and waited.She wrapped it up in two minutes. She always did. She did not let calls run past what they needed to be."Marcus?" I said."Supplier update," she said. "The last two eastern contracts finalised overnight. V. Intl now holds the full eastern network.""So it is done," I said."That part is done," she said. She picked up the coffee.I looked at her across the table. She was in one of my shirts, her hair was loose, she had the tablet propped against the sugar bowl because she had been reading reports since six in the morning. She looked completely at home and I was not sure she knew that yet."I want to ask you something," I said."Ask," she said."I want to make this official," I said.She looked up from the tablet. "Define official," she said."Us," I said. "I want people to know on our terms. I want to be somewhere with you publicly and not have it be about Cassia

22| HAMMER DOWN

Valerie's PovThe auction house was full by the time I arrived.Forty seats. Every one taken, the room smelled like old money and fresh nerves, which was the particular combination that showed up whenever significant assets changed hands publicly.I had been in rooms like this before on the wrong side of the table. Today I was not on the wrong side of anything.Marcus leaned close as we found our seats. "Lot fourteen is the one," he said. "The Meridian commercial property. Cassian leveraged it as part of the credit facility. The bank called it in. It goes under the hammer in about forty minutes.""What is the reserve?" I said."Eight point two million," he said. "Our ceiling?""Whatever it takes," I said. "Within reason.""Define within reason," he said."Eleven," I said. "If it goes past eleven we let it go.""Understood," he said.We sat through the first thirteen lots. Office furniture from a collapsed retail chain. A warehouse in the south district. A restaurant lease, the room th

23| NOBODY LEFT

Cassian's PovThe auction house security put me on the pavement outside and left me there.No scene or argument. Just two men who had done this before, a door that closed behind them, and me standing on the street in a suit that needed pressing with nowhere specific to go.I called Valerie.She did not pick up.I called again.Voicemail.I stood on the pavement for a few minutes. A woman with a pushchair gave me a wide berth. A man in a delivery uniform glanced at me and looked away. I probably looked exactly like what I was. A man who had just been removed from a building and was not sure what came next.I called my lawyer."The Meridian property," I said when he picked up. "It went at auction this morning. V. Intl bought it.""I saw the listing," he said. "I was going to call you.""Is there anything we can do?" I said. "Legally. Any grounds to challenge the sale.""No," he said. "The bank called the asset. The auction was properly advertised. The sale was clean. There are no ground

24| UNINVITED

Valerie's PovThe Business Leadership Award was not something I had campaigned for.Marcus had submitted the nomination eleven months ago as a visibility exercise during the early days of V. Intl going public. By the time the invitation came through, the company had grown past the point where we needed the visibility. But I accepted anyway because declining an award looks like something to hide.Dante was beside me at the table. We had done this three times now. Sat beside each other at public events without it being about anything except being there. It was getting easier each time.The ceremony was two hours of speeches and short films about corporate responsibility and then a dinner. I was three tables from the main stage when my category came up. I accepted the award, said the right things, and came back to my seat."Short," Dante said when I sat down."I said what I needed to say," I said."You could have been warmer," he said."I was warm enough," I said."Two sentences about th

25| JUST THE TWO OF US

Dante's PovThe villa was on a hillside above the water and it had no neighbours and no staff for the weekend, which was exactly what I had asked for when I booked it.Valerie walked through the front door, looked at the view through the back window, and said nothing for about twenty seconds."Well," she said finally."I know," I said."You did not tell me it looked like this," she said."I wanted you to see it," I said. "Not hear about it."She turned and looked at me. "That is very you," she said."Is that a complaint?" I said."No," she said. She turned back to the view. "It is absolutely not a complaint."We unpacked. She had brought half a suitcase and a bag of work which I confiscated at the door and put in the car boot."That is my work," she said."It will still be your work on Sunday," I said. "Come and sit outside.""I have three things that need…""Valerie," I said. "Come and sit outside."She looked at me for a moment. Then she came and sat outside.The terrace had two cha

26| SELLING THE BONES

Cassian's PovThe pawn shop was on a side street off the financial district, it smelled like old carpet and dust and the particular staleness of things people had given up on.I set the watch on the glass counter. The man behind it picked it up without looking at me, turned it over twice, set it back down."Four hundred," he said."That watch cost eleven thousand," I said."That watch cost eleven thousand new," he said. "It is not new.""It is three years old," I said. "It has barely been worn.""Four hundred," he said again. He did not move.I took the four hundred.I called Reeves from the pavement outside. He picked up on the second ring."Tell me you have something useful," I said."I have updates," he said. "Not all of them are what you are looking for.""Then tell me the ones that are," I said."The lawsuit," he said. "My contact at the court says it has been received and logged. Sterling's legal team filed a response within four hours. They are calling it frivolous.""It is not

27| THE PART I DID NOT PLAN FOR

Valerie's PovI told Dante about the Collier Street building over breakfast.He set his coffee down and looked at me. "How did he find out?""Davies told him," I said. "Which I expected. I wanted him to know.""You wanted him to see it coming," Dante said."I wanted him to understand the scope," I said. "It is not just the suppliers and the contracts and the stock. It is every building, every asset, every piece of the company that was built with money that came from my father. All of it is coming back.""How does that feel?" he said.I looked at my plate. "That is the part I have been thinking about," I said."Tell me," he said."I planned all of this with a very specific feeling attached to it," I said. "The feeling was certainty. I was certain it was right, i was certain it was what I wanted. I never questioned whether it would feel good when it happened because I assumed it would.""And now it is happening," he said."And now it is happening," I said. "And I am watching him pawn hi

28| COMING APART

Cassian's PovI had been parked outside the V. Intl building for forty minutes when Reeves called."My men have been pulled," he said. "Your cover is blown. She knows."I watched the front entrance of the building. People going in and out. Nobody who looked like her yet."How?" I said."Someone tipped her," he said. "From inside. Someone who knew the details of the surveillance and passed them directly.""Who?" I said."I do not know yet," he said. "But the information that reached her was accurate. Names, shift times, method. That is not something that comes from a guess.""Someone in your operation," I said."Or someone in yours," he said.I thought about Davies. About the four remaining staff in the Collier Street building. About my lawyer who knew everything and had been asking me increasingly careful questions for weeks."Pull everyone," I said. "Shut it down.""Already done," he said. "Mr. Thorne. I have to be honest with you. This is getting into territory I am not comfortable

29| UNITED FRONT

Valerie's PovMarcus had the security report on the table before I even sat down.Three names. Photographs. Shift rotations. The full picture of what Cassian had put in place over four days before we caught it."All three have been identified," Marcus said. "Two are former private security contractors. The third has a record. Minor, but a record.""Did any of them get close?" I said."The building twice," he said. "Your car once. Nothing closer than a public street.""And now?" I said."They pulled back the same day the tip came in," he said. "We have seen no activity since."Dante was across the table from me with his arms folded and a look on his face that I had learned meant he was deciding how much of what he was thinking to say out loud."Say it," I said."He went to surveillance," Dante said. "That is a different category from lawsuits and public confrontations. Those are desperate. This is something else.""He is cornered," I said. "Cornered people do things that do not fit the

30| I CANNOT STOP YOU

Dante's PovShe told me in the morning.I had not slept well. I had lain awake running the video in my head. The small room, the cracked voice.She came into the kitchen while I was making coffee and she said, "I am going to go."I set the coffee down."No," I said."I have thought about it," she said. "I have the reasons. Let me say them.""Say them," I said."If he confesses on record it gives us something the legal filing alone cannot give us," she said. "His own words. A direct admission of the forged documents, the asset transfers, the fake marriage. That is not just a criminal case. That is everything. It closes every possible avenue he has for challenging anything we have done.""We already have enough," I said."Enough to win," she said. "His confession is enough to make it undeniable. There is a difference.""He asked you to come alone," I said."I am not going alone," she said. "I am taking two security staff. They will be outside whatever room he puts us in. And you will be

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