Chapter 11
ELEVEN
LOURDES
When I woke up Monday morning, I did so knowing I was ready for battle. The war Neo and I had been waging hadn’t ended. No one ever wanted us to just hit pause. We took time to lick our wounds, and now we would be back for more.
The watch Neo had gifted me was on my wrist. No other jewelry adorned my body. I would take what he gave me and rub it in his face.
I wore a pair of burgundy wide-leg pants and a cream silk blouse. My hair had the perfect blowout, making my mornings all that much easier. Having to deal with my curls was a pain in the ass.
Once I was sure my armor was in place, I walked down to the lobby of my fancy condo and waited for the valet to bring me my new car. It was an early birthday present, but had I known what would unfold, I might have thought better of it.
I didn’t let myself look around the parking lot as I got to work. I was still trying to gaslight myself into thinking everything was fine and this was just another ordinary day.
Clearly, everyone else wasn’t following my same mantra. The building was buzzing with anticipation. You’d think the asshole was special or something. He was just another man who was good at his job, that was literally it. I didn’t understand why men like that got put on a pedestal.
When I got to my department, I was hesitant before opening the door. I know Marie said not to worry because I had nurtured my staff, and now I had to sit down and trust that I had secured my seat, but it was still nerve-racking.
I was ready to move on from marketing to sales. It was the next logical move for me if I wanted to be COO. My previous plan had been accounting, then from there CFO, but COO had more power.
Mami, I wish you would have left me a note for a day like this. As quickly as the thought came into my head, I shook it away. My mami didn’t need to be involved in any of this. I would have never fallen for my stepbrother if she had been alive.
I looked at my watch, the same watch Neo had bought me, and smiled when it was ten minutes before the meeting. If I left now, I would be one of the first in the conference room.
Today, the elevator mocked me as it pinged open for me. It wasn’t like I could avoid the damn thing if I wanted to go to meetings. Walking upstairs in my heels was a big hell no, so I had to deal with the hazy memory. At least with the lights on, it felt like a completely different place here.
I gave myself a mental pep talk, then stepped out and headed straight for the conference room.
Hubris was a man’s downfall and, apparently, mine since I was sure I would be one of the first here.
Technically, I was the second person here. The first was already sitting down in a seat that was right across my father’s. The other head of the table. It would have hurt more if the shock of seeing Neo right before me wasn’t taking over my body.
He looked the same except for his hair. His curls were a bit longer but styled to perfection. He was reviewing the files before him and didn’t bother to look up. I didn’t say a word as I pulled open my chair. It was two seats away from him on his right.
Once I sat down and put my tablet on the table, he glanced up for a second.
“Good morning,” he greeted me without bothering to look at me properly, then immediately returned to his files.
Just as my stomach dropped with his dismissal, he glanced up again. His brow was furrowed and his eyes narrowed.
“What the fuck happened to your hair?”
He had been gone for three years, after finger fucking me, and that was the first thing he wanted to ask me?
“I see you’re still as pleasant as ever,” I bit back.
Something in him shifted as I snapped at him. He leaned back in his chair and began to assess me. I could feel his eyes roaming over my face, down my neck, and what he saw of my body.
If there was one thing I was grateful for now, it was that even though he knew how I felt, he didn’t know what my face looked like when I fell apart. That was a vulnerability I was glad he didn’t have.
“And here I thought you had been fired,” he replied in a bored tone.
“They gave me your department after six months. How long did it take you? Two…three years to get it?”
Neo scoffed.
“Why would I want that when they allowed me to run a whole branch?”
My throat constricted because he had a point.
Neo kept going.
“This whole time, I thought I was doing charity work. I felt bad for you since they gave you a filler spot, and I said to myself, “It’s okay, Neo, you already took her goals and dreams, it’s the least you can do for her. Not even her grandfather trusts her.”
How was it that he had been gone for years, and he still knew where to shove his knife and make it hurt? My eyes stung from refusing to blink because if I did so, I would also flinch.
“No words, Lou? The last time we were together you were quite vocal.” The asshole smirked at me.
“Fuck you,” I seethed.
His gaze penetrated mine as if he was trying to dig up my weaknesses so he could exploit them, then he looked back at his files.
“Had the chance already. It didn’t sound appealing then, even less now.”
Ouch .
So, this was it? We were going to pretend like nothing ever happened? And if it got brought up, it was only to humiliate me further?
I took a deep breath and willed my pain to go away, at least until I could break down in private.
Back then, I would have said more to try to have the last word, but this time, I bit my tongue. I looked down at my watch, now regretting my decision to come earlier. I was already counting the minutes until this meeting ended. As I opened my laptop, I could feel the side of my face heat, and it took everything in me not to look at him.
Soon, everyone began to walk inside, and my father and Pricilla were some of the last ones to arrive.
My eyes were on my screen, as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. One of the crusty old men in the room began chatting with Neo.
“Gerald sings your high praises, my boy.”
I didn’t even bother to pay attention to who said it, I just rolled my eyes.
“It’s so good to have you back, honey,” Pricilla chimed in.
“Must’ve been hard for him to find his ass without you around to guide him,” I mumbled.
Judging by Pricilla’s glare from across the table, she might have heard me.
“While you have been running your silly campaigns, Neo has been thinking of ways to expand our reach. He’s taking us to new heights.”
I turned to look at Neo and plastered on a fake smile.
“Are we opening up a new branch in space? When do you leave?”
His eyes seemed brighter than they had earlier. On his lips was the hint of a smile.
“Don’t worry, sis, no need to be threatened. I’m not here after your position.”
He was baiting me, and instead of engaging him, I turned toward my father.
Since Pricilla’s comment had the effect, she wanted everyone waiting patiently for my father to explain what she had meant by that.
Feeling all eyes on him, my father cleared his throat.
“We wanted to iron out all the details before bringing this to the table.” He cast a reproachful look at Pricilla before he carried on. “For some time, we wanted to expand into technology, but we had never done so because we didn’t have a steady foot in the door.”
Pricilla cut my father off and took over.
“I’m sure you all know my son’s friendship with Tatum Park.”
I had prepared for seeing Neo again, but I had not prepared for this. I froze and waited for someone to say they were joking.
“Of Park Technologies?”
I was grateful to whoever had asked that because I needed the confirmation myself.
“Yes,” Neo spoke in a low tone. “Please, Mother, have some decorum and let the men speak,” he said lightly, and a few people laughed, but the side-eye he gave her was a warning.
If it were any other time, I would have laughed at her embarrassment, but I was still trying to recover from that shock.
“A few years ago, I came to Richard with a proposition. An untapped market for us, and we have been working on a few things. With Gerald’s blessing, we are looking forward to a launch in the near future.”
My whole family was in on this.
Oh, no wonder the asshole looked so fucking smug whenever he saw me. Tatum Park felt untouchable because he taught my whole family was on his side.
Neo went on, and I just looked at my screen, feeling betrayed, foolish, and hurt. I didn’t hear the logistics of what we were doing or the plan-from-hell. I didn’t even know what his new role would be. I kept replaying his words over and over again.
“Hate that he took from you. I hate that I wasn’t there to stop it sooner, but most of all, I hate that he touched something I’ve always considered mine.”
Bravo, Neo, you took me for a fool.
I was so lost that laughter took me out of my intrusive thoughts.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with my relator in twenty minutes,” Neo told everyone. I refused to look at him but heard his chair move.
“Where are you looking to buy?” someone asked. “My son’s friend is selling his condo.”
“I have a place in Westtown that I’m looking to get rid of,” he replied smoothly.
This time, he had the reaction he wanted, and I looked at him, and Neo smirked at me.
Three years ago, I took his card, and little by little, I kept testing the limits on it, hoping he had someone else handle the payments. It was, on a whim, a lonely night when I decided he could pay for my apartment. No one was more surprised than me when I never got a call back that the payment was declined. So, with the month paid and the furniture bought, I assumed about twenty thousand was the limit. I had yet to test more than that.
He paid for vacations, when it was my turn to host girls’ nights, and my account at La Perla was also covered.
Let’s say that he has been extremely generous for the last three years.
One thing I didn’t account for was the fact that it would put me at his mercy.
Mierda .
Shit. How could I have overseen that little detail?
“I heard it’s a great location. Up-and-coming. You shouldn’t let go of a great investment.” I shrugged it off.
He mumbled something, but I didn’t bother to work it out.
“Neo,” my father called out before he could walk out the door.
Why would he do that? I was trying to get the fuck out of here, I was even contemplating taking the stairs to make sure we wouldn’t be in the elevator together.
“Is there something I missed, Richard?”
I shut down my laptop and was determined to make a getaway while he was busy talking to my father.
“We should all go out tonight for dinner. What do you say, Lou?”
Fuck.
“I would love to, but I can’t. I’m meeting?—”
“You can bring that boy you're seeing… Cristobal, was it?”
Cristobal was just a friend. He wanted the connections that came with being my plus-one, and I got a gorgeous arm candy. We had met back in college in my Hispanic studies classes. When he moved to the East Coast, he looked me up. He was nice, very proud, and hardworking. In some aspects, he reminded me of my mother. Someone with no legs in my world, and when she got a chance, she left a strong foothold. It was my way of paying it forward.
“It’s a family dinner. Strangers shouldn’t be allowed to come,” Neo added instantly. “I just got back in the country, and I don’t want it splashed in the tabloids by whoever is warming Lou’s bed.”
“Cristobal is an attorney. Only one of us dates stupid airheads who can’t keep their mouths shut, and it’s not me.”
My blood sang at this moment. His eyes sparkled as I finally spoke back. He looked triumphant, and just as he opened his mouth, my father yelled at us.
“Enough!”
We both jumped back at my father’s outburst.
“We are getting ready to take on a new frontier in this company, and the last thing we need is someone getting a front-row seat to the two of you acting like children. We are Rivieres. Start acting like it!”
“Oh, honey.” Pricilla opened her mouth, and my father’s ire turned to her.
“At the end of the month, they are set to meet with Park’s team. They need to show a united front.”
This was news to me.
“What meet?” I asked.
“I thought you and Neo would be the ones going?” Pricilla asked.
“I changed my mind,” my father told her. “Gerald wants us to decide the future of this company, so I think it’s only fair they both get to go and show us how they handle themselves.”
That’s why he was back. He wanted the COO role, which had been unofficially vacant since my father took my grandfather’s CEO position.
He was determined to take it all from me. When I looked at my father, it was like seeing him for the first time. There was an ocean between us, and for the first time, I wanted to try to reach him. It wasn’t much, but he was giving me more of a fair shot than my grandfather ever had.