Chapter 35
DEX
I’m sitting at a table at The Oasis, waiting for Rio. I’ve already ordered his bottle of beer. Me? I’m drinking water.
Jett and Zach have texted, asking me if I want to have drinks, but I’ve told them I’m busy. Naturally, they assume I’m busy with my wife. I figure the old man hasn’t told them about the dirty sneaky thing he’s done with Arminio, my father-in-law, because if they knew, they’d be at my door. Jett would storm into the old man’s office, throwing chairs and demanding blood.
As for Zach? He’d find some way to excuse it. Say it was just business. Say that “Dad” had his reasons.
I don’t need to involve them. I’ll tell them when the time is right. When the wrong has been righted.
Rio struts towards me, dark glasses, designer suit, running his hand through his long hair, which falls forward falls into his eyes. He’s wearing that signature lazy grin again. “You look like hell,” he says, slapping me across the back.
“Feel like shit.”
He walks to the edge and looks out over the skyline. “You bring me all the way up here to mope? Thought we were going to get to work?”
“We are. I couldn’t sleep, but I have a plan. Been thinking about it all night. Need to run it by you.”
Rio rubs his hands together. “Bring it on.”
“The old man Paul thinks he’s outplayed everyone. He’s taken fifty-one per cent of Daniela’s father’s company, and he thinks it gives him leverage over me. He thinks I’ll fall in line.”
“True. But you married her, I don’t get how he’s going to keep you in line when you already stepped up and did the thing he wanted.”
Now comes the part I’ve been keeping from him. “He thinks I’m desperate for the money. I get one million dollars for every month I’m married.”
Rio whistles. “What … the … fuck ?”
“I know. It’s not why I married her.”
Rio sits back, his arm lazily draped over the chair next to him. “Dude, I know. You’re not about the money. Revenge and spite are more your game.”
“Only, it’s backfired now. I’m not walking out after seven months, or three.”
“The hell you aren’t,” Rio chuckles.
“But we’re getting control of Arminio’s company back.”
Rio sits up. I lay it out for him, everything I know. My father-in-law’s health is failing. Daniela’s desperate. My father’s holding all the cards, and we need to flip things around.
“I want you to make him an offer,” I say. “One he can’t ignore. Something that comes from your side. You, Matteo, and Enzo.”
Rio gives a low whistle. “You want me and my brothers in on it, too?”
“The old man will never see it coming.”
Rio smiles. Broad, wide, confident. “I like it. I pretend I’m swooping in for control?”
“Exactly. The old man naturally assumes we’re all divided. He doesn’t know we’re close. Has no idea that we talk. Hell, he still thinks you’d stab me before you’d ever help me.”
Rio laughs. “He’s not entirely wrong.”
“Are you in?”
“You really love her?”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I do. More than I’ve ever loved anyone, brother.”
“This isn’t just a friends-with-benefits type of deal?”
“It was never that,” I say feeling wistful. Daniela was always so much more.
“Then I’m in,” Rio says. “I’ll get Matteo and Enzo on board.”
“Do it now, because we don’t have much time. I told Daniela I need to figure things out, but I know this has hurt her too much, what the old man did to her father, but what her own father did, when he didn’t come clean with her. I know this woman, and family means everything to her. I want to make things right for her.”
“I’m on it.” He slides out his cellphone and calls Matteo. Tells him to bring Enzo with him, since they’re both still in the office. We sit, drinking quietly while we wait. I see the bar’s owner walking by. “Luke!” I raise my arm when I see my friend.
“Congrats, man, I hear you got married,” Luke says to me, before shaking hands with me and Rio. “You didn’t waste any time.”
“I remembered your wise words. Once you meet the right woman, never let her go.”
“Glad you listened.”
I thank him for recommending The Bluebell Manhattan, the place where Daniela and I had our first date.
“Cool. I’m glad you liked it.”
“Lovely hotel. You did it up real nice.”
“It’s won quite a few awards already,” he announces proudly.
“Rightly so, brother.” I’m already imagining candle-lit dinners there with Daniela.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but we have a rooftop sky garden, right at the top. Anytime you have a special occasion, let me know. I can get the whole thing set up just for you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. You going to buy every hotel in sight?” I ask. This man started off with bars and nightclubs. The Oasis is still going strong, but The Vault, the club in the basement is no longer there. Luke’s been slowly acquiring real estate and has now moved onto buying hotels and doing them up.
“Keeps me busy.” He grins. “Let me know if I can help, if you need another special date with your wife.”
“Thanks, brother.”
“Cool dude,” Rio comments when Luke walks away. He looks content, like he owns the world. I know him. He does.
“He’s a good guy. Family man.”
“Wife?” Rio asks.
I nod. “Still happily married. I think he has three, maybe four boys now.”
“Nice if you can find that kind of happiness.”
“What’s the deal with you and Raquel?” I ask.
“I have no fucking idea,” Rio replies. Just as I’m about to question him further, Matteo and Enzo stroll towards us. Matteo with that casual, laid back swagger that seems to be his trademark, and Enzo, cool and sophisticated. Like he’s on a runway, modelling for Tom Ford or Lora Piana.
Matteo whistles. “If this is some ambush, I swear to God—”
“It’s not,” Rio cuts in. “It’s important.”
“Important? Why are we meeting here?” he regards me with suspicion.
“Because they don’t want our father to know about it”, Enzo replies, ever the observer.
“We’re forming an alliance,” Rio says.
Matteo glances in my direction. “An alliance? With him? ”
Rio doesn’t flinch. “Dex needs our help.”
“Since when do you two even talk?” Matteo asks.
Rio glances at me, then back at them. “We talk. We just don’t advertise it. Because if the old man ever knew we were working together, he’d do everything in his power to destroy it.”
They go quiet and the silence slices through the tensions.
“We’re family,” Rio continues, calm and clear. “We shouldn’t let the likes of our old man divide us.”
That seems to settle things. They sit down. Matteo rubs the back of his neck. Enzo just sits and waits.
A server comes and takes their order.
“Is this about Daniela?” Enzo asks. This guy? He’s a dark horse. He’s perceptive, and sharp. Observant, too. Moving like he’s always three steps ahead but never has to raise his voice or impress, to prove it.
“Let me explain,” I say, once the server has set their drinks on the table. I tell them what’s happened, about the contract, and Daniela’s father, and the old man taking the majority share in his company. A part of me feels bad that I’m not telling my own brothers first, but I can’t afford for Jett to go in guns blazing to sort this out.
I explain our strategy. “We’re not going to outright fight the old man. We’re going to do what he’s good at. We’re going to trick him into signing back the fifty-one percent without realizing it.”
“You want us to go to him and offer to buy the company?” Matteo asks.
“Not buy,” Rio replies. “We contact outside investors who have a vested interest in AO Eletronica.”
“Are these people legit?” Enzo asks.
“Yes, they will be,” I reply. “That’s the beauty. We’re not going to fabricate anything. We’re just guiding the narrative.”
“How are you going to find them?”
“My father-in-law, will help,” I answer smoothly. “I’ve already spoken to him and apologized about the way the old man handled things, about how he tricked him into signing over the shares.”
“That must have been a heavy call,” Rio says.
“It was, but he apologized. Said he felt bad for what he’d done, cooking the books and all that. Said he felt the worst for Daniela, for not being honest with her. I told him we’re not going to dwell on the past. We’re going to fix this. The guy’s not in a good place. He didn’t tell his daughter the whole truth, and she walked into a marriage of convenience blind. That kind of guilt eats you up. I know it does.” I take a moment to inhale. To think about how Daniela saved me, how she made me see. And now I want to fix things for her. “If something happens to him … she’ll never forgive herself. I’ll never forgive myself.” I reflect on how much Daniela loves her parents. How much they love her. “I want him to recover from this. He had to be in a desperate place to do this.” A quiet murmur goes around the table. “I told him it has to be our secret. That he can’t tell Daniela, or anyone, not even his wife.”
“How’s that going to help?” Matteo asks.
“We just drop the right whispers in the right ears and let their interest do the rest,” I reply.
“How?”
“We don’t approach the old man directly. Instead we quietly stoke real investor interest in AO Eletronica by talking to people who already have an interest in the company. Arminio has a list of old players, some of whom have history with AO Eletronica. Some just see it as undervalued tech ready for revival.”
“I still don’t see how that will help.”
“These whispers build buzz and speculation that will reach Paul through his own channels; his legal team, PR advisors, industry journalists and so on. Then we manufacture a crisis. Maybe a foreign investor consortium is preparing a hostile takeover of AO Eletronica or some regulatory risks if Knight Enterprises holds a majority in a foreign-run tech company, something like that. Something that would hurt Knight’s quarterly numbers, and maybe even trigger shareholder panic. The purpose of this crisis is to scare the old man into thinking that AO Eletronica is now a liability. It’s classic corporate manipulation.”
Rio sighs as if he’s been enlightened. “The old man ends up hearing exactly what we want him to hear, but it feels like it’s coming from independent sources. He never suspects that we’re behind it.”
“Exactly.”
“Smart,” Rio says. “You’ve been working hard, dude.”
“I haven’t slept.”
“You look like shit,” Matteo comments.
“Thanks, brother. ”
Enzo looks thoughtful. “You should take care of yourself. This isn’t going to be easy, going up against our father.”
“It’s easier compared to the thought of losing Daniela.”
Matteo and Enzo look at me. You care about her? Is what I read on their faces.
“Let’s stick to the task at hand,” Rio says. “So,” he points a finger at me, “ … the old man takes the bait, he’ll panic, thinking AO Eletronica is a liability now, and he’ll look to quietly dump the fifty one percent holding before it implodes.”
“Correct. Then, a shell company, it’s probably better that you three form that,” I say to the Italian Knights. I trust Rio implicitly, and I trust Matteo and Enzo because I know they’d do Rio’s bidding. Keeping my name out of it entirely is probably a better bet. “You’re behind the shell company and you offer to buy the fifty-one percent. The old man thinks he’s outsmarted the market, but the shell company is secretly owned by you three, and the moment the deal is done, you own the majority stake.”
“And then what?” Enzo asks. “You give it back?”
Rio nods. “We return control back to Daniela’s father. It’s all done through a shell company. The old man will never see it coming.”
“Why would he give up the shares in the first place?” Matteo asks.
Rio clicks his fingers. “Focus dude. The hostile takeover or regulatory issue.”
I take over. “Yes, exactly that. We leak that holding onto the company could bleed Knight Enterprises. Something like that. I’m still working on the finer points. The old man doesn’t like losing money. He’ll offload the shares.”
They exchange glances. No one speaks for a long beat.
Finally, Matteo grins. “Damn. I kind of love it.”
Enzo lets out an exhale. “He’ll be pissed when he figures it out.”
“That’s the point,” I say. “He doesn’t figure it out until it’s too late.”
“How does this help you?” Enzo asks.
I look at Rio. “It helps me get my wife back.”
Matteo cocks his head. Enzo’s dark eyes glitter, and I can sense he has questions, but doesn’t push.
“Are you guys in?” Rio asks them.
They nod.
“Then let’s drink to it.” Rio calls a server over and places the drinks order. But to me this doesn’t feel like a celebration just yet.
It won’t do until the shares are signed over to Daniela’s father.
***
The tension is sky high.
Where I used to lie in bed with Daniela in my arms, now I’m alone in my bed. We’re sleeping in separate rooms again. I leave for work early in the morning. I hit the gym at five a.m. to take out my frustration. By 6:30, I’m at the office, buried in deals. After work, in the evenings, we convene at Rio’s place. Me and the Italian Knights. During the day it’s business as usual in the offices, but after work, we all work hard putting this deal together.
I’m grateful to Matteo and Enzo, that they’re helping, and our bond becomes stronger, over drinks and takeout as we work around the clock.
It’s been a week and the silence is unbearable.
Daniela’s been working from home. By the time I get back, she’s getting ready for work. Sometimes she goes out in the evenings. I check with her security detail and discover that it’s usually to meet Cari at a bar or restaurant.
I’ve tried to talk to her, to get back some of the friendly banter we used to have. I care for her, but she’s frozen me out. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her about me wanting to walk away after seven months, but I didn’t want any lies between us. It’s the lies that destroy people.
But she’s been distant, and I don’t want to push too hard. She needs her time and space, and I need to give it to her. I just can’t tell her anything about what I’m working on because I don’t trust the old man to coax it out of her. He’ll find a way, and I can’t risk that.
But I feel confident that this is going to work. And once my father-in-law gets his company back, Daniela will see we’re going to be okay.