Chapter 20 Willow
WILLOW
It’s several days later when I make my next move against Olivia.
I’m in the living room of the penthouse with Vic, going over all of Troy’s assets and his business dealings. Now that I have access to them, it’s important that I know what everything is—even if trying to absorb all of this information leaves my head spinning.
Troy’s parents have been trying to cut me out a little, but there’s only so much they can do when Troy himself set this in motion. Under duress, true. But fortunately, there’s no proof of that, and I have witnesses who will say it was all completely voluntary.
“Look at this,” Vic says, drawing my attention to the screen of his laptop.
“What am I looking at?” I ask, grimacing as I stare blankly at the figures and charts in front of me.
“I’ve found another weak spot you can use to kneecap Olivia. See this number here?” He points, and I nod. “That’s capital that Troy funneled into one of her businesses. Judging from the date, it looks like it was a part of the agreement when he married you.”
I make a face. “So what do we do with it?”
Vic smiles at me, his blue eyes gleaming brightly. He really does thrive when it comes to things like this, and I love to see it.
“You withdraw it. Because Troy’s assets are your assets now, you can say where they go. If you don’t want them invested in Olivia’s business, you only need to pull them out.”
I smile back. “What would happen if I did pull them out?”
“Considering these numbers for the last few years, her business isn’t doing so great,” he explains. “More than likely, the money went to this business in particular to keep it from going under. If you were to remove that support…”
“It would topple like a house of cards?”
He grins. “And quickly, from what I can tell.”
“Do it,” I tell him, feeling that same surge of savage glee that I felt when I shut Olivia down at the board meeting.
Vic starts the withdrawal process, and I fill in the necessary information on my end.
I have to take a breath as I do, my heart racing a little.
This is a playing field I’ve never fought on before, but with Vic’s help, I’m doing battle with Olivia in a way that will hit her right at the heart of everything she thinks is important.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I murmur, shaking my head.
“It’s what she deserves,” he points out, his voice turning hard.
“No, I know. It’s just… I used to not even be able to afford decent food every week once I took care of all the bills that needed to be paid. Now I’m fucking with someone’s business to the tune of millions of dollars. It’s just wild.”
“And I’ll keep looking for ways that you can ruin her even more,” he promises. “You may as well put all this wealth and status to good use, right?”
I nod, leaning back against the couch. “Right. Thanks, Vic. I’m so glad to have you on my side in all of this.”
He flushes a little at that, his face going slightly pink. There’s a pleased smile playing around his mouth, and he drops his gaze back to the keyboard of his computer.
“It’s nice to be using my skills against her for once,” he says. “She exploited them for her own gain for a long time, and it’s much more enjoyable to do it this way.”
I like seeing this side of him so much. Getting to see all of him. He’s so much more comfortable around me these days, and it makes me feel good to know that he trusts me.
The feeling is mutual.
I would trust Vic with my life.
Once the withdrawal process is started, we turn to the next order of business.
My conversation with Ransom in the tub reminded me all over again how important getting my college degree has always been to me.
For a long time, it was the only real goal I even had.
My desire to stick it out and graduate instead of quitting to help Olivia run her estate was part of what made her reveal her true colors, forcing my hand and blackmailing me into agreeing to marry Troy.
Now that we’ve decided to stay in Detroit, I want to follow through on that goal—partly for my own satisfaction, and partly as a giant fuck you to Olivia, a reminder that she doesn’t control my life anymore.
I definitely don’t want to continue at Wayne State though. There’s just so much baggage at that school for me to ever really feel comfortable there again.
I told the guys my plan to transfer to another school and continue my studies, and they were on board with it. So now all that’s left is going to campus to pick up my transcripts so I can apply somewhere else.
All three of the brothers insist on coming with me.
None of them are eager to have me out of their sights for long, and I honestly prefer it that way too.
We were forced apart for far too long, and it left invisible wounds on all of us.
Staying together now helps heal those wounds, at least a little.
We head out after lunch, and they fall into place around me as we head down the hall and to the elevator.
“This will be new,” I say, casting a teasing glance at them. “For once, you’ll be coming to campus with me, not just showing up there because you’re basically stalking me.”
Ransom belts out a laugh, draping an arm around my shoulder. Malice snorts and rolls his eyes, but I can see amusement in their gray depths.
It doesn’t take long to collect my transcripts once we get to the Wayne State campus, and although the woman behind the desk in the admin office keeps shooting glances at my men, I’m glad they’re with me.
I don’t have many fond memories of this school, and it settles my nerves to feel them at my back.
As we leave the building and head back across campus, Ransom entertains us all by pointing out the various places where I had run-ins with the men, and I’m laughing as we pile inside the car.
But the light mood evaporates when we get back to my inherited condo… and find Olivia waiting for us.
She’s standing outside the building, and her eyes lock with mine before Malice even stops the car. My heart starts to beat harder as we get out, and she strides up to us, red in the face and eyes blazing with fury.
Usually, even when she’s angry as hell, she looks put together and composed, completely in charge. But now she looks more unkempt than I’ve ever seen her before.
Her hair is escaping from the neat updo she pulled it into, and one of the buttons on her blouse isn’t done up. She’s clutching at her purse like a lifeline, and there are dark circles under her eyes that even her expensive makeup can’t cover.
Good, I think savagely. It’s about time she found out what it’s like to feel helpless and out of control.
“Olivia.” I give her my best fake smile as the men all close ranks around me, Malice and Ransom on either side and Vic right behind me. “What are you doing here?”
“I know what you did,” she hisses as soon as she reaches me.
She jabs a finger at me, then jumps when Malice smacks her arm away. I realize as he does that her hand is trembling. Whether from stress or from anger, I’m not sure, but it’s another slip of that untouchable armor she usually surrounds herself with.
“You’ll have to be more specific,” I tell her, doing my best to sound composed and unbothered.
“You removed the money Troy put into my business,” she snaps. “You had no right.”
“I think you’ll find I have every right,” I shoot back. “Because that money is mine now.”
Olivia’s eyes narrow as she glares at me, hatred clear in every line of her body. “I’m warning you. Stop fucking with me. You have no idea what you’re doing here.”
“I have a pretty good idea what I’m doing, actually,” I tell her, letting my lips curve upward on one side. “And every time you confront me like this…” I let my gaze linger on her rumpled clothing and her messy hair. “It just makes me more certain that I’m on the right path.”
Even more of Olivia’s facade slips when I say that. Her face morphs into something filled with anger and hate, and she doesn’t try to hide it at all anymore. She looks vicious and cruel, almost inhuman, as if a monster has possessed the body of an old woman.
“I knew it,” she spits, lowering her voice.
“I knew the moment my son met that slut that she was going to be the ruin of this family. That she wouldn’t rest until she’d dragged the Stanton name into the mud.
And then they had you.” She takes a step closer to me, her mouth curling into a sneer.
“Your mother was a gold-digging whore. My son tried to tell me they were in love, as if that was supposed to mean something, but I saw her for what she was. She was trash, and in the end, that’s all you are too. ”
All three of my men react to the insult, tense and angry. I can feel it growing behind me, bubbling up inside them like it’s about to explode outward.
“You watch your fucking—” Malice starts, taking a step forward.
Before he can move too far, I reach out, putting a hand on his arm.
I look away from Olivia for long enough to lock eyes with him and shake my head.
I try to communicate silently that we have a plan for Olivia, and that him getting thrown in jail for assaulting her right here in the open is not a part of it.
Just because we got Judge Bailey to recall the warrants that were out for the guys, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t be arrested for a new crime.
Malice curls his hands into fists. I can feel the strength of his muscles under my hand, as if he’s a predator on a very short leash, wanting to bite. But he takes a deep breath and nods, stepping back, letting me handle it.
I turn back to Olivia, and she looks just as sour as ever.
“You keep talking about the Stanton name and the Stanton estate like it’s this big, grand thing,” I tell her. “But you want to know the truth, Olivia? It’s nothing more than a house of cards, waiting to fall apart.”
For one tense moment, my grandmother just glares at me.
Her lips twitch like she wants to say something, but instead, she just turns on her heel, striding back toward the black car that’s parked at the side of the road.
Her driver watches impassively as she gets into the back seat, and I can see what look like two bodyguards in the vehicle as well.
She snaps something to the driver, and her car peels away.
“Fucking bitch,” Malice snarls, breaking the silence as she disappears around a corner. “Who the fuck does she think she is?”
“She’s used to being the one holding all the cards,” Vic says. He sounds calm and collected as ever, but when I turn my head, I can see anger simmering in his eyes. “Being on the other end of things has put her in a bad place, clearly.”
“Wow, poor her,” Ransom says, rolling his eyes. “My heart just bleeds for how hard this must be for her.”
“At the end of the day, this was a good thing,” Vic points out. “It means we’ve got her on her heels. She’s stressed and pissed off, which means everything we’re doing to her is having the desired effect.”
He’s right, and I hold on to that thought as we head inside and take the elevator up to the penthouse. Olivia isn’t so smug anymore, and it felt really nice to wipe that self-satisfied look off her face.
Hopefully forever.
Not long after we get back, Ransom and Vic head out again to take care of some errands. They’ve been slowly rebuilding their supply of tech, weaponry, and ammo, since they left so much behind when they fled Detroit and then Mexico.
I pace around the condo, feeling strangely agitated, as if there are ants crawling under my skin. Every time we confront Olivia, I feel a simultaneous rush of excitement and fear, the same mixture I might feel if I passed my hand through an open flame, dancing too close to a bonfire.
Between Troy and Olivia, so much has been taken from me, but bit by bit, I’ve been clawing back those pieces of myself that they tried to destroy.
It’s not enough though.
I want more.
My pulse picks up as I stride into the kitchen, stopping short when I see Malice. He’s standing near the sink—looming over it, really—his muscular, tattooed frame looking out of place in the sleek, modern room as he drinks a glass of water.
Something lights inside my belly, the spark of a flame that once used to burn like an inferno. He’s so solid and real, so darkly handsome and powerful. And he’s mine. I’m sick of anything holding me back from him. I’m sick of feeling like I’ve been locked away in a glass case by my trauma.
He puts the glass down on the counter, and I stride forward before I even register making the decision to do it. The movement catches his attention, and he looks over at me as if he’s about to say something, but I don’t give him the chance.
I put my hands on either side of his face as soon as I reach him, going up onto my tiptoes. Then I practically attack him with a hard kiss.