Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
JULIETTE
A party after a party feels like too much stress to me. All I really want to do now is sleep. I look around me at all these people who are still agile and up. The number, which was small initially, has progressively dwindled again; maybe soon, everyone will leave, and they’ll finally show me to my room. Or they’ll show me to a slaughter room where a guillotine waits for me. They’ll chop my head off, present it to Hudson in a box, and force him to marry Phillipa.
God, my exhaustion is starting to get to me. I groan and look at the door through which Hudson and Phillipa walked out a while ago. They are yet to be back. I wonder what she has to show him. All her goods, that’s for sure. The disappointment the poor girl will be met with at Hudson's hands makes me feel sorry for her.
Why do I feel so confident that Hudson won’t be an idiot? What evidence do I have to back that up? He, after all, slept with Jasmine while our ruse was on. Why can’t he find some relief in this Phillipa girl and be done with it? Having sex with Phillipa will no doubt further complicate things and make Phillipa more attached. Hudson is smart enough to see that and refuse whatever advances Phillipa brings.
“They’ll be back,” I hear Frank’s voice beside me and look up to find that I have been so lost in thought I didn’t notice him walk up to me.
“Yes, of course. I just miss him is all,” I say, pushing a smile to my lips. Is this all still an act, or do I really miss Hudson? I’ve spent much of my time looking at the door, waiting for him to come walking through it.
What does this man want with me?
“He’s a good man, isn’t he, Hudson?”
“Yes, he is,” I reply.
“Come, walk with me. I’d like to talk to you. You don’t mind, do you?”
Of course, I do mind. You’re an egotistical maniac who can’t take a loss and is out to destroy someone else’s life just because you can.
“No,” I say, letting him lead me out of the house.
Where are we going? I wonder. To the room with the guillotine?
It’s been a very long night, and my tiredness is really showing. I follow Frank through a dark path that leads us to a separate house.
“You know, good men have demons also,” he says as he opens the door. We step into the dark and musty room. When he hit the switch, I could see that we were in an old house that hadn’t been used in a while. It gets cleaned regularly, but the dust and the cobwebs that have gathered tells me no cleaning has been done here in a while.
What are we doing here?
“What’s this place?” I ask him and he must have read the fear on my face.
“I’m not going to kill you,” he says, but his tone isn’t reassuring. “I know what people say about me. Trust me, I am not that unhinged. As I was saying, good men have demons. Do you know what Hudson’s demons are?”
I know for sure that that wasn’t among the hundred questions we tried to answer. I try to imagine Hudson’s reaction to the question would be dismissive, of course.
“I should have known. Your fiancé and I have too much in common. It’s one of the reasons I won’t accept a deal that doesn’t transfer total control of his company to me. I fear that if I let him have this win, no matter how irrelevant it might be, he’ll use it as leverage to grow himself so much, and one day, he’ll come for me.”
“You’re scared of someone doing to you what you’ve done to others,” I hiss.
“Fear, no. Worry, yes. What’s a businessman’s life without a couple of worries.”
“Why am I here?” I ask again, not really comfortable with the environment. Why couldn’t he talk to me somewhere less spooky?
“I want to talk to you about Hudson’s demons. See if you can help him see reason. Has he ever told you about his father?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“His father started this company. I used to know the man. He was a headstrong one with big dreams. But those dreams never got realized. He wanted a company that would get so big that the whole world would have some sense of reliance on it. His dreams were wild. I remember when I met him for the first time. It was in this house.”
Ha, so that’s why we’re here.
“Hudson’s father, James, had heard about me and wanted me to lend him money. I was the new banker who was bankrolling everyone. He thought he’d have a chance convincing me to give him money. I met him in this house. The house there was under construction at the time.”
“How long ago was this?” I ask him.
“Twenty-five years ago. I remember the day like it was yesterday. How can I forget him when he is the reason I won’t collapse this structure even though it is no longer safe for accommodation.”
I look at the building, a new fear emerging. We really should be having this discussion someplace else.
“We shared coffee by this table, and for a while, we had random discussions about world history. He was a well-read man and always had an opinion about everything. I was so blown away by him that finally, when he got down to the reason he was here, I was so sure I would give him what he came for.”
“But you didn’t?” I ask.
“No. A leopard can’t change its spots. I watched him describe this business and the hopes he had for it, and I thought to myself?—"
“You must have it,” I finish for him, the disgust obvious in my voice.
“Yes. I must have it. But I am no fool. I knew his dream couldn’t be achieved. Fishing? It sounded too abstract to me. He was chasing dust and I set him on his way. I’ll fund him under one condition: he shows me actual data backing up the claims he’s made. He went away and never came back to me. He couldn’t achieve it, not until he died. When I read about his death, I felt like I was dealt a deadly blow, yet somewhere in my heart, I was satisfied. I had been proven right. His dreams were unattainable.”
“How did James die?”
“Drugs,” Frank says. “He got so depressed by his constant failure he took solace in drugs and alcohol. He was always an emotionally weak man, and it didn’t take long for those vices to take over. I heard he tried to fight it but didn’t have the strength to do it. Poor Hudson. He watched his father dig a hole for himself, fall into it, and struggle back up, only for him to dig it again and fall into it. You ever wonder what such a thing does to a child?”
He isn’t asking for my opinion, so I keep quiet and watch, knowing he’ll answer the question himself soon enough.
“It can do two things: create a weaker man who follows in his father’s footsteps and loses himself in places that provide little to no solace. Or it can create a man like Hudson, intent on never becoming his father, struggling against all odds to build that which his father failed to build.”
“And he did. He succeeded, yet you want to steal it from him. Why?”
Frank shakes his head. “I hate to be proven wrong.”
“That’s it? That is what all of this is about. Your ego?”
Frank laughs at the distaste in my voice. “Everything is about my ego, young lady. Do you think I would be the man I am today without that ego?”
“You know what losing that company will do to him. You know what it did to his father, yet you won’t back down? Why? That’s cruel.”
“The world is cruel, and I’m a part of it. I told you this: if I don’t now cut the legs underneath Hudson, he’ll grow to be the monster that devours me. I can’t let that happen.”
“Why did you call me here then?” I ask him.
“Because I want you to talk to him,” he says. “I want you to convince him. I’ve made him a proposition. I buy the company from him, but he remains in charge. That way, he doesn’t lose what he has created.”
I know that isn’t the reason this man is offering to keep Hudson at the helm. He is too selfish to consider that. There must be some other reason. Maybe Hudson is the only one who can run the company as well and continue to bring in profits.
“You know I won’t do that.”
“Then I fear for you. You’ll start a family with the man soon. You need him stable and clear-headed. If he drags this game out much longer, I see him quickly becoming his father. He’ll lose his head, lose his mind, lose his being. If this goes on much longer, what you’ll be left with won’t be Hudson. It will be a shadow of him.”
“I don’t think so,” I tell him.
“Then you’re a fool. A bigger fool.”
“Do you know what I think?” I ask, feeling suddenly confident. “You’re worried. You’re scared he’ll beat you at this. And you should be. You can’t win this. You’ll never beat Hudson. He’s unbeatable.”