Chapter 18
Gabe
Adjusting my cuff links, I waited for my attorney to tell me the words I’d fought to hear since I was sixteen.
“It’s done. He’s still in the conference room talking to his attorney.”
Relief cascaded through me. It was over, and now I would walk into that conference room and tell my father his downfall had been my doing and Liv’s. Sweet revenge that had been too long in the making.
I shook his hand as he told me he would follow up with me later in the day.
After I dealt with my father. Rolling my neck, I turned toward the hall that led to the special meeting rooms, but a tug on my pants leg stopped me.
I peeked down to see a small boy with large eyes and a mop of brown hair gaping up at me.
“Reid Nathaniel Hent…” That voice and that name had my world turning silent as I watched his mother scold him.
Her lush ebony hair slipped over her shoulder when cornfield-blue eyes locked with mine.
The heart I’d buried behind layers of foundation and years of cold indifference cracked open again, the fissures spilling liquid lava into my veins.
For over five years, I had mounted an attack on it, refusing to set it free again.
Ignoring every flirty look, every pretty face, every invitation because there would never be another who held my heart.
Another I wanted to touch, to kiss, to hold.
To murmur that I loved her as she slept in my arms. There was and always would be only Tori who rose to her feet, her eyes still holding mine.
“Tori.” Her name came out in a fractured whisper.
She looked as beautiful as she always had, matured over the last years. Her style sophisticated, her hair loose in long waves that begged me to tangle my fingers in them.
“Gabe.” Emotion enveloped the word, and I could see it twisting in her features. The longing was there along with the hurt and anger I suspected she had carried since the night I left.
“Do you know him, Mommy?”
Her eyes flicked to the boy, and mine followed.
Agony raked through me with the knowledge that she’d moved on.
She’d left her love for me behind and found another man.
What had I expected? That she’d wait around for me?
After hurting her and leaving her in the middle of the night.
But some part of me had. That same part that had clung to the thought as the only way to survive.
“A long time ago.”
I stared at the boy. He was young, maybe four or five. My sight jumped to hers, anger and hurt now rife in my blood, the walls refortifying around my heart. The ruthless man I’d become since that day, taking over.
“I see you moved on quickly,” I snapped.
She reeled back, her hands tightening around the boy’s shoulders.
“How dare you? After what you did, you have no right to even talk to me.”
Her words stung, but not as bad as the fact that she’d gotten over me so fast.
“You’re right.” I adjusted my cufflinks again. “I have a meeting to attend. It was nice to see you, Victoria.”
I walked off, knowing if I didn’t, I would falter, and it would leave me vulnerable.
This was a moment for cold calculation and cruel vindictiveness, not memories and what-ifs.
Every step reminded me of the day I’d left her, the pounding of my shoes against the marble jarring my nerves as I fought to leave her again.
My father was still in the conference room, and he looked up when I entered.
“William. I told you there was no need for you to be here.”
“It’s done?”
He sat back in his chair and dismissed his attorney with a nod. “It is. Forty years of building this empire and now there’s nothing left.”
“You’ve got your fortune. The offer was a lucrative one, just like they were for each piece of the business we sold off.
Should have you living in retirement no differently than you live now.
” But I knew it wasn’t the money that drove him.
It was the business, and with every failure, his mask had slipped.
No longer was he the proud, arrogant man who had beaten me to teach me a lesson.
He may not have retained his billionaire status, but he was still a multi-millionaire.
Liv and I had ensured that with each buyout.
It was more than I’d wanted to give him, but he was too greedy to sell his holdings to a low bidder, and as his CFO, it would have raised suspicion if I’d advised him differently.
I dragged my finger along the table. “How does it feel, Father? To no longer be the one on top? The one who holds the power?”
He stood, placing his hands on the table.
“I have more power than you. I just sold off your future and your sister’s.
Ensuring you’ll never get another cent from this business.
There will be no CEO position for you. You failed so miserably in your last position, it’s a shame I won’t get to see you fail at that one. ”
“Always the asshole, right up to the end.”
“And you’re still the weak, whiny boy who clung to his mother’s skirt.”
I clenched my fists, stalking over to him.
“I want you to remember this moment. When you’re alone in your dusty penthouse, taking your last breath, I want you to remember that I was the one who brought you to your knees.”
His eyes creased.
“Luna Industries bought this hotel, the last piece of your measly holdings. But it falls under an umbrella of companies owned by two people who have despised you their entire lives. Two people who took great satisfaction in seeing you fall from your pedestal, Father.”
I pulled the official charter of the very first LLC Liv and I created, from my pocket and slapped it on the table.
“Fiorella Holdings. You might recognize that name since it was my mother’s. A company buried so far under others that it’s impossible to trace and impossible to identify the founders. Me and Liv. Every company that has scooped up your dying investments is owned by us, including this one.”
He ripped the document from my hand and stared at it. “This proves nothing.”
“It proves everything. I want your stuff out of my office by noon today. If not, I’ll have security see you out.”
“You sabotaged me? To what? Make a point?”
I stepped further into his space. “I did no such thing.” Even though I had with a team as undercover as my companies.
The same men I’d formed a bond with in school and who were now private shareholders in my company, soon to be board members once I cleansed the board of the corrupt and enabling fools who currently dominated it.
“And no, not to make a point. Just to make you suffer. Get out of my hotel, Father.”
His lips pulled up in a sneer, reminding me of when I was young and he terrified me. I was no longer that young boy. “You are still my son. Still my namesake and an Icinda.”
“Much to my frustration. I won’t let that stop me from cutting off all communication with you. Now get out.”
He threw the document at me and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him. I couldn’t hide my smile as I gave him time to leave the hotel before I called Liv.
“It’s ours,” I told her, exiting the conference room.
“Did you tell him?” Her excited voice came through the other end.
I walked into the lobby, my eyes searching instinctively for Tori. Wiping my hand down my face, I said, “Yes. You would have enjoyed the show.”
“Ah, I knew I would, but this reward was yours to reap, little brother.”
Heading to the check-in desk, I said, “I’ll tell you all about it when I get into the office. Gotta go.”
I ended the call, gesturing to the woman on duty.
“Good morning, Mr. Icinda. How can I help you?”
“There was a woman in the lobby earlier. Pretty with black hair and blue eyes. She had a young child with her.”
“Oh, Ms. Hent. Yes, her son is adorable.”
“Mm hm. I need her room number.”
I followed her over to her computer, watching as Tori’s information loaded.
“She’s staying in the tenth-floor suites.”
I frowned, wondering why she would be on that floor. My father usually reserved the two floors below mine for special business guests, which included the floor Liv’s place was on. Maybe he’d opened them up and not told me.
I thanked her and turned away, stopping as a thought occurred to me. “Did she say what age her son is?”
“No, but we have it since he’s staying with her. Let me see.” She scrolled another page. “Ah, he’s four. He’ll turn five at the end of October.”
“Thanks.” I walked away in a daze, my mind churning through the numbers.
Five years, eight months, and twenty-three days since I left Tori.
My feet stumbled, and I reached out to the wall to brace myself.
It couldn’t be possible. The shock on her face when I’d commented on how quickly she’d gotten over me had been for good reason.
Straightening, I swallowed back the emotions that were threatening to break my composure—pain, guilt, fear, disbelief. Following my path outside, I nodded to the valet, who called my driver. It was good I wasn’t planning to drive myself to the office. I likely would have crashed.
During the drive, I convinced myself the staff had typed in the wrong date when booking the room. That had to be the case. The alternative was too gut-wrenching to believe. That not only had I left her, but she’d been pregnant when I had.
After a brief recap of my meeting with our father, I left Liv, intending to transfer my office to his. She had already packed up his belongings and left them at the front desk. The guards posted out front would escort him out. I couldn’t wait to hear his reaction to that.
“Weird to see you in here and not Dad,” Liv said, popping her head in.
“Yeah.”
Head cocked, she studied me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just been a long day.”
She strolled closer to my desk. “No, there’s something wrong. You should be celebrating. And I don’t mean with a glass of scotch in your hand.” I swirled the glass and took a sip. “We should be out toasting his defeat. We finally did it.”