Chapter 20
TWENTY
LOURDES
Present – Friday
Now that I was at the gauntlet, I could admit how funny it was that I let a board of stuffy old men dictate my future.
When you let go of things that no longer serve you, a weight is lifted off you, and you feel free. It was a bittersweet feeling. If I looked back on my life, I guess I could see that it would always end up like this.
I tried, Mami, I really did.
I reached for my phone and sent the email that had been in my drafts since I got back from Clear View Country Club. I didn’t know why I waited until the last moment, but I guess I wanted to give the board the benefit of the doubt.
Hell, maybe some part of me held on to hope that he would put me first. God, did it hurt to have him near me now.
“Lou…” my father began to say, but I didn’t jump at the chance to please him.
I stood up with my chin held high and once more caught Pricilla smirking at me. This time, I let her see how much I hated her. Then I turned toward Neo, who regarded me carefully. Once our eyes locked, his gaze became softer, and I tried to ignore the conversation we had in my office.
“Lou—”
“Congratulations, I hope it’s everything you ever wanted.” My soft tone made him flinch.
What if you could have me? Would you pick me?
My words haunted me. They made me feel like a na?ve little girl. Why the hell did I ever think he would pick me over this?
“Well, now that the voting is done, I want to say thank you for everything.” I took the files from my envelope, dropped them on the table, and watched in satisfaction as several members paled. “Have fun cleaning up this shit show.”
The one thing about me was that people mistook my silence for weakness. I wasn’t meek; I was calculating.
If I wasn’t going to be given a fair shot, then they could watch me as I set my own family's legacy on fire.
There was a smile on my face and a weight off my shoulders as I walked out of the meeting room. My family's legacy might be dying, but I had just been reborn.
The alert I had set up on my phone for this moment began to blow up as I stepped into the elevator.
I had unleashed Pandora’s box upon the table. For the past three years, I had been collecting everyone’s dirty little secrets—well, except for Marie, whom I loved. My dad, Pricilla, and Neo were spared, but as Rivieres, they would feel the hit the hardest.
College bribes, sexual assaults, tax evasions, mistresses, bastard children, drug addictions, no secret was too small. All of them had been leaked. The board wanted to judge me, but didn’t anyone teach them that those who lived in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?
The final blow was revenge… I don’t know if it was against my grandfather, my father, or Neo, but I had officially lost the plot.
All eyes were on me once more. If the article spread like wildfire, then I know why they looked at me.
I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, for I knew what I would find.
Disgust.
Envy.
Rage.
My actions affected every single person in this company. They would all feel it when I crushed the structures of this empire to the ground. Many would think they were the actions of a spoiled little girl, but in reality, they were the actions of a hurt girl.
I had been bleeding in silence all these years; too bad they pushed me to a place where I was forced to make a mess of things.
The only reason why my phone wasn’t blowing up with calls from my family was because I blocked all of them. So, when it rang, I knew it was someone in my circle. It wasn’t Clove because she was part of the reason I was able to pull this off. I knew I needed to talk to her when I crashed at her place, and she wouldn’t take anything but the truth.
Evangeline was busy, so that left Martin, and sure enough, it was his name on the caller ID. I put my phone on speaker as I pulled out of the parking lot. My heart constricted as I watched the company in my rearview mirror, knowing it was the last time I would be doing this.
“Hi, Martin.” I was surprised my voice came out calm.
“Hi, Martin?” he shrieked. “Why did I just find out through a blind item that you’re fucking your stepbrother!”
I played stupid, mostly because I didn’t know what to say.
“Who said they're talking about me?”
He then proceeded to read me the blind item.
Maybe Clove and I should have made it a little harder.
Martin took my silence as confirmation.
“So it’s true?” His voice was softer.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
I had been strong, but now I felt like I might cry. This whole week, I kept my head in the game, trying to finish off all my work so the person who took my job wouldn’t struggle. I left detailed worksheets explaining the jobs I wouldn’t get to finish or oversee. It was the only thing that kept me from spiraling, and now that shield was gone.
“Was he at least good? ’Cause honey, if you’re throwing away your life, it had better be some good fucking dick.”
Despite the pain I felt, I laughed.
Neo
You could hear a pin drop when those pictures and files fell on the table.
Fuck.
This was not the moment to get hard, but I couldn’t help it, not when Lou showed up today looking like a goddess. She could bring a man to his knees.
I wanted all of this to be over so I could explain because that look she gave me in her office slayed me. Since I came back from Florida, my sleep has been shit. The only thing that was keeping me afloat was revenge.
And to be honest, I was beginning to think it wasn’t worth it.
“Congratulations, I hope it’s everything you ever wanted.”
Because I was just handed everything I wanted, and I felt sick to my stomach about it.
I used to love the way Lou would tear me down with her words. At one point, it became foreplay. I got off on her mouthiness, but now her words fucking killed me.
Did I really make her believe that I would stab her in the back like that?
The answer was yes…and today proved that to her.
My mother was the first to reach for the fallen documents.
“What the hell is this?” she shrieked.
I looked around the table, and everyone looked pale except for Marie and Richard. He just looked accepting.
Hell, if he felt like I did, he was probably proud. Because despite the ramifications coming our way, I wanted to run after Lou and kiss the hell out of her, but her little temper also fucked with my grand gesture.
When my eyes met Richard, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
“Is she blackmailing us?” someone asked, and I laughed.
Marie cleared her throat. She was usually quiet unless she had something important to say. She learned to play the boys’ game and didn’t waste her breath on things that wouldn’t be heard.
“Everything on the table has been made public,” she said, somewhat uncomfortable.
My mother lost her composure.
“You helped her.” She pointed an accusatory finger at Marie.
“Mother,” I warned.
Marie didn’t even flinch.
“Don’t worry, Pricilla, I don’t think she aired your dirty laundry,” she said flippantly.
This was going to ruin the company. The blow she struck was crippling. I was already thinking of ways we could save this. Everyone was on their phones. By now, they all knew the information on the table was on the presses hands.
I was almost impressed. Lou should have just blackmailed them, but what she was after was pain.
Damn you, baby, you made a mess of things. Now, more than ever, I wanted to go find her and take out my anger on the best pussy I’d ever had.
“We need to start by scrubbing all the information off the internet,” I said.
“The damage has already been done,” someone else countered.
“For you, yeah, it sucks. Shouldn’t have cheated on your wife, but now the company’s reputation is at stake.”
There was no remorse or empathy in my voice when I spoke to them. We had all made our beds, and now we were lying in them.
When I picked up my phone, I noticed I had several calls from Wesley and Tatum. My first thought was that they had heard what happened. Wes was persistent. He texted me with a website I recognized for posting anonymous gossip. Clicking on the link, I was sure it would be about Riviere Conglomerate as a whole, but fuck was I wrong.
“Rumor has it that the bastard with the same name as the men in his family is hooking up with his stepsister, the unwanted heiress he took his surname from.”
Shit.
Now I didn’t know if wringing her neck or fucking my anger out on her would do.
This was her doing.
The board was a hit to the company, but this was a fucking blow to the family. She wanted me to hurt as much as she was hurting.
I must have stared at my phone a little too long because the fighting subsided, and when I glanced up, everyone was looking at me. No doubt trying to figure out if what was said carried a hint of truth. But since all of our secrets were laid bare, why wouldn’t mine be either?
My mother looked livid, and even though I didn’t want to look straight ahead, I manned up, and Richard looked like he wanted to kill me.
Maybe I should have told Lourdes the truth because she single-handedly fucked up the revenge I had been working on for the last three years.
“Everyone out,” Richard barked, and judging by how he looked at me, I knew he meant for me to stay.
As people began to file out, he made a call, and if I had to guess, it was to security to stop rolling the tape in this room. That would be what I would do.
Once the last person filed out, and when Richard put his phone down, my mom got up. She walked up to me and slapped me. All I could do was hold on to my face as I watched her, biting my tongue so I wouldn’t speak out of line—not yet.
“You stupid boy!”
“Outside, Pricilla,” Richard barked, and my mother flinched.
“W-w-what?”
“Get. Out.”
It took a few seconds, but ultimately, she did as he asked. I think part of her was waiting for me to stick up for her, but she chipped at the bridge until there was nothing left for me to save.
We both waited until the door closed and out of respect, I let him go first.
Last year, I would have lied or cheated to get what I wanted, but I couldn’t do that anymore. Hell, Lou already burned it all to the ground. What was another fire to extinguish at this point?
“Tell me it’s a lie,” Richard demanded.
I laughed. It was the worst moment to do so, but I couldn’t help it.
“I wouldn’t seek to destroy someone I considered a brother based on a lie,” I replied. Looking him straight in the eye, I could see his anger. He probably regretted opening the doors to his home to us.
Richard got up and pointed at his phone.
“Is this what you wanted? I welcomed you with open arms, gave you my name, and you repay me this way!”
“This is not on me. This is on you… You let Gerald speak to her like she’s nothing. You let my mother walk all over her, and you sat back and let the board treat her like a child. She fucking needed you, and you abandoned her!”
God, it felt good to get those words out.
“Get out of my offices,” he demanded as he pointed at the door.
I got up and walked toward the doors, but I turned to look at him before I opened them. Despite everything, I did respect him. At the end of the day, he was the only father figure I had ever had.
“I wanted to kill my best friend that day, but the only thing that kept me back was that I wanted his pain to go beyond a few days. That’s why I came to you. I needed your help and wisdom to take everything away from him. I was ready to set the world on fire for her.”
Richard didn’t say more. He let me leave the conference room, having the last word. My mother was hovering by the door when I left the conference room. I ignored her pleas and got the fuck away from the company.