Chapter 14
Damien
“He’s being melodramatic.”
“Is he lying?” Ivy says, running a hand through her hair. “Or did you not take over our company after you failed to get into my pants?” She paces around the bedroom looking like a snack. I can’t stop thinking about us almost having sex last night. Why did she run? I was sure she wanted me just as much as I wanted her. Now all I can think of is how much I still want her. She has reignited a desire within me I was sure had gone cold. And instead of seducing her a second time, I have to deal with the boring shit like shares and takeover deals.
“I didn’t take over Hawthorne. All I did is use your shares, plus purchase a few from other people and build a big enough stake to ask for a board seat.”
“And? I feel you’re leaving an important part here.”
I shrug, waiting for her to say all she knows first. One shouldn’t reveal their hand to an enemy.
“And the deal you have been sketching with activist investors to take over the company is not real.”
Ah. So they know that part. “Cat’s out of the bag.”
“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” She pulls at her and starts pacing. “My brother is going to kill me. Everyone is going to kill me. Fuck.”
She’s freaking out, but she should have seen this coming when she sold those shares to me. She burst through the doors early morning; her face red with anger, waving her phone. Nolan sent her a text after he learned about my moves, and she hasn’t calmed down since. But all this work stuff is boring, anyway. What I want to know is, “Why did you sleep in Lake’s room last night?”
“What?” She shakes her head. “Don’t try to change the conversation. You lied to me.”
“Come on Ivy. Isn’t that what our deal was? Your shares in return for a marriage and all that comes with a marriage.”
“There was no and-I-shall-take-over-your-family’s-company clause! If there was one, I would have reconsidered.”
“Oh, come on. If you knew one thing about your precious family company, you’d have known that it wasn’t that hard to convince investors to hop on to my wagon. Your father was old-fashioned and refused to take the company into the twenty-first century, and your brother is the opposite. He’s on a rapid course to remake the company and is destroying it in the process.”
She frowns. “So, you want to help him?” Her voice is full of na?ve hope, that I sadly have to crush before her pleading eyes convince me of something I don’t want to do.
“No. I want to sell it and strip it for parts. My partners don’t know yet, but they’ll agree once they see the profit margins.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, my god. That’s why we’re here. One of the biggest shareholders in Hawthorne is Lynette Barbier. You are courting her. You’re like a fox in the henhouse!”
Well, she’s smart when it comes to some things. Lynette’s fashion house was bought by Hawthorne back when Nolan Senior was in charge. It was the last big purchase he made before kicking the bucket. Part of the deal was that she got shares in Hawthorne, and this made her one of the company’s largest investors outside the family. According to the grapevine, the deal wasn’t as above board as everyone thought and it’s said Nolan Senior undercut her and she’s been bitter ever since. Making her one of the least loyal shareholders in the company.
She comes to a stop at the window. The light morning light shines behind her, making her look like a divine creature. “I want an annulment.” I am momentarily blindsided by her beauty to take in the seriousness of her words. Instead of discussing corporate procedure, I would rather be fucking her right now, preferably against that window.
“And what are you going to tell Lake?”
“Parent’s divorce all the time. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
I march over to where she’s standing and stop a few inches away from her. Her scent teases my nostrils and instantly makes me hard. I steel myself. “If you try to take my son away from me again, I will use every legal weapon in my arsenal to make sure you never see him again.” She freezes as she realizes I am serious. I don’t want to scare her, but it’s the truth. I don’t want Lake to spend any more time away from me. “There will be no annulment.”
Her voice catches in her throat. “My family will think I am a traitor.”
My hand caresses her cheek as my mind wanders back to her mother’s brunch and the way her family treated her. “Let them. It doesn’t seem like they held you in high regard before.” She gasps and too late I realize what I am doing. I am comforting her. As though I am burned, I withdraw my hand. “I thought you didn’t care what people thought of you?”
She crosses her arms. “A hostile takeover of my family’s company is not a matter of opinion.”
“I’ve never hidden my intentions. I want to destroy all things Hawthorne. I thought you were aware of this when you came to me. One would say the hen invited the fox into the henhouse.”
***
The following couple of days are chaotic as everyone at my company tries to fight the poison pill Nolan set in motion. Instead of accepting the inevitable or try to compromise, he has chosen to fight me. So far, he’s tried to gather all prominent shareholders and convince them not to sell their shares to me. On top of that, he has also asked one of his buddies at the SEC to look into how I acquired my shares. All his efforts are futile and, by the third day, they are looking desperate.
Ivy hasn’t spoken to me ever since we came back from Paris. If anything, I would think she is trying to avoid me. She’s never awake when I come back from work, which to be fair is usually late, and she’s asleep when I go. She put up a fight when I told her the agreement we made in Paris would not change and that we would have to sleep in the same bedroom. It was only when I mentioned Lake she relented. We slept in the same bed, but saw little of each other.
Therefore, it was a surprise when I came back home today to see her still awake and in the living room. Only she isn’t alone. Nolan is with her. Her back is to me while Nolan has the view of the entrance. I don’t catch what they’re saying to each other, but whatever it is, it sounds contentious. Nolan’s gaze falls on me the moment I enter the room.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” I say.
Nolan stands up. “Damien.” At the sound of my voice, Ivy turns and imitates her brother. The two Hawthornes stare back at me as I enter the room.
“I wasn’t sure you’d be back so early,” Ivy says. She’s fidgeting with her fingers. A habit she does whenever she’s feeling anxious.
“Work was a little easier than yesterday. Convincing people to join my cause isn’t as hard,” I turn to Nolan, “when you’ve been a shoddy CEO.”
“Hawthorne is a blue chip company with one of the steadiest prices on the stock exchange.”
“Steadily going down, you mean.”
“All retail is down.” Nolan shakes his head. “See,” he says to Ivy, “He can’t be reasoned with. He wants to destroy us.”
“You must have another reason for being here than arguing with me.”
Ivy gestures at Nolan. She mouths something I can’t make out, like some secret code between siblings. She rolls her eyes and then says, “Nolan came with a proposal.”
“It was your idea, not mine,” he says petulantly.
“Fine,” Ivy turns to me, “How about instead of a takeover we give you a board seat?”
“Three board seats and I will back down.”
Nolan shakes his head. “Unreasonable,” he mutters under his breath. He takes a couple of steps toward me. “What did we ever do to you? What’s with this mission to destroy us?”
“Not much. Just blacklisting me and making sure I never worked in the industry ever again.” Just thinking about how the Hawthornes almost destroyed my life makes my blood boil. One perceived misstep and they made me a pariah, but somehow I am the villain in their story.
Ivy’s eyes widen. “You blacklisted him!” she lightly punches Nolan in the chest.
“That was dad, not me.” Nolan darts his gaze around the room. “But it seems like you got back on your feet easily.”
I search Nolan’s gaze. His face is stone cold, but there’s an admiration that I that he can’t fully mask. “We used to be friends, you and I.”
Nolan glares at me. “And who fucked that up?” He turns to Ivy and says, “You two deserve each other.” Nolan picks up his jacket from the couch and taps his sister’s shoulder. “Don’t come back crying after he rips you into shreds.” I watch him as he makes his way out of the room and out of the apartment. “Nolan!” Ivy rushes after him just as I hear the elevator doors open.
Fuck them both, honestly. My mind goes to the only Hawthorne I care about. Lake. I go to his bedroom and find him sleeping soundly. He looks so innocent and angelic as he lays arms and legs in abandon. The need to protect him wrings my chest. I make a vow to always be present in his life. He has been influenced by Ivy and her destructive nature for too long. Not anymore.
His eyes flutter open. “Uncle Damien?” My chest constricts. Lake hasn’t gotten accustomed to calling me Dad yet, even though I’ve insisted multiple times. Only he seems uncomfortable to use the term. A dark part of me wants to believe it’s because he doesn’t want me as a father. I quash that doubt.
“Go back to sleep, buddy.”
Lake instead sits up straight. “I wanted to give you something. Mom said I should do it tomorrow at breakfast.”
“She doesn’t have to know. You can always give it to me now.”
Lake gets out of his bed and skips to the desk. I perch myself on the edge of the bed. He comes back with a bright blue envelope and hands it to me. It has my name written on it with a childish scrawl and a sticker of Spiderman swinging in the corner. “I want to give you this,” he whispers.
I open the envelope to find a white card inside. On the front is a childish drawing of what I can best tell to be a Disneyland park skyline. Standing below are three stick figures. One woman, one man, and one child in the middle. My heart swells as I open it. “Thank you for the trip, I had a great time,” is written in pencil and almost fills the entire card. I feel tears well in my eyes until I see the name scrawled on the bottom. ‘Lake Hawthorne.’
Sinclair. Your name is Sinclair, I want to say. I hug him instead. “Thank you.”
“Oh, you’re in here.” We break our embrace when I hear Ivy’s voice. She stands at the door and strolls in when we turn to face her.
“I thought you were asleep,” she says to Lake. Lake looks guilty. I rescue him. “It’s my fault. He woke up when I got in.” I get up and lift Lake so I can put him back in his bed. As I am tucking him in, he says, “I wanted to give Uncle Damien the card. I couldn’t wait until morning.”
“Remember what I told you about…” Ivy gestures at me.
“Oh right. Sorry uncle, I mean. Dad. Thank you for the trip, unc—Dad.”
“Thanks for the card. Amazing work. I didn’t know we had Van Gogh in the house.”
“Who’s Van Goff?”
“One of the greatest artists to have ever lived. You might be better than he ever was.”
Lake chuckles in disbelief. I like that he’s smart enough to recognize fake praise when it’s given to him.
“Goodnight Lake.”
“Goodnight Uncle Damien,” he says as he lays his head on the pillow. Ivy and I both leave the room and as I close the door, I lift the card and wave it at her. “Your idea?”
She shakes her head. “His own. All I did was give Greta money for supplies. He’s very thoughtful.” “Surprising. He certainly didn’t learn that from you.” She makes her way to the guest bedroom and as I stare at her back, recalling what is written on the card. Lake Hawthorne. “Where are you going?”
“Bed?”
“We’re sleeping in the same room, remember?” I nod to the door of the master bedroom. “And besides, there’s something we need to discuss.”