Episode 7
Episode 7
Be Careful What You Wish For
JULIANNE
“If you don’t put me in the next auction, Alana, I’ll go to Angus,” I threatened through the phone line.
“You wouldn’t dare. Your mother would roll over in her grave, chéri . May she rest in peace,” Alana’s familiar cultured voice warned.
I inhaled sharply at the mention of my mother, that wound still too fresh only three months after the crash. “They’ve gone too far,” I whispered.
“Just give it time, ma petite fleur ,” my little blossom, she cooed. Usually when I spoke to Alana, she’d give me the best advice and counsel me on how to maneuver a difficult situation, especially in the business world, but this was different.
This was personal.
“You are not listening! She’s destroyed everything . My brother, my position in the company… Gio ?” I gulped down the emotion twisting my gut every time I thought of the one man I could never have. My brother’s ex-best friend and current business partner, Giovanni “Gio” Falco. So much had changed since our parents had died in that plane, Giovanni’s parents flying with them and also perishing. But that wasn’t what broke us. That was all her—Bianca.
“I will admit to being surprised at the sudden announcement of Brenden and Bianca’s nuptials in light of her having been Giovanni’s fiancé only a short time before. That, my dear, says a lot more about her character than it ever would about Gio.”
“And my brother? He stole his best friend’s fiancée right out from under his nose! Gio’s crushed, Alana. Annihilated. He hasn’t been to the office in months. I’ve done the best I could, but when my brother brought me into that meeting and asked me to step down as Vice President of FM Enterprises so that his new wife, Bianca, could step into my shoes, I lost it.”
“ Chéri .” Her words were tinged with sorrow.
If anyone could understand what I was going through, it was Alana. She was my godmother, after all. More importantly, one of my mother’s closest friends and confidants throughout the many years they’d known one another.
“My entire life is wrapped up in the company, Alana. It is my birthright. Ever since I was a little girl, it’s all I wanted to do. Work the family business, right alongside my parents and their best friends. It’s what I went to college for. What I devoted every hour of my life to since I graduated six years ago. I built up the clients to what they are today, and my parents knew that.”
“I know. And I can understand your anger with them not leaving you a percentage of the company,” Alana agreed.
“Brenden and Gio were supposed to take over in a few years as CEO and CFO when our parents retired. I was their VP. Me. The person who trained her entire life for the role. And then hurricane Bianca rolls in and poof! My brother fucks over his best friend. Giovanni hasn’t been seen anywhere. All four of our parents are dead. And my brother is married to a viper. A heartless, cutthroat bitch who everyone thinks is an angel.” I pressed my thumb and forefinger to my temples as I paced my high-rise apartment in Manhattan, located walking distance from our corporate headquarters.
“What is your plan, Julianne? Enter into the auction for what purpose?” Alana asked, intrigue threaded through her tone.
I stopped pacing and grinned. I could hear in her voice that she was going to help me. Alana was nothing if not dependable. Plus, she was the most impressive businesswoman I knew. Once she understood the position I was in, she would do as I asked. I just needed to tread lightly.
“You know my entire portfolio of investments is locked in FM Enterprises. Most of my money. I’m not about to sell my interest, my birthright , to a stranger. That’s not what my parents would have wanted. But since Brenden and Gio are technically the co-owners per our parents' will, I need to find a way to get back on top.”
“And how do you propose to do that, chéri ?” Alana asked.
“First step is to hook me a bidder for millions of dollars. I’ll use that money to start up a competing business. One that—if things go as planned—FM Enterprises can buy into later or absorb into our larger umbrella.”
“And how would things go as planned?”
“Eventually, I’ll get Brenden to see who Bianca really is and what she’s done to our family. My hope is that one day he will figure out Bianca is nothing but a backstabbing, conniving, heartless wretch who needs to be kicked to the curb, not worshipped on a pedestal like some Greek goddess. And then he’ll come crawling back to me for help.”
“You could sell the estate,” she countered.
“I can’t believe you’d suggest such a thing.” I choked on my reply. Alana knew what my parents’ home meant to our family. It was where we’d lived and loved. Where Brenden and I grew up. Where our parents came up with the very idea to start FM Enterprises. Together. Two sets of best friends going into business. Falco and Myers. Putting their money together and creating magic. I’d never sell it. Not in a million years. One day I wanted to bring my own child home from the hospital to that house. I couldn’t fathom losing the one place in all the world I felt safe.
It was my home, even though I hadn’t been there since the funeral reception.
“Jules, I know you miss your parents.” Her voice lowered to one fueled by grief. “I do too. But do you truly believe starting a war with your brother instead of reasoning with him is the best action?”
“Alana, he’s left me no choice. We fought. I ripped into him for what he did to Gio. And then I told him how horrible Bianca was to me. How she was going to ruin everything we’d built. He f-fired me. Told me his lawyers would be in touch regarding buying out my shares. I told him to fuck off and I’d see him in court.” I swallowed down the hurt as Brenden’s scathing words saturated my memory.
“Bianca is twice the woman you could ever hope to be. Get out of my company and get out of my life. You’re not wanted here, Julianne.”
A tear fell down my cheek and I wiped it away, right alongside every last one of my dreams for the future. I had to pave a new path. One of my own choosing. And I needed to be smart. Stealthy.
“I’m so sorry. Do you want me to reach out to him?” she offered, as I’d suspected she might.
“No! He can’t know what I’m doing,” I growled.
“Why? Are you embarrassed?” Alana struck gold.
“That I’m asking my godmother to put me in one of her clandestine auctions so that I can score a rich husband? I’ll let you think on that for a second,” I scoffed.
“You know the answer to that question, chéri . Do not play coy with me,” she chastised, and instantly I felt my cheeks flush with shame. Alana was not the enemy. That position was reserved for my asshole brother. Without Alana, I might not have existed at all.
“Julianne, I need to know that you genuinely want this if I’m to even consider your involvement. Once you sign, there’s no going back. You will be married to a man sight unseen for three years. That man could up and whisk you away to Timbuktu. When you’re the candidate, you go where the bidder demands.”
“Then I’ll run my new business from Timbuktu. I’m resourceful,” I fired back.
Besides, part of my larger plan was to take every last client I’d brought in to FM Enterprises and bring them over to my new business. If I crippled my family’s bottom line, Brenden would have no choice but to grovel at my feet. I could easily do both of those things from anywhere. All I needed was an Internet connection and a phone.
“And why do you need the money? I know your parents not only left you their estate but investments, stocks, bonds, life insurance…”
“I’m contesting the will. Everything is on pause. That means I get nothing from their estate until we’ve gone through the legal proceedings.”
“ Chéri , I wish you’d discussed this with me prior to acting. Fighting a legal battle with your own brother? This is not how healthy familial relationships are made.”
My heart sank because she was right. Alana was always right. And yet I knew I had to do something in order to work this thorn that was Bianca out of our lives forever. And that would take time and money. The first of which I now had seeing as I wouldn’t be working in the office. The second I’d get from the auction to implement my plan.
“Julianne, there’s more to the contract than just a simple ‘I do.’ You’ll also be expected to willingly share your body. All marriages must be consummated within two weeks of the wedding. The ceremony must take place, and the marriage certificate signed by an officiant no more than thirty days after the contract is signed. Do you understand what I’m saying? You will not fully be your own person any longer. You will be one half of a couple. A married couple.”
I didn’t exactly love the idea of becoming intimate with a stranger, but it’s not like I was scared of the idea. I’d had plenty of casual hookups. Sex was sex. I had a healthy libido. It was something everyone needed to take the edge off. At least in my experience. Aside from my first sexual encounter, which I’d locked away in a vault within my mind and would not be spending time thinking about.
“And what does Giovanni think about all of this?” she asked, speaking of the devil, the one person I’d been praying she wouldn’t bring up.
My nostrils flared at the thought of Gio, and I fisted my hands, desperate to hold back my anger.
“How should I know? I told you, he hasn’t been seen since everything went down. The night he found Bianca fucking my brother, you know, the day before he was supposed to marry the wicked witch of the West, he walked away and never came back. No one’s heard from him. I tried his penthouse in New York, even got the manager to do a wellness check. He wasn’t there. His assistant is the only one who knows anything about him and she’s not sharing. Apparently, he threatened to remove her from her position if she did.”
“ Mon Dieu ,” My God , Alana fretted.
“Yeah. I’m all alone.”
All alone.
I closed my eyes and shivered as the realization hit me as fast as a car going fifty miles per hour. Everything I’d ever known was gone. All that I worked for these twenty-nine years, gone the moment my parent’s charter plane crashed into the side of a mountain overlooking the Swiss Alps.
And then there was Gio. I couldn’t allow myself to think about him or our past. I’d spent years getting over what happened between me and my brother’s ex-best friend. Besides Alana and my therapist, I’d never told a single soul. And I never would. He didn’t remember it anyway.
“You’re never alone, chéri . You will always have me,” Alana vowed with a confidence I believed.
And I did have her. She’d been a kind, intelligent, and compassionate presence in my life. I didn’t see her regularly or often, but she’d always been available when I called. And she’d visited our family throughout the years when her schedule permitted. Alana even attended my high school graduation party and then again when I graduated with my bachelor’s. She also sent me two dozen roses and a pair of diamond earrings when I secured my MBA from Columbia University. Alana was like extended family who lived abroad. You didn’t see them all the time, but you loved them from afar and gloried in the time you had with them when you had it.
“Then prove it. Put me in the next auction. Help me secure my future. You did it for my mother all those years ago. Until she died, she was the happiest woman in the world. She’d lived her dream life until it was cut short at the young age of fifty-two. Help me find my happily ever after, Alana. Please.”
“Julianne…”
“ Please ,” I begged, desperation coating my plea.
“I’ll do it.” Alana sighed deeply.
I let out the breath I was holding. Three years of being married to a wealthy man would be nothing. I’d spent more years as an undergrad striving for a perfect GPA. I could be a doting wife while I built my new empire and got my revenge on my brother.
“On one condition.” Her response was ominous.
“And that would be?”
“A private auction. Held immediately following my scheduled event in two weeks’ time. There will be no more than five bidders. All personally chosen by me. And you will agree to marry whoever is the highest bidder, chéri . Sight unseen, just like everyone else. Alas, as your godmother and a dear friend to your parents, I have a vested interest in your happiness and well-being. Therefore, I will choose wisely.”
“Fine,” I agreed instantly. “I trust you to put my wishes and desires at the forefront of your process.”
“Be careful what you wish for, ma petite fleur . You just may get it.”