Chapter Twenty
Caesar
“Bro? You okay?”
I turn my swivel chair from where I’m looking out of the window at the view across Waitematā Harbour.
It’s Marcus, and he closes my office door behind him, then comes up to my desk and plonks a takeaway coffee cup in front of me.
Taking the seat on the other side of my desk, he stretches out his legs and waits for me to answer.
“I’m fine,” I reply curtly.
Marcus sips from his cup and says, “You don’t look fine.
And you didn’t look fine when you stormed out of the boardroom.
” He fixes me with a direct gaze. “I called Rutherfords and they said there’d been some kind of nuclear explosion that had blown through the building.
Did you manage to see her before their security wrestled you to the floor? ”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Tough.” He hesitates, and his brows draw together. “I know what Aurelia said hurt your feelings. I can only imagine how it felt to know the girl you loved is pregnant by someone else. But there’s more at stake here than your love life.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I glare at him. “That’s the whole issue. Tom Rutherford is behind everything, and I’m so angry I could spit.”
“What do you mean, behind everything?”
“The baby’s mine.” My voice is flat.
Marcus’s eyebrows slowly rise. “What?” He looks startled. “But… it’s only been a few days. How can she know she’s pregnant already?”
“It didn’t happen at Blackridge.”
“I don’t… then when…”
“The night of the ball…” I gesture at my shirt buttons. When I turned up late to the meeting with Wren, Marcus was already there talking to her, and he spotted that I’d done my buttons up wrong. He guessed the reason why and thought it was funny.
Now, he just stares at me. “Maddie was your mystery girl?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you know it was her?”
I shake my head. “She wore a mask. And a wig. I didn’t realize who she was until the board meeting.”
“More importantly… did she know it was you at the ball?”
I hesitate. “She said she didn’t.”
“Oh fuck. Caesar…”
“She swore she wasn’t sent to seduce me,” I say fiercely.
He’s quiet for a moment. Then he says, “Do you believe her?”
“I did. I don’t now.”
We sit and study each other for a while. I can see him thinking it all through, puzzling over the details.
“You fucking idiot,” he says eventually. “Why didn’t you use a condom?”
“I did! It must have broken.”
“Seriously?” He frowns. “Wasn’t she seeing Peter Yates?”
“She broke up with him the night before the ball.”
“So… couldn’t the baby be his?”
“I assumed it was. But she said she hadn’t slept with him for weeks. She’s had a dating scan. She’s ten weeks pregnant. The dates line up with the ball. Even so, I told her I want a DNA test.”
“What did she say?”
I scratch at a mark on the coffee cup. “She refused to have anything invasive, which is fair enough.”
“It can be done via a blood test.”
“I told her that. But if I demand one, it means I don’t trust her.”
“You don’t trust her, though. Do you?”
I don’t reply and instead massage the bridge of my nose.
“Bro, this isn’t like you,” he says softly. “You’re the least irrational guy I know. I can count the number of times you’ve been angry in front of people on the fingers of one hand. What’s really going on?”
“My brain’s in such a muddle, I don’t know what to think.” Slowly, I lower my hand and let my head fall back onto the chair. “I miss her,” I say, my voice husky. “I fucking miss her, and I’m furious about it.”
“If you really thought she was manipulating you, you wouldn’t be this wrecked.”
That hits hard. I stare up at the ceiling, trying to think it through. “I’m convinced Tom sent her to soften me up, but she got angry when I implied Tom asked her to seduce me, and that he intends to use the pregnancy to manipulate me. I want to believe her, but she admitted lying to me, so…”
“Isn’t it possible that both things are true?”
I lift my head to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“That she lied about knowing who you were, but that she wasn’t trying to seduce you? And that she was too na?ve to realize Tom was hoping she’d soften you up at Blackridge?”
My mouth opens, but no words come out.
“Dude,” he continues, “I think she probably likes you. That’s why she didn’t tell you who she was. And that’s why she didn’t mention the pregnancy at Blackridge. She was afraid you’d assume she’d done it on purpose and walk away.”
Understanding dawns, and gradually the pressure that’s been sitting on my chest lifts.
He’s right, I know he is. I was so angry at her grandfather that I couldn’t see it clearly.
I was convinced he must have had a hand in our connection, because I couldn’t see him passing up an opportunity to interfere.
But even though he obviously sent her with me to Blackridge, that was possibly the extent of his influence.
Maddie wouldn’t have seduced me because he asked her to. And she certainly wouldn’t have tried to get pregnant to please him. Now I let myself think that, I’m ashamed it entered my head at all.
“Is she keeping the baby?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah.”
“Does she want you to be involved?”
“No. She told me to pretend I was a sperm donor.”
“Before or after you accused her of seducing you?”
I lean my elbows on the table and cover my face with both hands for a moment. Then, eventually, I lower my hands and get to my feet.
“What are you going to do?” he asks as I go over to the window.
I run a hand through my hair. “I don’t know yet. I need to think. But we do need to talk about the partnership.”
He nods. “Malcolm, Dad, and Aurelia are openly for it. Hemi and Emily are wary. I think they’ll follow your lead, and so will I. I’ll stand by you, whatever you decide. If you vote no, it won’t happen. I’ll understand if you do. It’s just…” He pauses.
“Just what?”
“I completely understand that this is personal for you. But is it the best decision for the company? I’m not trying to sway you either way.
But it’s not like you to let your emotions interfere with business.
If you were to put them to one side and think purely about what’s being offered… would that change things?”
I look up at the sky, watching the sun coming out from behind the clouds.
Once again, he’s right. I’ve let my bitterness and resentment over the way Tom treated me when I was younger overshadow this whole affair.
Maddie told me that we need to forget about us and our family feud.
She said, We have to be bigger than that. And she was right.
I turn and look at Marcus. “The thing is… the soil restoration program is revolutionary. Maddie said if we were to integrate her technology into our pasture management system, it could mean a thirty percent increased yield, right across the board. That’s life changing.
We really could feed the world with technology like that. ”
He sits up and points at me. “I know that look. What are you thinking?”
The idea comes to me like a bolt of lightning. I don’t know why I haven’t thought about it before.
But I do know. My fixation with Tom was standing in the way of being able to see things clearly. Now I’ve removed that barrier, it’s finally let in the light.
My lips slowly curve up. “I’ve got a plan. But I think we need to go and see Dad first.”
*
Thursday, 10 a.m.
Maddie
The eight members of the Rutherford family who’ve come to the Ashford offices fill the relatively small second-floor reception area, and they’re all talking at once.
I stand by the window, arms folded and shoulders hunched, not joining in. I’ve had butterflies in my stomach since I found out that Edward Ashford called Gramps at the close of business yesterday requesting a meeting this morning.
Brielle rang me at home to let me know. When I asked who’d be going, she named our father and his four siblings who are involved in the business, and the two of us.
“Why have I got to be there?” I protested, my heart hammering. The last thing I want is to be present when the Ashfords announced we can go fuck ourselves.
But Brielle said, “Gramps has asked us both to be present. I’ll pick you up from your apartment at nine-thirty.”
She had a hair appointment so had to shoot off, leaving me alone with my thoughts for the rest of the evening. Consequently, I spent half the night worrying and barely slept. Today it took me forty-five minutes to cover up the dark circles under my eyes with concealer.
Nausea rises inside me, and I’m not sure whether it’s morning sickness or nerves or a combination of both.
Everyone here seems both excited and bristling for a fight.
The consensus is that Edward can’t possibly refuse the offer, but that he’s going to want to change the specifics somehow.
Gramps and the others spent several hours last night going over the various options and debating what they will and won’t accept, and they’re still discussing variations now in urgent, hushed tones.
I can’t shake the memory of Brielle’s declaration that Caesar is in love with me, but equally I know how he feels about Gramps. Unlike everyone else, I can’t believe the news is going to be good. But would they have called us in if it was only to turn us down completely?
“Good morning, everyone.”
We all look over to see Aurelia Ashford standing there, smiling. “Would you like to come with me, please?” she asks, and she turns and leads the way along the corridor to the boardroom.
She gestures at a tall, broad-shouldered guy who’s standing by the door, indicating for him to go away. He ignores her and continues to study everyone approaching the boardroom. I’m guessing he’s a security guard. In the end she glares at him and leaves him to it as she goes into the room.
Everyone files after her, still talking. I follow at the end. The last time I was here, their table seated twelve, so if there aren’t any chairs available, I’ll happily slink out and remain in the waiting room.