CHAPTER NINE
Desmond
I had no idea that Lorelei was the missing piece I had been searching for my whole life.
Timothy and my grandfather might call it delusions, but I know this is the real thing.
I whistle with joy as I step into my penthouse, where a worried Timothy is waiting for me.
Knowing him, he is probably going to launch into how this could affect a whole lot of things, especially the stocks of the company.
“I don’t think you should be greeting me with a frown,” I begin.
“Damian is down, and Alexander has called a board meeting,” Timothy says without missing a beat.
“What?” I ask, not sure if I heard him right.
He tells me that we need to head straight for Velhaven before my father, Alexander, does something crazy.
But Lorelei. I can’t just disappear without any explanation.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have someone drop by and explain things to her in the office,” Timothy assures me, as though he had read my mind.
I hate to leave her without an explanation, but knowing my father, I can’t wait here a minute longer.
As we ride the helicopter to the airport where one of the family’s jets is waiting, I instruct Timothy to make sure that a reasonable explanation is provided.
I know I should call her myself, but I doubt she would believe anything I have to say over the phone.
On getting to Velhaven, I rush to my grandfather’s side. Damian Sinclair looks awfully pale lying on the bed. His eyes are closed, his skin looking leathery, and the machines around him are constantly beeping as if indicating something is wrong.
“You can’t die on me, Grandfather.” I hold his hands in mine.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” My Uncle Dean assures me.
“How did this happen?” I turn to Dean, who explains how my grandfather had suffered a heart attack.
When the news that my father, the Executive Vice Chairman of Sinclair Holdings, had suddenly called a board meeting to depose the chairman, reached my grandfather, he went into shock, prompting his heart attack.
Dean tells me that there have been several developments in the past few weeks, while I have been away from Velhaven.
For the past four years, my father has been doing everything in his power to wrestle control of Sinclair Holdings from my grandfather, and while he has been largely unsuccessful, that hasn’t stopped him from continuing in his pursuit.
I had never been interested in their squabbles until six months ago, when my grandfather decided he would be handing over the company to me.
As much as I want nothing to do with my father, I had no intention of getting involved with him.
Coming down here to Daston had been to placate my grandfather till now.
My father won’t leave me alone if he has his way, and while I can reason with my grandfather, Alexander Sinclair is not a man you can reason with, especially when he has decided on a path.
Everyone sees him as a success story, but no one knows the monster he truly is behind closed doors.
He is the type to never get physical, but his words are like barbed wire that digs into your flesh.
Every achievement, he ridiculed, every milestone was a failure to him.
After my mother fled, leaving me alone with him, I suffered from his ego and hatred.
At first, I tried to chalk it up to him being hurt, but now, I know better.
Alexander Sinclair doesn’t have any love in his bones, not for his wife, his brother, his father, or me, his son.
After all, no man who truly loved his son would have neglected me the way he did.
Do I even have a happy memory with him?
Until I got to high school, I had no idea what kind of twisted relationship I had with my father, and the moment it became glaring was when I listened to
“Damian already discussed a few things with me before we left Velhaven, and I think it’s time we implement them,” I say to Timothy, who has joined us in the room.
“Whatever you need, guys. I have long since given up any stakes in the company, and I’ll provide you with any help you might need.”
With his own military and security firm worth billions, Dean Sinclair had stayed away from the family’s business, insisting he didn’t want anything to do with it. The only person who can stop my father is me, and with a family of my own, I have more reasons to aim for the throne than ever before.
The next few days will be busy, and I need to meet with a number of people. I look at my phone, wondering whether I should call Lorelei, who must be awake by now.
“We need to leave now,” Timothy urges, and I look away from my phone.
“I should call Lorelei and explain,” I say out loud.
Immediately, Timothy discouraged that idea. He explains that if I am going to explain who I truly am, it must be face-to-face. “You can’t just drop that kind of bomb on her lap while you’re miles away.”
He does have a point, and since the doctors had assured me that my grandfather would be awake in days, I can explain to her when I return to Daston.
And just like that, two weeks go by. My father has spread his influence and is trying to convince the people he meets with that my grandfather isn’t the right person to ally with, which isn’t easy.
I find it quite funny how a few people think I should be on my father’s side.
I would rather give up everything I have, except for Lorelei, of course, than support my father.
I haven’t exactly gotten over the nightmares, the light of staring at an empty house, or the brutal rejection and something akin to hatred in his eyes.
No, I doubt I’d ever be able to forget how my father had never looked at me with love.
That’s all in the past now, though. I have a new family.
“I need to go back to her,” I tell Timothy, as we leave our fifth meeting that morning.
“You can’t rush to her side now. Do you know what would happen if your father discovered her?”
Alexander Sinclar isn’t the type of man to play fair, and if dragging my Lorelei into this fight would give him an edge, I can tell you that he would do that.
Especially if he finds out how important she is to me.
He had the only golden retriever my mother got me for my tenth birthday put down because it made me giggle in the middle of the night.
If he can do that back when I was ten, I am confident he would destroy Lorelei just to remind me of how much power he wields over me.
I would need to hide Lorelei from him and anyone who might want to hurt me. I am not ashamed of being married to Lorelei, but the world of the elite is cruel and unforgiving, and before she gets thrust into that world, I need to prepare her.
“Do everything to ensure that won’t happen. Meet with the clerk back at the courthouse and pay him enough to keep his mouth shut,” I instruct Timothy.
Looking at the picture of her in the gown I took, I promise myself that I will explain everything to her in just a matter of days. My grandfather is already up, and soon, I’ll be free to return to Daston to be with her.
“Desi, my boy,” my grandfather says weakly as I step into his room.
Despite recovering, the doctors had insisted that he remain on bed rest. Somehow, I can’t shake the feeling that he seems to be enjoying this too much.
I pull a chair next to his bed, watching him munch on grapes, before I begin a report on the meetings I had had that morning.
About thirty minutes into the meeting, Timothy rushes in, the knitted brows indicating that something has happened.
“There’s something you need to know,” Timothy says as he draws close.
He whispers into my ear, and I feel the blood drain out of my face.
“Sorry, Gramps, I need to leave now,” I announce.
“Is something wrong?” My grandfather questions, but I assure him that everything is fine.
On the ride down, I asked Timothy to explain how exactly the clerk had revealed the truth about what happened. Timothy doesn’t have a full explanation, but it seems some reporter had gotten the information from the clerk and had now published a headline about Lorelei.
“Can we bring it down?”
“Gone viral. I am not sure we can do anything.”
Without a doubt, my father has to be responsible for this, but at the moment, I need to get to Lorelei.
All throughout the ride on the jet, I keep wondering how she would process this.
I intended to break things to her slowly when I return, but now, she will find out who I truly am from the reporters.
“I have come up with some strategies on how to deal with this,” Timothy says beside me.
At the moment, I care little about any strategies. All that matters to me is getting Lorelei safe. Yet, I also have a number of concerns. What if she decides to annul the marriage? What if she thinks that I deceived her? What if she wants nothing to do with me?
My heart would never be able to take Lorelei looking at me with hatred, and this situation means that she won’t be able to break things up.
Not if I can help it.
“Reach out to the reporters we know. Tell them about our story, how we met while I was trying to learn more about Westward Logistics, and how it was love at first sight.”
“You sure you want to do things that way?” Timothy asks, his voice full of skepticism.
He is probably weighing the pros and the cons of acknowledging the marriage to my stand in the company, but I don’t care about any of that. No, the only thing that matters is Lorelei, and I wonder how exactly she would take this news.
******
Watching Lorelei swamped with reporters breaks my heart, and even though we had managed to rescue her, she has remained silent, almost as if she is trying to process everything.
Since I need to explain everything to her, I brought her up to my penthouse, which I guess would soon be our home, if she chose to stay with me.
She looks tired. Sleep bags under her eyes, her hair looks a bit disheveled. The past week must have been tough for her, with her losing her job, and I just made it tougher.
I’m going to make her stay. I can’t lose you, Lorelei.
I have a fierce dislike for the media, seeing how they had also played a huge role in my parents’ marriage. They had torn into the two of them and had driven the wedge between them to the extreme. I won’t let them do that to Lorelei and me, even if it means breaking the law.
“If I got you right,” Lorelei begins breaking the silence, as she plays with her hand. “You are not Desmond Anthony but Desmond Sinclair, grandson of Damian Sinclair, one of the richest five men in the world, right?”
I nod slowly.
“Also, you are the new CEO of my workplace. Sorry, my former workplace.”
I wince at her statement. I should have handled that before leaving for Velhaven.
“Yeah. I am that Desmond Sinclair.”
She laughs out loud, her laughter a little bit scary. “This is unbelievable. Not only did my life turn upside down in a matter of days, but I’m married into one of the richest families in the world. This must be a fairytale, right?”
She turns to Timothy, who regards her with a raised eyebrow. Anyone in her situation would have a difficult time processing this, but I need to talk things through with her.
“Maybe, but we need to discuss our present situation,” I say in a cracked voice.
“Nothing to say. An annulment. We’re getting that,” she declares, determination in her voice. “You can help with that, right?”
Just like I feared.
She is right to want that, but it isn’t going to be easy. Well, it is easy, but I’m not going to let her go easily.
“We can’t do that, Lorelei. I know you are probably angry, and you hate me for disappearing for the past few days. I know I should have informed you, but I didn’t want to do it over the phone.”
“And that’s why you disappeared without a word? Wait, that’s not even the most important part. I married Desmond Anthony, not Desmond Sinclair.”
She is not going to like what I am about to say.
“I signed the papers as Desmond Sinclair,” I inform her.
She looks at me. A mixture of anger and something similar to disgust on her face. Seeing her look at me that way breaks my heart, but I need to endure it.
If I’m going to keep her by my side.
“You are a despicable man, Desmond,” Lorelei says as she breaks down.
I try to get on my feet, but Timothy stops me as he interferes. “It’s all my fault, Ms. Bennet. He has always wanted to tell you, but due to the situation in the company, I stopped him from telling you.”
She looks up, tears in her eyes, and I feel angry at myself for causing her pain. “What do you mean?”
Timothy goes on to weave a rather beautiful story about how I had always wanted to tell her about my true identity the first week of working at Westward Logistics, but because I couldn’t have anyone knowing who I truly am, he had stopped me.
“This is happening because his father wants to damage his reputation, and I know you feel betrayed, but asking for an annulment would only hurt Desmond,” Timothy answers. “Besides, it would hurt you as well.”
She looks from Desmond to me, asking for clarification. I hate the fact that I need to do this, but I need to lie to her. It is just a little lie, one that wouldn’t hurt anyone.
“We have to actually act like we are married, Lorelei. Apart from the fact that an annulment would mean you have to leave the country or get prosecuted, I might lose my standing in the company, and my father would destroy everything I have spent the past week working on,” I explain to her.
“I know you think I ran away, but my grandfather suffered a heart attack, and my father is trying to take over the company. I am the only one who can stop him, and should the news about our fake marriage break, we would be unable to protect the people we love and care about.”
It is a huge gamble. A risky one, but one I can make work. The immigration lawyer would be able to come up with legal reasons we have to stay, and ending our marriage won’t mean that the world would leave her alone.
“If we get an annulment, it is only going to have those vultures circling you. The only way we can weather this down is by pretending to be a couple who married for love.”
The look in her eyes makes it look like I had just handed her a death sentence, and I know it is selfish of me, but I’d do anything to keep Lorelei by my side.