29. Evren
Evren
T he next morning, Zeki and I settle into our chairs in my office, ready for our meeting with Mick and Ben.
I’m worried about Nina—about the way her mom keeps tightening the screws, bleeding her dry.
She says she’s done, and I believe her. But she’s still hurting, and I hate that I can’t fix it.
And while my heart’s tangled up in her, my mind keeps circling back to Glam Pop and to Harold.
I need to figure out what’s really going on before it blindsides me.
“You ready for this?” Zeki asks.
“Yes, this has gone on long enough. I want you to pay close attention to how both Ben and Mick react to the news.”
“Will do.”
Nodding, I begin the video conference with Mick and Ben.
“Evren,” Mick says, mouth pulled into a tight line, clearly displeased I haven’t gotten back to him before now. “I hope you’re calling about good news.”
“I’m not sure if it’s good or not, but I do have news.” I pause, letting him sweat it out. “I actually have two things I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Okay?” Ben asks.
“As you know,” I say, “we can’t move forward and close the deal because of the outlandish demand you’ve made.
Now, I’ve tried to find other solutions and workarounds, but you’re not willing to compromise on a jacket that has no bearing in the sponsorship conversation.
It doesn’t add up, and to be honest, I’m starting to wonder if there is someone else behind the scenes giving you a push? ”
“What?” Ben visibly pales. “Someone else? Like who?”
“You tell me,” I say.
“Where’s this coming from?” Mick demands. “Are you seriously asking if I let someone else— anyone else —tell me how to run my deals?”
“Well,” I say, “your insistence about the jacket doesn’t make sense. So, again, you tell me.”
“Dad,” Ben says, “this is?—”
“Enough,” Mick says sharply. “I make my own calls and I’d never let someone else influence my decisions. That’s not how I do business.”
“Right,” Ben says, “there’s no one pulling our strings. I understand your question about the holdup, and to be honest, I have the same one. ”
Mick whips his head to face Ben, disbelief written all over his face.
“It’s enough,” Ben says. “We don’t need the jacket. The new line that Nina created is exactly what we want.”
“It’s not,” Mick says. “We need the jacket. We need Stella to be the face of our brand.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Yes—”
“Do you really want Stella?” I interrupt. “Or is it about Nina?”
“What does Nina have to do with this?” Ben asks.
“Why don’t you ask your father that question?” Zeki asks gently.
Ben turns to Mick and says, “Dad?”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Mick says, crossing his arms.
“I beg to differ,” I say. “You can’t hide from the truth forever. Nina’s your daughter, Mick. You can’t keep denying that or her.”
Ben opens his mouth and closes it multiple times. “I have a sister?”
“No,” Mick says. “Nina isn’t related to me.”
“She is,” I press. “And if no one is pulling your strings, then I’m starting to wonder if you’re insisting on the jacket to hurt Nina somehow. Or to make money off her even though she’s lived in squalor her entire life because you refused to pay child support.”
“She has?” Ben whispers, still in shock if his pale face is anything to go by. His reaction confirms that he had no idea.
“Who cares what my motivation is?” Mick demands. “Using Stella as the face of the brand is just business. I’m sure you understand.”
“I would understand,” I say, “if you approached Stella directly with this and didn’t try to go through me. What do you have against Nina?”
“She’s disloyal.” Mick sneers. “She’s applied to work for other teams, so why would I want her on the project? Her designs aren’t unique if the other teams are using them.”
“What the hell are you talking about? She only works for the Sentinels.”
“You sure about that?” he asks. “Because she has an interview with the team in New York next Tuesday.”
“Oh really?” I huff in disbelief. “And if that’s true, how would you even know this?”
Mick pauses for a beat, as if debating if he should talk or not.
“The time for lies is over,” I say.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on her.” Mick spits the words out, as if pained to admit that fact. “Wanted to make sure she never came crawling to me, begging me for money. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and her whore of a mother?—”
Rage surges through me, hot and unforgiving, at the way he’s speaking about Nina. My grip tightens on my pen .
“The deal is off,” I say, each word razor sharp as I cut the call.
The silence that follows rings in my ears, a battle between the urge to lash out and the restraint I cling to by a thread.
Every insult, every biting retort I want to hurl at Mick gets swallowed back, trapped behind clenched teeth.
I can’t risk giving anyone more ammunition against me—not when everything teeters on the edge.
But the raw, gnawing need to defend Nina simmers beneath the surface, a promise that this isn’t over.
“Well,” Zeki says. “That’s one way to solve our sponsorship problem.”
“Fuck!” I shout. “I hate that guy.”
“You and me both, but you know he’s lying about Nina, right?”
“I know she’s not working against me. I do know that. But he sounded honest about her meeting with another team.”
“Ehh, he’s probably just lashing out because you backed him into a corner and told his secret.”
“Do you think he’s working with Harold?” I ask, needing to push aside my questions for when I see Nina.
“Definitely not. He’s too egotistical to listen to anyone else. No, this is personal, and all related to Nina.”
“And Ben?”
“There’s hope, especially as he put his foot down about the jacket. I think in the next couple days we’ll be able to tell where he really stands.”
“But that still leaves me without a sponsor.” I sigh. “I…failed. ”
“You didn’t.” Zeki places his hand on my back. “Once we fix the Harold issue, everything will open up. You’ll see.”
I give him a tight smile, wishing I was as optimistic as Zeki is. But optimism isn’t going to fix this issue, and I’m going to need to face the reality that no one wants to work with me. That Harold and his rumors have done permanent damage to my reputation in this business.
“But what if it doesn’t?” I ask. “If I float the team for this season, I won’t be able to sell for a profit.
I won’t be able to take a break and…” And I won’t be able to stop.
I’ve been working myself to the bone to prove that I can do this again, that it’ll only be for two years.
But now there’s no end in sight and I’m just exhausted and?—
“Then don’t sell it. I’ll run it for you, and you can take some much-needed time off. You aren’t alone and you don’t have to do it all yourself. Not anymore.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“Of course. I wasn’t lying when I said I love working for the team.”
“I’ll think about it,” I say quietly. “But just so you know, there’s no one else I’d want in my corner than you.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re just now realizing that I’m the best brother in the world.”
“Oh, I’ve always known.” My lips twitch. “But I didn’t want to inflate that ego of yours.”
Zeki chuckles before snapping his laptop closed. “Go home, talk to Nina, and tomorrow will be a new and better day.”