Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
L iam
"I cannot believe that we're in Italy together." Elisabetta squeezes my hand, and I smile at her. She has completely changed my life, and I don't even know how to tell her that this moment means so much to me.
"Your father is going to be very surprised when he sees that you're not sad," I say, laughing as she takes another lick of her gelato.
"Well, I don't care if he's surprised. In fact, I don't even care if he knows that I already know that you're to be my husband. I want him to feel like I felt when he told me I had to get married. I want him to know?—"
"No," I say, leaning over and taking a lick of the chocolate. The ice cream melts in my mouth.
"Hey, that's mine! You said you didn't want one."
"You're not gonna share with me?"
"I guess," she says. "But why can't my dad know? I think it's really unfair what he's done and?—"
"And I understand, but there's just a delicate balance of how everything is to be done here." I stare at her for a couple of seconds. "And I don’t wanna upset your father because I don’t want him to take anything back."
"But you said he already got the money, right?"
"He's gotten the money, but he has not fully finished signing the contract," I say. "I do not own the properties that he was signing over to me."
“But of course, he's gonna do it, right?"
"I am assuming he's going to do it, but for all I know, he could change his mind and send me the money back,"
"But that would mean he'd be in breach of contract. You see, I learned something from working at a law firm."
"Honey, he wouldn’t be in breach of contract if he never signed the contract."
"But you had a verbal contract, right?"
"And they don't really stand up in a court of law." I shake my head. We're just gonna have to do it his way for now.
"Okay, but I don't know, it pisses me off that he thinks he's gotten one over on us. Like, he's awful."
"He's your father."
"Yeah, and?"
"And I'm sure that he just wants you to be happy."
"Does he, though? For all he knows, I absolutely hate you. He hasn't asked me once about my working relationship with you. He hasn’t asked me if I like you or if I think you're a good boss."
"I suppose he is nervous that if you say you don’t like me then he'd be forcing you to marry someone you hate."
"So he'd rather not know that I hate you?" She shakes her head. "I mean, I'm trying to look at this in a positive light because we're together, and I am appreciative that I've met you, but I'm still upset."
"That's very understandable." My phone beeps then, and I look down at it. It's Lucinda.
"So, my uncle's place is about two more blocks from here," Elisabetta says as she stares at me.
"Do you mind if I take this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I very rarely get calls Lucinda, and usually when she does call me, it's important, and she knows today is the official day that we find out we're engaged. So if she's calling me, it's something important."
"Fine," she says. "I suppose we can't arrive together anyway. I'll head over to my dad's place, and you meet me there in ten to fifteen minutes."
"Okay." I pull her toward me and grab her shoulders and tilt her head up to look into my eyes. Her brown eyes are dazzling and so full of love that my heart melts. "You are distinctly and wholeheartedly the love of my life, and no matter what happens, I want you to always remember that this means something to me, and it's not just about your dad."
"I know," she says, pouting her lips. "Though we wouldn't be getting married if it wasn't for my dad."
"I mean, that is true. We would not be getting married right now, but we would be?—"
"We would be doing what?" she says, cocking her head to the side.
"Making love?"
"Very funny."
"What? You like making love to me."
"I do, but I'm curious what the status of our relationship would be if?—"
"We would be casually dating to see if we wanted…"
She frowns slightly, and I realize I've said something wrong. "Sorry, should I have said we'd just be dating?"
"No. I want you to be honest. You wouldn't have asked me to be your girlfriend by now?"
"I don't know," I say honestly. "Look, I've never really had feelings like this for anyone before, and I've never really wanted to be in an exclusive relationship where I was committed to someone. I love you, and I am committed to you, but I can't say how I would have felt if we weren't in this scenario."
"Fine," she says. "I get it."
"Do you hate me?"
"No," she says, shaking her head. "I mean, I'm not happy with you, but…" She shrugs.
"Give me a kiss." I stare at her and lean my lips towards hers.
"I don't think you deserve one right now, Liam Gallagher."
"What if I ask you sweetly?"
"You'd have to do a lot more than ask me sweetly."
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"Fine." She gives me a quick peck and then pulls away. "I'll see you later, fiancé-to-be."
"I'll see you later, wife-to-be."
I watch as she walks away and then call Lucinda back.
"Sir, I am sorry to disturb you."
"It's fine. What's going on?"
"We have a bit of a problem."
"Okay, and?—"
"And well, it's kind of a big problem."
"What do you mean, it's a big problem?"
"So, remember the Brigade deal that you did last year?"
"Yeah. How can I forget? It made me $500 million and?—"
"Sir, Brigade stock has crashed."
"What?"
"A whistleblower came out and said that the manufacturing plants were employing children and?—
"But that’s not true."
"It's not true now, sir, but it may have been before you purchased the company."
"What? What are you talking about? Fillmore told me. I visited the factories. I?—"
"Sir, I've got our best men investigating, but I'm just telling you what I know as fact right now. It's in the news all over Europe and in New York, and it's tanked. All that money is gone."
"What do you mean, all that money is gone?"
"The 500 million that you have invested in shares in Brigade are worthless right now. There's been an international boycott of the company, and several MPs are calling for an investigation. I've heard that even the president of the United States of America is going to have a press conference."
"What? You're kidding me!"
"I don't know if that's true, sir, but it's a big deal. Kids as young as five years old were working twelve hours a day in the factories, and I mean, there are a lot of big companies that have been purchasing those products to sell."
"Fuck it! Okay, so what do we do?
"We need to put out a statement right away. I'm speaking to legal right now. I have Max, Remington, and Kingston going through the contracts that were signed. We have our public relations team assembling something. As soon as I have something, I'm gonna send it to you for the okay, and then we'll send it out to the papers and TV stations.
"We're gonna have to get ahead of this, sir. We're gonna have to get you on TV, speaking to different investigative journalists."
"Fuck my life. What is going on? How did we not catch this before?"
"You called it out earlier, sir, when you said Fillmore seemed dishonest."
"I knew that son of a bitch was lying about something. This is the worst possible timing. You know I'm about to be introduced to Elisabetta as her fiancé."
"I mean, I know, sir, but?—"
"But this is just not?—"
"Sir, with this 500 million gone and the 300 million that you've wired to Elisabetta's dad, if he reneges on the deal…" She pauses. "Well, it's not looking good."
"Fuck. Okay, so what you're telling me is I need to get him to sign those contracts today."
"Yes, sir. You're gonna need to get him to sign those contracts, and we're gonna need to push forward with the hotel chains immediately. We also need to get ahead of Brigade and everything else that's going on there."
"I mean, my stake cannot be worth nothing. It has to be?—"
"Sir, its worth is as good as nothing unless we can turn this around."
"I understand," I say."Thank you for letting me know."
“I know that you're going to become officially engaged to Elisabetta today, and I didn't want to disturb you, but?—"
"It's fine, Lucinda. I appreciate that you waited and that you've got things in motion for me. You are definitely the best assistant I've ever had."
"Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. About the other thing, sir."
"What other thing? What are you talking about?"
"About, you know."
"No."
"About Elisabetta, sir, and the secret."
I let out a deep sigh. "I thought I told you we were never going to discuss that. I thought?—"
"You care for her, right, sir?"
"Yes."
"Don't you think she has a right to know the truth?"
There's silence on the phone. I can hear motorcycles whizzing by and Italians laughing and singing as they pass me in the street, but all I can think about is the deep, dark secret that I'm holding in my heart.
"It's not my place to tell her."
"Her father's never gonna tell her, sir. If you don't tell her, then who will?"
"Maybe it's better that she doesn’t know. We don't know the full circumstances under?—"
"I do, sir. I can send you the file."
"What do you mean?"
"I had the investigator do some more digging."
"Why? I told you that?—"
"Because if it were me, I would wanna know, sir."
"Lucinda, I need this deal to go through, and you already know that Franco says it's over if I tell her anything. I can't afford for this deal to go through right now. You just told me I've lost almost everything."
"You have property, sir. You have money in the bank."
"Lucinda!"
"I'm just saying, at what cost do you want to keep this to yourself?"
"I have to go. Thank you for the information, and I'll speak to you later."
"Yes, sir. Enjoy your engagement party."
"I will."
I hang up and stand there, clutching the phone in my hand. I feel jolted. Like I'm in a state of shock, and I don't know what to do. Immediately, I call Max.
"Hey."
"You heard?"
His voice is somber. "I heard."
"Anything in the contracts that can help me get out of this?"
"We've got our best associates going through everything. We haven't found anything yet, Liam."
"How the fuck could this happen? How did we not know there were factories employing little kids? I thought everything was on the up and up."
"So did we. I'm sorry, Liam. I know you don't wanna hear this, but right now, it's not looking good. Public opinion is against you, and several of the big corporations who have contracts with you are canceling. They no longer wanna be associated with the business and?—"
"I get it. You don't have to explain to me what that means. I'm broke."
"You're not broke, Liam. You're just less rich."
"If this deal with Elisabetta's dad goes south?—"
"I mean, he can still return your money."
"Yeah, but the money I'm investing with him, I predict that it will triple or quadruple. I need this venture to go through."
"I mean, I understand. You're a businessman, Liam. I just—" He pauses. "Well, I just don’t want this to become even more complicated for you."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that all the girls feel like this is real."
"What do you mean? They know it's not real. They know?—"
"They think that you're just saying that you're doing it because of Elisabetta's dad, but that you really love her and do wanna marry her, and?—"
"What? I never said that."
"You know women, and I just hope that Elisabetta is not thinking the same thing." He sounds annoyed. "Look, you're my client and my friend, but Elisabetta is a part of my family now. She is one of Lila's best friends, and if you hurt her, you're gonna hurt Lila. And if you hurt Lila, we're gonna have a problem.
"Look, Liam, I don't wanna be rude, but I feel like you came over to the States with ulterior motives, and none of us at the firm are happy."
"I get that, and I'm sorry, but obviously, I couldn't tell you. I was going to?—"
"Look, I don't wanna hear any excuses right now. What's done is done, but you're in a mess, Liam, and you need to figure out what you're gonna do."
"Well, I'm focusing on my business like I always have. I'm gonna go to the party and become engaged to Elisabetta, and that is going to be that. You're gonna fucking figure out a way to sue Fillmore so that I can get some of my investment back if Brigade is now down the tubes."
"We're gonna do our best," he says. "That's all I can say."
"And your best better be fucking good enough. I don't employ you to?—"
"Don't speak to me like that, Liam. I know you're stressed, but you need to figure your shit out, and I have a feeling your shit's got more to do with Elisabetta than anything going on with Brigade right now."