Chapter Thirty
BEC
“Last chance,” Will mused from his seat next to mine. The second and final board meeting he would be attending was set to begin shortly. I had ensured we got here early to give me time to… process.
It was strange being back in the office.
The blinds in my office were still closed from Livia’s paranoia all those months ago.
My papers were left on my desk, but now had a layer of dust. Only two people had keys to my office.
Rome and me. Without either of us here to let them in, the cleaners never came.
I could have sworn I could still smell Rome’s cologne.
His office was left untouched. A spare jacket dangled on the hook on his door.
He had a stack of notes on his desk as he deciphered what they had meant, that sticky note with his credit card PIN still in the drawer.
The cleaners had dusted and vacuumed. It looked like he had just stepped out for a moment, and he would be back before I knew it.
The office was left in a state of waiting…
waiting for me, for what was to come next, for answers?
What it was waiting for, I wasn’t sure. The building was quieter than usual, many of the employees having left during my hiatus.
The company was unstable, and no one wanted to tie their horse to this sinking ship.
“This is the right thing,” I explained to Will. I sat at the head of the table as we waited for the remaining board members. “At least, I think it is.”
“You can take more time,” he tried to placate. “The board will understand.”
I shook my head, “I don’t care about them anymore. This company took everything from me. It took our father, it took our family, it took my life… it took Rome. I don’t want it to take anything more.”
Will took my hand in a comforting gesture. We had never been the closest, but I always knew he would be there for me when it counted. He had proven that over the last few months. I would miss him when he went home, but I was excited for what our relationship could now become.
The door to the conference room opened. I was expecting Andi, or maybe Melissa, as the meeting wasn’t set to start for nearly half an hour.
Instead, it was my dad.
He looked horrendous. He had dark circles under his eyes, his suit was wrinkled, and his hair was mussed. Gone was the larger-than-life facade. Now, he looked like the shitty excuse of a father he truly was.
“Dad,” I greeted cooly. We still had no proof he was responsible for Rome’s death, even though I knew he was.
Andi hadn’t seen the shooter, but it had my dad written all over it.
He didn’t care about me, nor Rome. He only cared about money and his own success.
By killing Rome, he had succeeded in shaking me…
and thus, the company. The company was struggling, but I knew it could be saved…
I just wasn’t willing to be the one to do it anymore.
“Rebecca,” he sighed and sat down on the other end of the table.
Will stiffened next to me, but didn’t speak. I knew this was hard for him, but he wanted to be here to support me.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I need to tell you something…” He trailed off and scrubbed a hand across his scruffy jaw. “I don’t even know how to tell you-”
“Get to the point,” Will gruffly interrupted.
My dad seemed shocked to hear his voice, as if he hadn’t noticed Will was in the room in the first place. This was only the second time they had been in the same room for two decades, but the first time Will had spoken to him.
My dad took a steadying breath and rested his palms on the table. “It was me.” His voice was just above a whisper, but the words cut like knives.
I closed my eyes, wanting to hold back the tears. “You killed him?”
“Yes.” I opened my eyes again at his admission.
My dad was holding back tears of his own.
“It was all me. I… I was in a lot of trouble. I was trying to build a better company, a bigger company than this one. I wanted to do more and be more. But it failed.” He laughed without humor, “I lost everything.”
“It was just money,” I interrupted, utterly disgusted.
My dad shook his head, “No, it was more. I lost everything. I lost your mom. I lost you two. I lost who I was in the pursuit of greatness. When the company failed… it meant none of it had been worthwhile. The sacrifices I had made amounted to nothing.”
“You sacrificed your own children,” I argued. “You have no one to blame but yourself.”
My dad nodded in agreement, “I know. I didn’t understand that at first. I was floundering, and I wanted to fix it.
I thought if I could dig this new company out of the hole, what I lost wouldn’t matter.
I panicked. I-I thought if I ruined your chances at running this company…
” He swallowed hard, pained by hearing his own words, his own actions, “I thought I could make back the funds.”
“We know,” Will interrupted. “We figured it out months ago.”
My dad was surprised, “I should have expected that. You two were always so smart. Your mom raised you both so well…”
“So the notes? The kidnapping attempt? The rumors to the media about Rome, about me? Was it all an attempt to make me fail?” I asked, interrupting, needing to hear the truth from his own mouth.
“Yes,” my dad explained. “None of it was my idea, but I approved it. Paid for it. Facilitated it all.”
Will looked perplexed by the statement, but I kept questioning my dad.
“So you… killed,” the word came out strangled, “Rome? To what? To make me unstable?”
My dad sighed, “I was desperate. In business, you have to make sacrifices…”
“He was a person!” I shouted. “He was worth so much more than to be sacrificed for your greatness! For your money! Is money really more important to you than a person’s life?”
“He wasn’t supposed to die!” My dad exclaimed.
He took a steadying breath, quieting his tone.
“He wasn’t supposed to die. I shot him in the shoulder.
It was just supposed to scare him and scare you.
I saw how you looked at him, Rebecca. You loved him more than anything—more than this company.
I thought… I thought that if he were the one in danger, you would finally act.
I started with you, but you did nothing.
You didn’t even seem to care; you just worked harder.
I thought if the person you cared for the most were the target, you would maybe even resign. It wasn’t supposed to kill him.”
“It was an accident?” I asked in shock.
My dad nodded.
“Wait,” Will interrupted, “you said none of this was your idea?” My dad nodded, and thus Will continued, “Whose was it?”
My dad swallowed and looked at me with guilty eyes. “I tried to warn you… she was too easily swayed.”
I thought over his words, trying to understand the clue, when it hit me. He had always commented that Andi could be swayed by the wind. It was his own warning. “Andi?” I choked.
My dad nodded, “She’s worked for you for so long, I figured she would know best on how to shake you.”
My hand covered my mouth as I thought over the last few months.
I hadn’t noticed anything different about her.
She was still the Andi I had always known…
I had always trusted. But now I could see the inconsistencies.
The bear spray that went missing from my purse, and the incorrect car being called when I was taken.
The notes weren’t just coming from someone internal; they were coming from her.
It’s why she hated the new bodyguards Rome had hired.
They had gotten in her way. She no longer had as much access to my life, which could explain why she went after Rome.
“Was it her idea to hurt Rome?” I asked through clenched teeth.
My dad nodded, “All of it was.”
“How did you convince her?” Will asked.
My dad shrugged, “It was easy, honestly. Too easy.”
“Money?” I asked.
My dad shook his head, “Rome. She loved him.”
“What?” I asked in surprise. I had always known she had a crush on him, but I thought it was harmless—that she was harmless.
“She has attachment issues,” my dad explained.
“She was attached to you, but the moment she met Rome, she was infatuated. I had promised her that I would help her get him. I genuinely had no idea how I would do that, but she didn’t care about the semantics.
She just wanted him. Maybe it was too easy to sway her… ”
“Oh my God,” I mumbled. Finally putting the pieces together. “When did she come up with the idea to hurt him?”
“That day,” he explained. “She called me, telling me she already had him. I found the two of them in some random tunnel outside of the city. He was drugged out of his mind, and she told me her idea. We were just supposed to hurt him, but I must have hit an artery or something.”
“You shot him in a tunnel?” Will asked. My dad nodded.
Will turned to me, “The blood was found in a warehouse in the city. Did she move him?”
“I-I don’t know,” I whispered. “If she loved him, why did she have him killed?”
“Come on,” Will called as he stood and left the conference room. I followed only a few steps behind.
Will strutted across the executive floor towards my office. He was a man on a mission. Malachi was sitting on Andi’s desk, and he was chatting with her. Malachi and Andi looked at us in surprise.
My hands curled into fists as I held back from pouncing at her.
“Where is he?” Will growled at Andi.
A surprised Andi leaned back, trying to put distance between her and my brother.
“What?” She asked in a shaky voice.
“Will?” Malachi asked, perplexed, and turned to me.
I shook my head, unsure of what Will was asking.
“Where is Rome?” Will asked, “I know you have him. Where is he?”
“What?” Malachi and I asked in unison.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Andi stammered. “He’s dead. I watched it.”
“Cut the act,” my dad called from the conference room doorway, seeming even more tired after his confession. “I told them everything.”
Andi’s eyes grew impossibly wide as she learned we knew the truth. Or at least part of the truth. Will seemed to believe there was more.
I had heard the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I was watching it play out in front of me.
Andi transformed. Gone was the quiet, yet brilliant assistant.
She turned angry, enraged even, her eyes glowing with fury.
She stood and tried to lunge. I couldn’t tell if it was towards me, Will, or my dad, but she didn’t make it very far, nonetheless.
Malachi grabbed her at the waist and pulled her back towards him.
He had her locked against his chest, with his long arms wrapped around her as she struggled.
“Let me go!” She screamed as she pushed against Malachi’s hold, but he was a mountain… strong and formidable.
“What the fuck, Andi?” I asked her, my own anger rising. “What did I do to you that made you want to blow up my whole life?”
She seemed surprised by the insinuation, “I didn’t want to hurt you. I wanted him.”
“So you thought killing him was the best option?!” I asked, perplexed.
She shook her head. “No! Never! I would never hurt him. He…” she practically growled, her sanity unwinding in front of my eyes. “He got confused. You confused him. He thinks he loves you, but he doesn’t! He’ll learn you’re no good for him. I am! He needs me!”
“Loves?” I whispered. “As in current tense? Right now?”
Andi realized she revealed the truth and shook her head frantically, “No! No, you can’t have him. He’s mine. You can’t have him!”
I slapped her across the cheek. Her head whipped to the side from the blow, and her shocked eyes turned to me. “You hit me!” She cried.
“Where is he, Andi?” I seethed and stepped closer. Will wrapped a hand around my upper arm, holding me back.
“No,” Andi mumbled, “you don’t get to have him. He’s mine.”
I lost it. I jumped, fighting against Will’s hold, and scratched Andi’s face. Yelling obscenities at her, demanding answers. If Rome was alive, I needed to know where he was. I needed to get to him, and bring him back home to his family.
Will wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me off of Andi, who was still being held by Malachi.
“Let me go,” I argued with Will.
Will held me tightly, “We need answers, and I think she’s had enough.”
Andi looked rough for the wear. Her hair was a mess, and she was sobbing in Malachi’s arms, holding on to him as if he were a life raft. She had a scratch down her cheek from my nails, which was now bleeding.
“Where is he?” I yelled again.
She cowered with a whimper and I pushed against Will’s hold.
“I’m going to kill her.” I seethed through gritted teeth.
A voice broke my focus on Andi, causing gasps to spill from the mouths of those around me. “You’ve got quite the swing on you, sweetheart.”
I turned towards the voice. The voice I never thought I would hear again.
“Rome.”