20. Capri
C apri~
Normally, I didn’t call financial meetings until the end of each quarter, but after having sold Martha Holdings back to TCC, I wanted to make sure that all the numbers were as current as possible. I didn’t want Ares to accuse me of trying to manipulate the PnL.
So, I had called a last-minute meeting with my accounting group, senior leadership only. While the contracts for the sale had been filed as soon as possible, the announcement still needed to be made, so I was the only person in the room who knew why this meeting had really been called.
“Of course, these are just projected numbers,” Alan Richards remarked, and being the mathematician that he was, he’d know. “We usually don’t have concrete numbers until the end of the quarter, Capri.”
Before I could assure him that I was well aware, the door to the conference room opened, and all heads turned to see Ares storming across the carpeted floor, the fire in his eyes aimed directly at me.
Oh, joy.
Ignoring everyone else in the room, Ares didn’t stop until he was standing in front of me, tossing two manilla envelopes on the table, practically throwing them at me, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was in the envelopes.
“Want to explain this bullshit?” he snapped, his voice setting the tone for everyone in the room.
Taking in a deep breath, I tamped down the humiliation that was swimming in my veins, then said, “Everyone, please excuse us for a moment.”
“Yes, please do,” Ares snarled as he glanced at everyone scurrying to get their stuff to leave.
The second that it was just me and Ares, I stood up. “I don’t know who in the hell you think you are, but don’t you ever come to my place of work and humiliate me like that again.”
“Humiliate?” he echoed, positively seething. “You dare to speak to me about being humiliated after you filed for divorce without even speaking to me about it first?”
Giving him his point, I said, “I spoke with my father, and he told me the truth about the sale.” I let out a tired sigh, still hurt by my father’s actions. “He admitted everything, minus the gambling addiction part. He’s still in denial, blaming it on bad investments.”
“And what the fuck does that have to do with you filing for divorce?” he bit out.
“Well, now that I know the truth, it’s obvious that I owe you an apology,” I replied as calmly as I could, trying to take responsibility for my father’s sins.
“So, it only makes sense to give you Martha Holdings back and to...to end our marriage, seeing as how the reason that we got married is no longer valid.”
“Newsflash, baby,” he practically hissed. “I already knew the truth when we got married, and if I recall correctly, so did you. It’s not my fault that it was more convenient for you to label me a liar than to entertain that your dad had misled you.”
He couldn’t be serious.
“Ares, you married me because-”
“I married you because I wanted to!” he roared.
“Ares-”
“And what did I ask you before you walked down that aisle with me, Capri?” he asked, his voice a lot calmer than it’d been before, though I knew that he was still angry. “What did I fucking ask you?”
I straightened my back, preparing myself for a fight that could only get uglier. “You asked me if I was certain that I knew what I was doing.”
“What else?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“You said that you were going to be married only once, and that I’d better understand that before I walked down the aisle with you.”
Ares reached out, and in one of his favorite moves, grabbed my chin with his fingers, not caring that the conference walls were clear glass.
“You will request a dismissal of your filing to-fucking-day, or so help me God, I will pay off however many judges I have to in order to keep you in court for fucking decades, Wife.” He squeezed my chin harder, and I could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t bluffing.
“When I changed my phone number, I made sure to still keep all my important contacts, so I’d really like to see you call my bluff. ”
Tuesday morning, I’d gotten a message from an unknown number, and it’d been Ares, informing me of how he had changed his number, and I’d been idiotically pleased by his consideration.
I jerked my chin out of his hold, very aware that we were being watched, even if we weren’t being recorded for entertainment purposes. “Ares, you need to be reasonable about this-”
“This is me being reasonable,” he spat. “If I wasn’t being reasonable, I would have already dragged you by your fucking hair to your lawyer’s office.”
“Do not threaten me, Ares,” I fired back. “I’ve already told you, I’m not one of your goddamn flunkies.”
“No, you’re not,” he immediately agreed. “You’re my wife. You’re my wife, so start fucking acting like it, Capri. I will not tolerate this bullshit for much longer.”
“What bullshit?” I practically screeched. “Wanting to give you back what is rightfully yours? Wanting to free you from an unpleasant marriage.”
The look that he shot me would have leveled a weaker person.
“What’s rightfully mine? You’re what’s rightfully mine, Capri.
As for Martha Holdings, I couldn’t give a fuck about it.
I’m not emotionally attached to it the way that you are.
So, as far as I’m concerned, you can continue to run it, sell it off for parts, or burn it to the goddamn ground.
It’s yours to do whatever the fuck you want to do with it. ”
I hated how Ares was making all this sound so simple when I was still mentally and emotionally whirling from my father’s semi-confession.
I’d been so justified in my anger when dealing with him, and now that I was trying to apologize and make things right, he was dismissing all my efforts like he couldn’t care less about what this was costing me, and maybe he really didn’t.
Ares Cormac was like an unrelenting military tank, and I couldn’t imagine that he ever stopped to check on any of the damage that he left behind.
“Now, as much as I’d like to stay and remind you of your vows, I have a meeting that I need to get to,” Ares bit out.
“I also expect your ass to be waiting for me when I get home tonight.” Those golden-colored eyes of his narrowed in challenge, as he added, “Do not make me come looking for you, Wife.”
Not giving me a chance to respond or swing a left hook, Ares turned his back on me, then stormed out the same way that he’d stormed in. Only this time, he swung the door so hard that the glass shattered into nothingness, causing gasps to erupt everywhere.
I stood in the middle of the room, fuming.
Despite the disparity in our wealth, social standings, and physicality, he had no right to come into my place of business and humiliate me in front of my colleagues and subordinates.
Even if Martha Holdings no longer belonged to me legally, as of right now, I was still viewed as the CEO and sole private owner of the company, so I did not appreciate Ares coming in here, pulling the husband card as if that gave him the right to tell me what to do.
Then I remembered what he’d said before leaving me to stew. He’d said that he had a meeting to get to, and as far as I was concerned, what was good for the goose was most definitely good for the gander, no matter how immature or petty it might be.
Right now, I didn’t care.
Luckily for my angry side, Ares had left the envelopes behind, giving me the perfect excuse to visit the TCC offices. After all, with the help of a little creativity, the papers had been signed, and Martha Holdings did legally belong to TCC now, no matter what he wanted.
“Oh, God...Capri, are you alright?”
I turned to see Gina’s pale face filled with concern. “I’m fine,” I assured her. “Just...just a minor disagreement.”
Her eyes widened with disbelief. “A minor disagreement?”
“Nothing that he won’t get over,” I replied, doing my best to downplay Ares’ temper.
She didn’t look like she believed me. “I should have done better to stop him from-”
I put my hand up to stop her. “It’s fine, Gina. Honestly, I don’t expect anyone to win when going up against a man like Ares Cormac.”
She pursed her lips before saying, “Yeah, he got mad because I referred to you as Ms. Cohen.”
I shook my head, feeling a mixture of pissed off and tired. “Sounds about right.”
“Capri-”
“It’s fine, Gina,” I assured her again. “Just...do me a favor and call someone to repair the door.”
“Of course,” she muttered, still trying to get a hold on her shock. “Is there anything else?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “Cancel the rest of my afternoon. I have a meeting with Ares Cormac that I need to get to.”
Her lips twitched, and that was probably a bad sign.