29. Ares
A res~
It was the end of the week, and while things were good, there were still a lot of things that needed to be addressed.
We had both agreed that Capri would move into my place, so that was something that we were handling this weekend, but instead of selling her condo, she was going to lease it, giving herself some additional income while she figured out what she wanted to do.
We had also agreed to let the contract of sale stand, and so TCC officially owned Martha Holdings and all that applied.
However, instead of dismantling it, it was operating as usual with Jonathan Pickney at the helm and Gina helping him with whatever he needed.
It still bothered me that Drummond Cohen had cost my wife her dreams, but that was something that I was just going to have to learn to get over.
Capri was struggling as it was, so she didn’t need my feelings about it making things worse.
At any rate, as soon as we’d gotten back from the cabin, Capri had left a message on Corrine’s phone that she’d be in on Monday to file a dismissal in regards to our divorce. So far, the gossip outlets hadn’t gotten wind of the filing, so no one was the wiser, and I hoped that it stayed that way.
I had also left her to handle her father alone, something that I hadn’t wanted to do, but I was wise enough to recognize this for the family matter that it was.
With Martha Holdings now belonging to TCC, Drummond Cohen was no longer entitled to any more profit payments, leaving his retirement as his only source of income now.
Granted, I wasn’t familiar with his financial portfolio to know that for sure, but if he was a gambling addict that had let his family’s legacy go bankrupt, then it was safe to say that he had probably cleaned out his stock portfolio eons ago.
Nonetheless, that was a relationship that I couldn’t repair for my wife, no matter how much I wanted to perfect her world. Even if her father did clean up his act, his selfishness had still cost her so much, and forgiveness wouldn’t come easy, if it ever did.
As for my family, I was still ignoring them, and since that was working out well for me, I was going to continue to ignore them until they got it through their heads that Capri was my wife, making her the sole beneficiary of my entire estate, and they could all go eat a bag of dicks.
In fact, everything on my end was going well, and I could only wish that I could say the same thing for my wife.
Her biggest struggle was her grandfather, and her conscience was getting the best of her, not liking lying to the man.
Whatever profits had come from the sale of Martha Holdings, Capri had given it all to her grandfather, spinning some story about how TCC had bought them out because of our marriage.
Now, while Yoseph had appeared to buy her lies, I had my doubts.
Yoseph Cohen had always been a shrewd businessman, and in a modern world, it wouldn’t be unheard of for mine and Capri’s finances to be separate.
Still, he had only asked if she was happy, and when she’d told him that she was, he had seemed satisfied enough.
Of course, that had brought us to another agree-to-disagree situation in our marriage, one that I was still a bit pissed off about.
With Capri insisting that she would never be mistaken for a gold-digger, she refused to combine finances, though that went only one way.
From the day that we’d gotten married, she’d always had access to all my bank accounts and credit cards, so it was really just her keeping me from her money, which was fine with me as I didn’t need any of it.
However, I was not fine with her wanting nothing to do with mine, something that I was going to have to either get over or hope that she’d change her mind later down the road.
“There you are.”
I turned to see Perry walking up to me with a huge smile on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“Just dropped off some paperwork to your HR offices,” he answered. “I have three new candidates that might be a good fit for TCC.”
“Thanks,” I remarked sincerely. Perry had a great reputation for scouting real talent, and TCC hadn’t ever had any issues with anyone of his recommendations in the past. “Appreciate it.”
“I also wanted to talk to you about some gossip I heard,” he said, immediately lowering his voice.
Since I’d been coming back from a lunch meeting, Perry had caught me in the lobby, so I jerked my head towards the elevators. “I have a few minutes if you want to come up.”
“Sure thing,” he said as we both began making our way over. “I also heard that Kingston just landed Strathmore Oil.”
“Motherfucker,” I hissed. “What the hell is he trying to do? Take over the entire world?”
“He might be able to,” Perry joked. “Keris Kingston is a force to be reckoned with on her own, so having her by his side carries some serious weight.”
We ended all conversation when two other people joined us in the elevator, and we didn’t speak again until we reached my office.
Of course, we both greeted Ulma on our way through, but that was about it, and when Perry immediately shut the door behind him, I knew that whatever he had to say must be important.
I leaned against my desk, cocking my head a bit. “Okay, so what’s up?”
“I was at Richmond and Gillis earlier this morning, and I overheard Raul Richmond telling Phillip Moss that Capri was in Portal Bank yesterday, discussing business loans,” he said, making my fingers curl around the edge of my desk.
“When Phillip asked him how he knew this, Raul told him that his sister works at the bank and was assisting Gale Treehouse with the information.”
“What else was said?” I asked, my voice cold, not appreciating motherfuckers gossiping about my wife.
“Nothing bad,” he answered. “Just some added chatter about how admirable it was that Capri wasn’t trying to ride your coattails.”
“She’s going to drive me into an early grave,” I growled, uncurling my fingers, trying to find a steady breath.
“I take it that you didn’t know about her seeking a loan?” he quipped, an irritating smirk on his face.
“Hell no,” I huffed, then shook my head. “Christ, only my wife would go to a bank for a business loan when she has billions at her disposal.”
“Which is why she’ll get one or not get one,” he chuckled. “She’ll either get denied because of your money, or else she’ll get approved because you can cover the loan if it defaults.”
“TCC has lent capital a million times,” I stated. “I don’t see why we can’t do it again for whatever she’s drummed up.”
“The problem is that Capri sees TCC and you as one in the same,” he replied, getting back to being serious again. “That’s why she won’t accept TCC as an investor.”
“Like I said, she’s going to drive me into an early fucking grave,” I repeated, letting out a very fucking tired sigh. “It’s like she has no interest in life unless it’s challenging.”
“Just like someone I know,” he chuckled.
Ignoring his remark on our similarities, I said, “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll speak with her later this evening.”
Just then, both our heads turned as Capri walked into my office unannounced, and despite feeling annoyed by her bank visit, I couldn’t help but smile at the woman that was smiling back at me.
“Am I interrupting?”
“Would it matter if you were?” I snorted.
“No,” she answered honestly as she directed her smile at Perry. “Nice to see you again, Best Man.”
Perry laughed good-naturedly. “It’s good to see you as well,” he said before taking her hand to kiss the back.
“Hey, hands off my wife,” I warned.
“Thing is, he means it,” Perry quipped as he released Capri’s hand.
“Oh, I know he does,” she chuckled back.
Grinning at the both of us, Perry said, “Well, that’s my cue to leave.”
“We’ll talk some more later,” I told him, and he just saluted me like a nerd before leaving my office, making sure to lock the door behind him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as Capri walked over to stand in front of me.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” she countered.
“Because you went to Portal Bank yesterday for money that you don’t need,” I shot back as I reached out, wrapped my arm around her waist, then hauled her body to mine.
“Christ, is Hinder actually spying on me now?”
I grinned.
God, I loved this woman.
“No,” I answered honestly. “While I’d love for him to, that’s not his job. His job is to protect you while driving you wherever you need to go.”
“Then how did you find out?” she asked, arching a brow up at me.
“How badly do you want to know?” I replied wolfishly, making her smile back.