Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
team rey
MARK
Leaning back in my office chair, I might end up falling asleep here again; I’m so drained. Since the board meeting almost two weeks ago, I’ve worked every waking hour, and it’s the first time in my life it has just felt like work. Not a passion, not career-building. Just plain work.
Long meetings with legal and HR, headache-inducing PR discussions about how to restore my reputation, and the most painful company all-hands I’ll ever hold—telling people the same lie the board made me tell the press and shareholders.
Exuding confidence and nonchalance, which is the opposite of what I’m feeling.
And I hear the whispers. I know the team chats are blowing up. They’re not happy with me.
But I have to keep powering through, keep up the charade until they’re convinced.
Resilient on the outside. Suffering on the inside.
The worst was telling everyone Rey had ‘chosen to pursue opportunities elsewhere’. Especially because Nia informed me the same day that she’d had to let Rey go. At least she got severance, although there’s little solace in that. There’s nothing right about this outcome.
A knock on my glass door makes me jump, and I swivel my chair, finding Horace in the doorway.
“What are you doing here on a Sunday?” I ask, sounding more accusatory than I mean to. “I mean, come in, please.”
“I just came to get my laptop. I need to work from home tomorrow. My son just vomited, so…” He shrugs. Fuck, I didn’t even know he had a child.
“How old’s your son?”
“He’s eleven. It’s him you can thank for my still being here, by the way. He’s a big fan of the games.”
“I’ll make sure I do.” I smile at him. It took a lot to get Horace to stay.
He was livid with me for costing us Rey’s talent.
And for hurting her. “Want a drink before you head out?” I ask, nodding to the half-empty bottle on my desk.
“I didn’t drink all this, don’t worry. It’s leftover from the social night the team had here. ”
The night Rey told me she loved me. Loves me? Could she still? I drag a hand over my face.
“Sure,” he says. “Do I need to find a glass?”
I nod, and he disappears.
Horace returns less than a minute later, and I find I’m relieved he came back. I’ve isolated myself more than usual. But now I want to talk. I want him to shout at me again. Someone needs to dare to talk to me about Rey.
The sharp ache in my chest eased after a few days of focusing on work. It felt like it helped me, making sure my sacrifice at least would be worth it.
But then I did the stupid thing and went to see her at her brother’s house. Thinking I could apologise, and maybe she’d forgive me.
Xander’s eyes, so like Rey’s, made him hard to look at. The pain in them is etched into my memory.
“What the hell will be different?” Xander had asked me, his voice strained. “Nothing has changed, right? Have you suddenly grown a spine?”
He might as well have punched me in the face. I shook my head, nothing to say in my defence. No, I hadn’t done anything differently. It was selfish of me to try to see her, but I was desperate.
The worst was his face getting all distorted, and him growling at me.
“She’s lost everything she loved because of you.
Her modelling gig, the concept art … you.
” He said the last word as if it caused him physical pain.
“She’s been in bed all week, barely eating.
If she doesn’t come back out of it this time—” He’d stopped then, his jaw clenched. “I’ll make you pay.”
Then Aiden tore me a new one the following Saturday morning, when he essentially forced his way into my flat after I had been avoiding him all week.
Instead of rowing like we used to, we had a one-sided verbal sparring match.
He called me every possible synonym for arsehole found in the dictionary. In multiple languages.
Which I deserved.
“Mark, can you at least try to talk to her?”
“She’s better off without me, Aiden.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Her brother said so. I took everything from her. Because I told the board, the internet, the idiots out there, that they were right to judge her. I judged her.”
I’ve looked at the photos again since. Every day. And it’s so obvious.
She’s not flirting.
She’s not some sex object trying to get men excited.
She’s having fun. Laughing. Being free.
I fucked up.
“What would you do differently if you could sit through that conversation again?” Aiden had asked, and that kicked off my new project. The main reason I’ve been in the office twenty hours a day the last week.
And when I’m not in the office, my brain is constantly on, churning on a possible solution, but I haven’t nailed it yet. There must be a way I can get her back, show her that I know I was wrong. And keep my business. Somehow, I need to get on top of the board again.
After Aiden asked me that, I’ve run through the meeting. Reliving the painful discussion, and there’s one comment that sticks out above the rest.
‘The Mark who founded this company would never degrade himself like this. What has happened to you?’
I’m not the same man.
Rey changed me.
What I should have said to Graham was: what has happened to me is life. Rey showed me how much I’ve been missing. How I can live if I don’t give myself entirely to this company. The board doesn’t care about anything but the bottom line, and even Graham can’t see past it in the end.
But this isn’t everything the world has to offer, or that I can offer the world. With Rey, life can be so much more. I can be so much more.
Horace hovers by the chair. I can sense he’s uncomfortable, but he’s here.
He’s a good guy.
I down the rest of my whiskey, refill my glass, and take another sip. Horace sits down and puts his mug on the desk. I pour until he lifts his hand to stop me. A polite amount. He’s not sticking around.
“I’m glad you’re staying with Infinio, Horace, and that you’ve taken on the creative director role. I need you.”
He nods, and I notice his jaw working. Something on his mind he doesn’t want to say. Do I tell him the truth?
“I didn’t mean for it to pan out this way,” I say, talking to my glass. “I fell in love with her, but I had to choose.”
“Oh,” is all he says. He shifts in his seat and takes a tentative sip. “Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you have to choose? If you fell for her, couldn’t you just make it work?”
Heat boils up in me, and I tighten the grip on my glass. He makes it sound as if I simply gave up. I fought for her. For us. I couldn’t give up my company. I realised that I was wrong after, but he makes it sound so easy.
When I don’t answer, Horace continues. “You know, the teams are still going on about it—it’s been nonstop. Practically everyone’s voted Team Rey.” He huffs.
“Voted?”
“Yeah, someone set up a poll between the two of you, and it’s 98% Team Rey.”
“Huh.” I run through the ideas that have been simmering, and something clicks into place. I slam my glass down on the desk, making Horace jump. “Sorry. Hey, how long would it take you to solidify the concept you pitched me a few weeks ago?”
“It’s got legs to stand on. Tolu already used it for the prototype competition, remember? Why are you asking this?”
“I’m going to need to get the team together.”
Horace cocks his head at me. “Now?”
“No, I’m not entirely bonkers. But are you okay with dialling in from home tomorrow? I won’t make you work when your son is sick, but just for an hour to kick it off?”
“To kick what off?”
I grin. “I think you’re going to love this.”
Late the next day, the entire creative team and two of the development pods are gathered in front of me after my plea for help.
I asked Kaia, who I know lives with Rey now and has become my confidante in this, to start spreading the truth about the relationship and, as I thought, it travelled faster than any official message would.
I’m nervous.
I don’t enjoy attention, but it’s never made me nervous before. It’s my only chance, and I need to get them all on board. This has to work.
“This is going to be different from a regular release. It’s going to be messy, and we’ll need a solid support team once it gets out there.”
“How do you know people will even subscribe?”
“I’m going to have to keep that under wraps until the end, as long as you set up the mechanics of it, that’s enough. Any other questions before we kick off?”
“Is it true then, that you met at a masquerade and fell in love?” a small voice asks from the crowd, and everyone falls quiet. I should’ve known people would want to understand.
“Yes.”
The group erupts in ‘aaw’s and giggles, and I feel myself blushing. Something I never do. And I meet Sebastian’s eye at the back of the room. He’s been grovelling for two weeks. I’ve never seen my friend cry before, and I hope I never will again.
He stepped up for me in the end. This project isn’t cheap, and he’s making it happen faster than I could’ve done without him.
“Look,” I say, calming the group. “You all know Rey. She’s amazing, and I fucked up. Not just with her, but the message I sent was wrong. I thought I was doing the right thing for Infinio. Keeping the boundaries, and showing that rules apply to all, even me as founder and CEO.”
I walk along the front of the room, everyone’s eyes are glued to me.
“But it’s not about the rules,” I continue. “By caving in, I confirmed the narrative that was spreading online. That Rey wasn’t worth fighting for. It couldn’t be more wrong.”
I stop, looking at my small army of helpers.
“I’m fighting now, and I need you all.”