AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 18
Nico
Hugo and I were waiting to speak with our father in his office, back at Erect-it Corporation. Hugo had come up with a plan, and now all we needed was our father’s approval. We never did anything major without running it by him first, and this was no different. You never wanted to upset Alexander Stepanov, especially if you were next in line to be head of the family.
“Are you sure this is going to work, Hugo?”
Hugo ran his hands through his hair. It wasn’t like him to be hesitant about any decision, but for a moment, he seemed to be. Just like all of our previous business transactions, except for the one with Michelle, he had been the one in control. The same was the case at that moment. It was his plan, and if it didn’t work, then I don’t know how I’d survive.
“Listen to me, Nico. In business, you always have a back-up plan. But with your personal life, sometimes you just have to tell yourself that it has to work. You can’t sit and wonder ‘what if,’ because doing so will only create doubt. Would you go into a major business meeting with even an inkling of self-doubt, Nico? Or would you walk in there with your head held high?”
“The latter, Hugo. You know that. I’d rather give up everything than ever let our father down.”
“Then tell yourself right now that it will work, because it has to work, okay? There’s no ‘what if’ with this plan, Nico.”
Hearing my brother sound so confident reassured me that we were making the right move, even though deep down, I had my doubts. Every plan had the potential to fail, including ours. We were putting everything on the line, and all for Michelle.
“Look, you and I both love Michelle. And I’ll be brutally honest, Nico: I’m in love with her. There’s no way in hell that I can let her be stolen away. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now, Nico. She’s being stolen away from us. Who the fuck has an arranged marriage? No, Nico. We are too invested with Michelle to just stand by and let this happen. Do you want to see her marry this asshole?”
“Oh fuck no,” I said, suddenly feeling just as confident as he did. “I read about him online this morning. The guy has never been seen with any woman in public, which tells me that he’s probably addicted to porn. I mean, I can see where she’d find him attractive, but I watched a few videos of him on YouTube and immediately wanted to fall asleep.”
Hugo nodded. “So did I. Michael Anderson is a fucking tool bag, and Michelle doesn’t deserve that kind of a dick in her life. On the flip side, at least Michelle knows that he’s only after her money. It’s like with us, Nico. The women that we’ve dated have probably only wanted our money, but with Michelle, that’s not even a concern because she has money.”
“But only because of her father,” I reminded him.
“Focus on the plan, Nico. I’m talking about our future together. All three of us are in the same lines of work, make about the same amount of money, and therefore aren’t really after anything else besides a relationship. Now listen to me. No matter what happens, we will not back out, all right?”
I nodded at him. “I understand, Hugo.”
“A Stepanov never surrenders, Nico. Not in business, and not with personal matters.”
I thought more about what he was saying. The Stepanov family was known for always going after what they wanted, both behind closed doors and in the real world. It was already all over the internet that we had been in a relationship with Michelle, so there was no use hiding it. Our father was supportive of the idea, too. He said that it was progressive, and as long as we were happy, and it didn’t get in the way of business, then he was happy for us.
As we sat there waiting for our father to finish up his conference call, I thought more about our family. Michelle was the missing puzzle piece to our family, and we didn’t even know that we were missing a piece.
“We need her, Hugo.”
“Yes, we do. The Stepanov Russian mafia family needs Michelle. Our is the biggest in the world, Nico! We’re not going to roll over for some pathetic, piece of shit, American liar businessman. He’s not even a member of any mafia in the United States!”
“That’s right,” I said, forming fists with my hands. “Who the fuck does he think he is?”
