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The revelation to the world about their affair is something much less appealing, that leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Dante still has no idea who is responsible, nor what to do about it. Judging by the strength of the images, it already seems too late to deny it. His only hope might be to create a larger story to act as an attention deflector, or embrace it, and hope for the best. Dante isn’t the kind of person that usually hopes for the best, but in this situation he might have to.
The other more pressing matters are the death of Jason Walker, which Sash seems to have taken particularly to heart, and the abduction of her father, which she might see as a little excessive in order to maintain their privacy. He’ll deal with that, of course, when they come to it.
The transfer through the airport is smooth enough. Through Alex, Dante has promised to give a press conference and answer all questions put to him by a selection of invited journalists, knowing the longer he leaves it to answer, demonstrates a much greater chance of guilt, but there are still a huge number who want to force the story out of him. They are there on the concourse, inside the terminal and surrounding his private car when he gets to it. Alex had suggested putting on a fleet to confuse them, but Dante didn’t see the point, considering they knew exactly where he was going to end up anyway.
During all of this, Sash keeps one hand on her belly, the other firmly clasped in her stepbrother’s hand, keeps her head down away from the camera lenses, and tries her best to do everything her stepbrother has asked of her.
She had no idea it would be like this. Yes he’s her stepbrother, but they are both consenting adults, and nothing they are doing is illegal. They are old enough, they love each other, so what exactly is the problem?
Abbey’s tried to call her almost a hundred times. She’s had so many messages from friends, colleagues and acquaintances, she’s had to give up reading them and delete them as soon as they come in.
Her facebook has exploded with posts, half of which have just been plain offensive, the other half a mixture of positive and negative messages and questions. The one person she hasn’t heard from and doesn’t know why, is her dad.
The car cuts quickly through the New York city streets pursued by a swarm of journalists on motorbikes that look like angry wasps. There are hundreds of people gathered outside Dante’s obelisk, ready to shout or cheer him as soon as he steps out of the car. Alex watches the pandemonium from her penthouse office several stories above. Police have formed a cordon and are working hard to keep people under control. Journalists seem to have been given special priority and sit in a separated section to the side, their cameras poised.
Finally, Dante’s private car arrives. Once outside, he ignores the chants that come towards him fiercely, and with his stepsister firmly in his grasp, he makes his way into his office.
Chapter 6
“Shares have plummeted”, Alex says. “Actually, they’ve not just plummeted, they’ve fallen off the fucking chart completely.”
She’s pacing up and down the room, high heels digging into the expensively laminated floor. There are pock marks all over from several years of doing the very same.
“Five hundred million wiped off the value of Hix Industries. It’s a fucking shit storm, Dante, how did you let this happen?”
Sash can feel Alex eyeball her with a stare that would melt lead. Dante directs his gaze to Caulder, who is sat in a separate part of the office, filing his nails with an expensive looking, monogrammed emery board.
“I don’t know, Caulder?”
He shrugs, and with his arms out, he says, “I did my best.”
“You fucked up”, Dante says, pointing a finger at him.
He swipes the air and turns the corners of his mouth up at the edges. It isn’t quite a smile, not quite a snarl. It’s an emotionless gesture at best. I’m not the one fucking my stepsister is something he’d like to say, and might do, if Sash wasn’t present.
Alex ignores the two of them. “You could have paid a hundred of that and saved yourself this issue”, she says. “You might still have to.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Dante asks.
Alex pushes through the double doors, retrieves something from her desk and drops it into Dante’s lap. Sash doesn’t need to look more closely to see where the photos were taken, she recognizes the building immediately.
“Who sent these?”
“Does it matter who sent them?” Alex snaps at her, before returning her attention to Dante. To her, Sash is nothing more than something rotten they’ve all trodden in. According to Alex, they wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for her. “The damage is done, Dante.”
“This is L.A”, he says, as though just realizing it. “Who the fuck knew I was in L.A.?”
“Everyone in this room, and everyone else you told about it”, Alex says, as though it’s obvious. “Does it matter? They want the same, otherwise they are threatening to publish those as well. The first one was a threat, Dante. A warning shot. This could topple you completely. Hymen reconstruction surgery? Fucking hell.”
“Careful, Alex”, Dante warns, his voice showing the first strains of anger at her approach. “I don’t employ you to comment on what I do in my private life.”
“No, you employ me to sort it out when everyone else does.”
There are so many photos, it’s obvious it could be nothing else. Dante feels a sharp snap of irritation cut through him. These photos represent a personal invasion on his private life, and he wants someone to be punished for it.
“Caulder?” Dante asks.
“Yeah”, he says. “I know.”
Dante drops the photos on the empty seat to his right and relaxes back into the couch. Sash makes a point of putting her hand on his leg, doing it slowly and deliberately so Alex can see.
“Anyway, that’s only one of the problems we have”, Alex says. “The other is what you are going to do about this… problem.”
Her arms go up to indicate Sash as the intended recipient of her remark.
“Hey”, Sash says, angry she’s being directly accusing of doing something wrong, and sick of sitting there and keeping quiet for the sake of her stepbrother.
“It’s a fuck up, Sash. Do you even have the slightest idea what you two being together does for Dante’s worth?” Alex continues.
“I don’t give a fuck what it does for Dante’s worth”, Sash says, biting at her.
“Yeah well he does”, Alex bites back. “And I do too.”
Sash shakes her head in disbelief. Where does Alex get off talking to her like that, and why isn’t her stepbrother defending her already? There is an uncomfortable silence that hangs in the air, the sound of the emery board rasping across Caulder’s nails the only semblance of noise, other than Alex and Sash’s tense breathing.
“So, what are the options?” Dante asks, finally breaking the funk.
“Bury it”, Alex snaps. “And do it quickly. Deny everything, and continue as normal.”
“That’s not going to work”, Sash says. She looks at her stepbrother. “Dante, tell her that’s not going to work.”
“Five hundred million, Dante. Say it was a one off affair, that you regret it and you won’t do it again.”
“Fuck you”, Sash spits.
Dante puts a hand on his stepsister’s arm, just to cool her down. Sash misreads it as condescending, believing that if anyone should be calmed down it’s definitely not her.
“And what about the images?” Dante says.
“They are out there now, Dante”, Alex responds. “What isn’t is you two. You can control that if you tell them there is nothing going on between you. We have investors, shareholders, businesses and projects all over the world. This is everything you own.”
“And these?”, Dante says, holding up the new images.
“Pay them off”, Alex says. “Pay them off, now. A hundred million dollars is nothing when you are talking about your whole empire, Dante. You should have done it in the first place and I have no idea why you didn’t. You and I both know it makes sense. Caulder knows it makes sense.”
