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I will be a mother again.
Chapter 8
Work for it
~Logan~
Ten weeks later
My dad and I sip bourbon, enjoying the weekend at the sunny Beverly Hills villa, talking about the court case outcomes, which has been my nightmare for the past two months. We went through hell because of the woman who wanted to force me into marriage. After seeing it wouldn’t work, she gave me an ultimatum.
“Either you marry me, or I will go to the press with a story about how a bank magnate’s son is refusing to take care of his own child,” a seething Larissa declares.
My family have been bankers for four generations. We run a most trusted financial corporation, with locations in both America and Europe. That kind of press is not something I could have allowed to be released. It might have changed the company’s relationship with clients and harmed our reputation.
We make deals with fast-growing or well-developed companies and investors, managing pensions, lending money, and handling insurance funds. I couldn’t let this reach the press.
Amused, I watch my brother, Leif, loving the wild MC life. He is trying to charm my mom into going with him to some gala he probably doesn’t care for.
“Mom, come on, you can’t leave me to fend for myself. They will eat me alive!”
Apparently, he lost some bet to the rest of the gang, who are fooling around like some five-year-olds. They play poker, losing both money and dignity. Lucas is back from the Marine Corps, and his serious ass definitely needs to loosen up and get some action. Leif, Lucas, and I are triplets, and we are the oldest sons.
Nevertheless, we are so different that we always struggled to be close. To our dad’s greatest disappointment, we’ve never been able to work well together. Every single one of us chose very different paths. My two brothers weren’t interested in following our father’s footsteps into the financial domain.
Lucas, even as a boy, was searching for the path that would correspond well with his values and beliefs. He wanted to make a difference and serve people. Just after finishing college, he left for the Marines. Our parents couldn’t do a single thing about it.
Leif spends most of his days on the bike or with his buddies, traveling. My wild brother has good business instincts that he applied establishing an online company, and his smart little investment supports his wild life.
“Leif’s searching for someone to pull him home,” my mom once told me.
Supposedly triplets should be attached to one another, but we never got that memo. Instead, we are distant. Lucas rarely talks with me or shares his experiences. Since we have very different values, we struggle to find a middle ground.
He once told me, “You haven’t obtained something meaningful to fight for yet, brother. Your skeptic views are coming from the pragmatic business-like mindset. Love, passion, and friendship each have different significance, Logan. Perhaps, one day, you will get to understand it better.”
The many shadows residing in Lucas’ eyes tell me that nothing in this world can be taken to heart instead of calculated with a logical mind. And Leif despises my life; he is more “breaking the rules” and not conforming to conventional ways of life. Always questioning the government and the system we live in.
In the end, my name and reputation have been cleared, after finding substantial evidence that Larissa was not pregnant at the time she came forward. I’m relieved I dodged that bullet.
My phone vibrates as I receive a call from my personal assistant. “What is it, Carl?” I ask, skipping the small talk, feeling slightly irritated at being interrupted.
“I’ve received a call from the London branch requesting to send a personal email to you or get your cell number.”
In his twenties, my assistant has worked for me for two years, and never interrupts my precious time with the family for this nonsense. Ability to communicate effectively, build long-term working relationships, and to negoti
ate, solve problems, and make effective decisions are the main things I require from my staff. Carl has never failed to acknowledge my requirements for privacy before, so I know something is unusual about this one.
“That is not the first time somebody has tried to acquire my personal details, Carl. Why didn’t you tell them to write to my company one, so later you could screen it?” It’s so straightforward, why is he bothering me?
“Sir, I know the procedure, but I called you because she has personal information related to your stay at the Liverpool hotel a few months back. She also emphasized the subject is too private to allow to reach the company servers,” Carl tries again.
The fierce mouse I met at the conference and our short time together left a long-lasting impression. Did she change her mind? I can’t seem to shake her, no matter what I do. Cassandra has had her hooks in me since that night.
I want to unlock the secrets she hides; even now, months later.
“All right, give her my details and let’s arrange a call on Monday at five p.m., shall we?”
I won’t be a man who hangs on every word she has to say. Instead, I will let her sweat a little, and this time around, I’ll make her work for it.
