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a light rain is starting, heavy raindrops descending from the grey skies and hitting my office windows. This is a fucking nightmare, and I have no idea where to start fixing this fucking thing.
I could hold a press conference and try to deny all this bullshit, but I guess that would play straight into Rhoda’s hands. I’d have to admit I was, indeed, having sex with my own stepdaughter… And then the press wouldn’t even hear the rest of it. They’d just ask for the bloody details, and spin more lies.
Joyce was right when she chided me about my relationship with Penny. I should've been more careful about the whole thing. I knew Laurel and Rhoda were out to get me, and I should’ve figured they wouldn’t bat an eye to using my own stepdaughter against me. I guess I just never thought Rhoda would stoop this low and use her own daughter as fucking pawn.
Unless… unless Penny played a part in all of this. But, no, that can’t fucking be. She came clean to me, and I trust her. I trust her with my fucking life. But then again, a long time ago I used to trust Rhoda as well. And look how well that turned out.
Joyce sits across from me, wordlessly, and we just sit in silence for a minute, coming to terms with the fucking war zone we just stepped into. If we don’t act fast, my company is going to start crumbling all around me, and all the money I’ve worked so fucking hard for is going to vanish like smoke being carried away by a soft breeze. And, when push comes to shove, my own board of directors won’t hesitate to gang up on me and kick me out of the company I fucking founded.
Yeah, what can I say? I’m not feeling too optimistic right now. And I guess Joyce is feeling the same, judging by the deep lines of concern around her eyes. She’s usually very calm and calculating, seeing everything two steps ahead of everyone else, but now she’s as stumped as I am. And when Joyce’s stumped… Well, when that happens, hold on to your hats; the sky might just come crashing down.
And that’s when I hear the door to my office swing open.
And there she is, the light of my life.
Penny Wright.
Penny
“Magnus, I…” I start to say as I enter his office, but the words I had so carefully chosen seem to slip from my mind. Magnus raises his eyes to look at me, and I can tell that this is bad. Well, I knew it’d be bad, but the look in his eyes tells me exactly how bad. And it’s pretty fucking bad.
Joyce’s there too, and she turns around on her chair to look at me. There’s a disapproving look in her eyes, but it’s not like I can blame her: I’m at the center of this storm, and if it weren’t for me, none of this would've happened. And she’s loyal to Magnus, which I guess is something you couldn’t really say about me until a few months ago.
“Joyce, please leave us,” Magnus tells her, and she just gives him a slight nod and goes up to her feet. She starts walking out of the office, but then she stops a few feet away from me. I almost expect for her to scream out at me, but she just offers me a sad smile.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, “no woman deserves this from her own mother.” With that, she reaches for my shoulder and lays her hand there, gently squeezing before she finally lowers her gaze and walks out of the office, closing the door behind her. Even though she never approved of my relationship with Magnus, I guess she somehow feels a bit of compassion toward me. And that’s saying something, when a woman that should hate your guts is more compassionate toward you than your own mother, I guess that’s saying a lot about the current state of affairs.
“Please, tell me you don’t have anything to do with this,” Magnus says with a defeated tone of voice, waving at the crumpled newspaper sitting on his desk. I open my mouth to respond, but he just waves me down and stands up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you that. I know you had nothing to do with it,” he continues, and I feel as if someone lifted a few hundreds tons off my shoulders.
“I had nothing to do with it… I swear,” I tell him all the same, hoping that my words help ease his troubled mind. I can’t even begin to imagine how he must feel right now, the future of his company hanging in the balance. And all because of me, just like an idiot I played my mother’s game, carefully setting up Magnus for a fall. In the end, my mother and Laurel really got what they were after.
Magnus walks around his desk and I walk toward him, closing the distance between the two of us. I wrap my arms around his torso and lay my head against his chest, feeling his heartbeat in silence.
“Are you okay?” he whispers, running his fingers through my hair. I just nod wordlessly, and then he holds me tight in his arms. I feel like crying now, a sob threatening to overtake me, but I just choke it out of me.
I never thought my mother would do something like this to me, but lo and behold, she did. She dragged my name through the mud, and only so that she could get her petty revenge on Magnus. Seriously, what kind of mother would do something like this to her own daughter? She chose to side with a woman like Laurel Trask, and all for what? A pat on the back from the mayor?
“And you, Magnus? What’s going to happen with the Equinox deal now?” I ask him, taking a step back and looking into his eyes.
“I don’t know, Penny. I really don’t have a clue,” he sighs, his lips a thin line of worry. “But at least you’re here,” he continues, forcing himself to smile. “At least you’re here.” He leans in, gently brushing his lips against my own, and then holds me tight. “I love you, Penny.”
His words are just a whisper, but it feels like someone punched me straight in the nose. I love you, Penny, his words echo inside my head, and I feel my heart racing faster than it ever did. I almost reach for my belly unconsciously, a sudden urge to lay my hand on top of the life growing within it, but I restrain myself. This is not the time for such a heavy revelation.
“I love you too,” I find myself saying though, the words coming out from between my lips before I can stop them. And I wouldn’t stop them even if I wanted to. A war has started, and if there was ever a time to tell him how I feel, it’s now.
“But maybe it isn’t enough, Penny. Maybe love isn’t enough,” Magnus whispers, sadness dripping out of his words. I stare into his eyes in silence, just hearing the rain bat against the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I’m your stepfather… You’re my stepdaughter. What are we even doing, Penny? Forget about my company. This is about you. You have nothing to gain from a man like me.”
“I have everything to gain,” I tell him, hushing him by placing my index finger over his lips. “I love you, Magnus, and I don’t care about the rest. I don’t care that you’re my stepfather, and I don’t care if the whole world hates us both. I can survive all that… as long as you’re with me.”
“I’ll always be with you. If you’ll have me, Penny, I’ll never leave. Never,” he tells me, and I believe each and every one of his words. Unlike my own mother, Magnus is a man who lives and dies by his words. And, God forgive me, I’ve really fallen in love with him. And if I can’t trust the man I love, I can’t trust anyone.
“I love you, Magnus,” I repeat, smiling at him and, just for a moment, forgetting about the storm raging around us both. My mother and Laurel Trask are just a whisper in the wind, political intrigue just a faint backdrop; right now, the only thing that’s real is the man in front of me.
“I love you too, Penny,” he tells me, and my fate is sealed just like that. Three words—I love you—and both our fates become intertwined for all existence.
Whatever comes, we’ll face it together.
As friends and lovers.
