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“It hurts, doesn’t it? After everything you’ve done, this is how it ends,” I whispered as her lips shook.
A single tear fell from her eye as she nodded. “Congrats, Wilhelmina. You finally did it. You got me back.”
“Mom, let’s go.” Augusta tried to pull her back, but she smacked her away.
“You did all of this, and in the end, it still doesn’t change the fact that he left you,” she sneered, wiping her cheek. “That he didn’t love you.”
“He didn’t love you, either.” I smiled. “He loved this company. And when they tried to do this to him, when they tried to steal it from him, he ran back to you to save it.”
“What?” Augusta looked at me.
“That’s the story,” I said to her. “The old goats behind me here tried to stab your father in the back, and he didn’t have the funds or shares to hold on. Then came your mother, promising to help him. And so, he left his daughter and me. He didn’t love you more than me. He loved the company. And all these years, you were so worried that once he had enough power, he’d leave you. So you worked to make sure you were always needed. That I was always the pitiful one.”
“If you want to start telling the story, Wilhelmina, don’t leave out the part where you kept seeing him behind my back.”
Yes, I was an idiot to think it was just all for business. An idiot for believing he’d come back once he’d gained control of the company.
“Okay, let’s all stop talking! Mom, come on!” Augusta yanked her to the door.
“I’ll give it back!” I called out before they reached the door, drinking.
“What?” Yvonne called.
“The shares. The position. Everything. I’ll give it back to you, Yvonne. Right here, right now.”
I heard a chorus of “Wilhelmina!” behind me from the old idiots on the board, but I didn’t care. Turning back to them, I pointed to the door.
“Do you mind? I’m in the middle of negotiating here,” I said.
They grumbled, and I just waved them to go faster.
It was only when the last of them had left and we were the only four left in the conference room did she speak again.
“What do you mean?” Yvonne asked, still not understanding me.
“I meant what I said. I will wash my hands of everything in this company and of the past. All of it is yours.”
“You’re just going to give to me?”
“Of course not. You’re going to buy it from me…with her money. It should be easy enough.” I pointed to the little heiress beside her.
She shook her head. “That can’t be it. I know you; there is always another catch.”
“You are right.” I smiled and spun back around. “Charles.”
He came up to me, quickly handing me the contract, which I happily passed on to her. Immediately, she looked back up to me because it was a very simple contract. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” I nodded. “So long as you and Augusta keep my daughter’s name out of your mouths, I’ll sell it all to you and walk away.”
“You are trying to buy our silence?” Augusta huffed, arms crossed; however when my glare shifted on her, she flinched just slightly.
“This is me being nice. If you don’t want nice, fine, I’ll be cruel. I will stay as CEO and use every method available to crush you both, and I’m very creative. You feel inferior to your sister now? What happens when not only are you a nobody, but you are magically taken off every invite list when you become a pariah in your own family company. When all of the worst news of you is on some homepage every day. By the time I’m finished, people will despise you…both of you. And you still won’t have the company.” I looked back to Yvonne, who just stared at the paper.
“This is really all you want,” she asked.
“Yes, you don’t talk about me. You never talk about my daughter to anyone else. You don’t even say her name passing in public unless it is to say something nice and positive. If you fail and if your daughter gives one more bad interview on Odette, everything comes back to me, instantly. I’ve already managed to get all the ones behind me to sign a nondisclosure, which is tied to a lot of money. And again, they want to keep a good image. So, what do you say?”
She stared at me, her blue eyes sharp. “Do you have a pen?”
