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But when my phone buzzes, I know I have to check it. It's in the middle of the workday, and if there's an emergency, I'm going to have to take care of it.
But it's not, it's a picture of Patrick, making his way to his office for the first time since I smashed his face in.
Just seeing him rises the bile up my throat.
I send a message back.I want to know what deals he's working on right now and all of his clients. I'm going to make him bleed out of his bank account as well as his fucking face.
I haven't done anything yet because I wanted to lure him into a false sense of security before I disemboweled him from the inside out.
Done, boss,comes the response. And I know it's as good as done. I pay Dmitrik a lot for my intel and I expect to get my money's worth.
Clarissa stirs next to me, so I put down the phone and curl up around her, laying an arm over her waist.
I might not have been able to protect her from the first attack, but I'm going to make sure that if he even dares breathe the same air as her, he's going to find his lungs on the outside of his body.
"Sleep, darling," I whisper.
***
The meeting with Paula goes as well as can be expected.
She is going to leak to the press tomorrow that we're together and then on Friday, release a press release confirming our relationship and announce our engagement.
Which means I need to tell my brothers.
We've agreed not to tell Gerry or the board, and just act as though this is real. But my brothers deserve to know the truth, and they deserve to hear it from me.
Clarissa sits like a statue next to me while we talk about this, and even when I reach out to touch her, she doesn't squeeze my hand back.
I understand.
It was hard enough when this was only a business transaction... but we've made it more than that. And what that more is, it's God's guess. Neither of us knows, that's for sure.
I think I know how my brothers are going to react, but we've always respected what the others have decided to do in the running of our respective divisions.
Even in the case where our leadership jurisdictions have crossed, we've allowed the one we think has the most knowledge in the field to have the most input. And it's the same when it intersects with our personal lives.
We supported Kylian when he decided to keep his personal business with his best friend when it could've done amazing things for us at Baxter Enterprises. But he built that business up from the ground into a billion dollar streaming service without help from any of us and we don't have any ownership over what he does on his own time. And the board will just have to understand that.
And when Damien broke it off with Clarissa, despite her threats, to reconnect with My-Linh, I'm the one who drove him to Clarissa's apartment.
And now I'm supposed to tell him that she's the one I've decided to use to rehabilitate my image for the sake of the IPO. They're going to think that I've lost my damn mind, having always been her biggest hater.
How do I tell them now that maybe I was wrong all along?
"So, we'll release the statement of your engagement on Friday. And then the Monday night after that, at the Doctors Without Borders gala, you'll have your first public appearance. Is that okay?"
"Do we have a choice?" Clarissa finally speaks.
Paula gives her a friendly smile. "I don't want to ask you to do anything that you don't want to, and we can discuss anything you're not comfortable with. But in terms of our timeline for the IPO and your immigration application, we need to get it going as soon as possible."
"It's fine," Clarissa replies with a weak smile, looking like it's anything but fine.
And I wish I could take her apprehension away, but I can't even resolve my own.
"We're going to get through it together," I say, trying to reassure her when we're alone.
And for now, that's the only thing I can think of that helps.
