“There are certainly some choices,” Raj replies, shuffling papers in front of him.
“Why’d you do it?” I ask, unwilling to wade through this bullshit.
Raj’s hands freeze—he doesn’t move a muscle. This isn’t how we’d planned to get this information, but I can’t sit here and stare at Nick’s smug face any longer.
Nick’s nonchalant shrug is a farce. He picks nonexistent lint off his lapel, and it’s the first sign that I’m right—he’s nervous, and he should be.
“You’ve always gotten everything you want, even when it doesn’t belong to you,” he says blandly. The only emotion he emits is hatred in the twitch of his eye—it blinds him, and it will aid in his downfall.
“What you’re saying is your jealousy goes way back?” I’m goading him, and I don’t regret it. I handle my shit, while he’s always been on the verge of exploding.
Raj places his palm flat on the table in front of me—a warning, but I lean back in my chair as if facing this fucker isn’t tearing me apart inside.
“Everything was always so easy for you. You take everything for fucking granted,” Nick snarls. His attorney gives him a less subtle warning with a hand on his forearm.
“I gave you everything,” I spit out, and immediately roll my shoulders. I won’t allow him to hurt me ever again. With a deep inhale, I continue more calmly. “You lived with us in the summers during college. My grandparents paid your tuition, got you the most coveted internships, I gave you a stake in my company, and this is how you repay me? Sleeping with my wife? Embarrassing and traumatizing my children? Spreading lies about my character?”
At the mention of my kids, the corner of his eye quivers. At least he knows he’s a scumbag.
“You may be at the top of your game in every other arena, but you couldn’t keep your wife happy.” His voice pokes at my temples like tiny needles injecting me with his poison. “It’s not my fault she came looking for someone better. If it hadn’t been for your last name, she would’ve chosen me in college anyway. Now we’re correcting a long overdue lapse in judgment, and my shares of your company will secure my future with her father’s organization.”
“How long?” I grind out. “How long were you fucking my wife behind my back?”
An ugly thought sets off cannons in my chest. My kids—what if? No, fuck that. I’m their father. I always have been and always will be, regardless of their DNA.
“You see, the thing about not taking care of your relationships is you have no idea when they started crumbling. Was it before Seren was born? Where did Miles get the blond hair from? All questions that are probably eating away at you right now, huh?”
He leans forward on the table. The face of the man I would have taken a bullet for is now unrecognizable. “Don’t worry. They’re yours. The last thing I want is a kid ruining my life.”
“How. Long?” It’s the only answer I need.
His attorney must sense something’s off because he leans over and whispers into Nick’s ear, but Nick’s grin never falters. His ego is toxic.
“Nah,” Nick says, shrugging off his attorney. His cockiness was always his greatest weakness. “This is rock solid.” He speaks to his lawyer but never looks away from me. Seconds of silence raise the tension, but I’ve asked my question.
Raj clears his throat, and I cut him off with a slight shake of my head.
“You’ve got me over a barrel here, Nick.” His name burns my tongue. “You want me to buy you out at a crippling rate or you’ll sell them to Skyview, my biggest competitor. I know you’re dying to rub salt in my wounds. You’re itching to tell me every despicable thing you’ve ever done with my wife.”
“Ex-wife,” he snarls.
“Yeah, ex-wife.” I chuckle sardonically. I should probably focus on the fact that losing her didn’t hurt as much as it should have, but the truth is, I just don’t give a shit anymore. The hit to my pride stung, but the only pain I felt was for my children.
I should have listened to Pappy all those years ago. An arranged marriage was never what I wanted.
Rowan’s face flashes in my mind, and I cross my legs, resting my right ankle against my left knee, then clasp my hands behind my head while staring straight into the soul of my enemy. It forces the thoughts of my childhood friend out of my head—I can’t focus on her right now.
“I’m assuming it started after Kade was born,” I say casually. “Suddenly, I was traveling more, thanks to you and the deals you were finding. It makes perfect sense. Get me out of the way so you can slide in like the cancer you are.”
Nick lurches forward, as I knew he would, slamming his open palms on the table. “Mya came to me,” he seethes. “She wasignored and lonely. I was only too happy to let her feel wanted by choking on my cock.”
A demonic-sounding chuckle gurgles in my chest. “You forget we’ve been to the gym together, Nicky. No one is choking on your micropenis.”
He snaps, leaping over the table and wrapping his hands around my neck. I allow it and lift one side of my mouth, which makes the vein in his temple throb. It must be my lack of action that finally breaks through his rage.
“I fucked your wife,” he snarls. “I own her now, she’s mine, and the next thing I’ll take is your company. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll have nothing left. Not even your fucking brats.”
I shove him off me with the strength of a pissed-off father protecting his kids. He crashes into the table, but it’s his possessed snarl and his wild, vacant gaze that has me flipping through old memories. Was he always this fucking crazy, or did something make him lose his goddamn mind?
