I stood, taking my wine glass to the counter for a refill. “I read about Aphrodite Corporation in my father’s email from a woman at GreenSphere.”
“Your father had an email from Ashley?” Van and Lena asked in unison.
“You know her?”
Both shook their heads.
“Yet you know her name.”
Van responded, “She contacted me prior to our wedding. She was the one who offered me a great deal to sell my percentage of Wade stock to GreenSphere. She offered me a seat on the board.”
“She didn’t offer me a seat,” Lena said.
“Maybe because you only have five percent.”
“Not anymore.”
I stopped pouring the wine and turned toward Lena. “You’re Aphrodite?”
Julia
“Iam,” Lena replied. “It’s one of my shell companies I use when I want to do business incognito.”
“Why would you buy into my family’s company?”
Lena grinned. “To fuck with Van.”
My gaze moved from one and then the other as I waited for more information.
“Lena,” Van said, “and I have similar playbooks when it comes to our philosophy regarding business. We look for opportunities.”
“And as he told you,” she went on, “we share a dislike for your ex-fiancé’s family.”
“Dislike?” Van asked as he lifted his wine glass.
Lena shrugged. “The emotion is difficult to quantify.” She turned to me. “We both want to see them fall.”
“Skylar isn’t guilty.” I lifted the wine glass and took another drink. When I lowered the globe, both Van and Lena were looking my direction. “I mean he is—as was I. Ignorance. Faith. Blind allegiance. That’s his side in all of this. Neither he nor I knew Marlin’s plans to screw my family. Skylar even offered to help me get out of the house during the whole Phillip fiasco.” I went back to my chair. “Skylar did help that day by occupying my mother.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend Skylar after all he’d done to me, but I did. “He’s guilty of screwing my friend. The guy isn’t completely innocent.” I looked from Van to Lena. “Look, he’s the same age as I am, the age you were when you dated Logan—too young to have a clue. Skylar’s guilty of believing his parents at every turn. Yes, that’s naïve, but weren’t you naïve at our age?”
“No,” Lena said matter-of-factly. “I was desperate. Logan Butler fucked the naivete out of me by the time I was your age. Then Infidelity did the rest.”
My eyes narrowed as my eyebrows furrowed. “Infidelity, as in cheating?”
“It’s a company,” Van explained. “Or it was. It’s no longer viable.”
“Because of you?”
“Because of both of us,” Lena replied. “I have no beef with Skylar.” She tapped her fingernails on the counter’s edge. “How important is it to you that he doesn’t get run through the wringer with his parents and uncle?”
The kitchen fell silent.
“Are you asking me?” My voice was an octave too high.
“You’re the one who came to his defense,” she said.
“Is it that simple? What you two do, taking away people’s lives and livelihoods—can you exempt one person that easily?”
“No,” Lena said. “It wouldn’t be easy, but it might be doable.”