Axel strutted out of the board room exactly as he’d come: cool, collected, Zero alongside. Once the door shut behind him, Eli let out an exasperated sigh.
“I thought we were safe from that piece of shit entering our world.”
My father only scowled at the table. I knew why, though. It wasn’t just because Axel had shown up.
It was because Axel had him in a corner.
“I take it there’s some shared history we’re unaware of?” Frank asked.
“You could say that,” I said with a small laugh, smoothing the top of my skirt. I still wasn’t even sure Axel had seen me. Maybe it was for the better, if he hadn’t. I fingered the simple diamond-studded pendant I wore around my neck, but my wedding ring glinted in the sunlight, catching my attention. He probably hadn’t seen the necklace, and almost certainly had no idea of its significance. And maybe he hadn’t seen the wedding ring,either.
I was forbidden from removing the ring. As the foremost Prisoner of Wall Street, I was legally obligated to uphold the best version of our family brand at all times.
Even in the midst of an ongoing and contentious separation from the man at my side.
My family had a brand manager, like most of the wealthiest families did. It was completely normal in our circle to run a family like a finely tuned corporation. And that difference had always been a wedge between Axel and me. He’d never been able to understand. Or maybe he just didn’t want to.
“But honestly, it’s all water under the bridge,” I went on, fixing my gaze on my father. “What concerns us right now is the sale of this building. He made a good offer.”
“An incredible offer,” Robert conceded. “History or not. I think we’re obligated to accept.”
Axel had gotten it right. No avalanche of annoying traits or painful history would affect an offer so high above the asking price. Axel knew that. We all knew that.
The board would have to accept.
“We should wait for more offers,” Eli said. “If that pissant can offer one point five over asking, then a better offer will be coming in soon.”
“I agree,” my father said. “It may be a hotter property than we realized. Besides, who knows what he plans to do with the building. I’d much rather preserve the integrity of our brand than sell too quickly to someone like him.”
Someone like him. It had always come down to that with my father.
Axel wassomeone like himbecause he wasn’tsomeone like us.My father had never let Axel forget that. Axel could never be in the inner circle of elites on Wall Street. Because Axel had grown up poor. Because he’d been raised in Kentucky. Because he didn’t play the game the way my father and his peers preferred.
Because, because, because. My father had a laundry list of reasons for despising Axel. And clearly, Axel’s own success had not forced my father to budge on any of them. It didn’t matter that Axel could compete on the same level. He and his brothers were intrinsically missing something that the inside circle demanded.
“If no better offer comes in,” Robert said, “we’ll have to vote to accept the Fairchild offer.”
“We can cross that bridge when we come to it,” my father said.
“What if we talk him up in price?” I asked suddenly. I didn’t want Axel’s offer to be off the table so quickly. Besides, I wanted to know more about what Axel intended to use the building for. I’d had my eye on this building, as well, but my intended uses didn’t align with my father’s vision, so he would never just hand it over to me. And I couldn’t beat Axel’s bid to buy it outright—I had other uses for my personal funds. “We can arrange an additional meeting. Probe his plans for the building. And maybe squeeze an extra one or two million out of him based on what we hear.”
“Do you really wanthismoney though?” Eli asked with a sneer.
“The board does not discriminate as long as the fiduciary interests of the shareholders are prioritized,” Robert said.
“Agreed,” Frank added. My father was stewing over this.
“Let me get more information then. If wehaveto accept his offer, let’s make it to our benefit and not his,” I said, the words tumbling out of me before I could even think. “Besides, this will help us drag our feet and allow time for another offer to come in,” I added.
Really, before Axel showed up, I hadn’t cared who owned it. But now that he’d shown an interest, I wanted it to be Axel. I knew the work his side projects did. The charity he’d founded and oversaw. The man moved mountains for the less fortunate. Because he himself had been the least fortunate.
I respected the hell out of him. It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t look me in the eye.
It only confirmed what I suspected—I’d forsaken any chance for a reconciliation with him. Axel Fairchild held a grudge like it was the last piece of beachfront property in Los Angeles. There was no way in hell he thought about me or even remotely cared for me. Even though Axel still owned every last piece of my heart.
And maybe that made me uniquely positioned to negotiate this deal.
My heart still wanted glimpses of Axel, the man I’d turned down, the only man I’d ever loved. If I couldn’t have him, I still wanted to be near him. One more time.