The Unknown Billionaire (Captured by Love Book 6)

by Charles,Miranda P.

  Her phone rang in her hand and she smiled. “Hey, Simon. Great timing.”

  “Why?” Simon asked.

  “I was thinking I need some company for lunch. Are you free?”

  “Funny you say that, because that’s exactly what I’m ringing you for. I’m heading to your area now and have a couple of hours free before my meeting.”

  “Great! Shall we meet at the café across the road from my office that make organic smoothies?”

  “Sure. I’ll be there in about fifteen.”

  “Okay, see you then.”

  She sat back on her chair, looking around her desk. She had a few minutes to kill before lunch.

  But she didn’t want to start any work. What was the point when she’d been unable to concentrate all day? Well, all week, actually. She sighed and grabbed her bag from her drawer. Might as well go to the café early and save a table while waiting for Simon.

  “Going to lunch,” she mouthed to her PA and exited the building. She was hit by the stifling humidity. Hurriedly, she crossed the road and entered the coffee shop, thankful for its air-conditioned comfort and relaxed ambiance. The place was already busy even though it was only eleven thirty. Everyone else must have been trying to escape the heat. Fortunately, a table had just been vacated by two women, and a server motioned for her to take it while he cleared it for her.

  Smiling her thanks, she took her seat when the table was ready. She checked the menu that was propped on a holder at the edge of the table, not really feeling hungry. Then again, she hadn’t been eating well. But she should order something substantial or Simon would notice her lack of appetite and make a big fuss.

  “Marilyn.”

  Her breath hitched at the voice. What the hell was he doing here?

  Reluctantly, she looked up and her lips parted in surprise.

  Jarryd’s eyes were sunken, as if he hadn’t slept well for days. And his hair was unruly, like he’d been running his fingers through it repeatedly.

  “I saw you walk in,” Jarryd said. “Could I please join you?”

  It took her a few seconds to find her voice. “No. I’m meeting Simon.”

  Jarryd’s jaw seemed to clench. “Do you mind if we talk while you’re waiting for him?”

  She swallowed. “Why are you here?”

  Jarryd’s lips tugged up mirthlessly. “I was hoping to bump into you.”

  She stared at him, her eyes not wanting to obey her brain, which was ordering her to look away.

  “Please?”

  The quiet desperation in Jarryd’s voice made Marilyn nod her head.

  “Thank you,” Jarryd said with relief, taking the seat opposite her.

  “You only have five minutes. Simon’s coming,” she added in a flat tone.

  “Okay.”

  She inhaled deeply. What on earth was she doing agreeing to talk to him? Sure, he seemed miserable, but for all she knew, this look was part of his plan to butter her up and get away with his abhorrent act. Or perhaps he was having sleepless nights because he knew how much trouble he was in for what he’d done.

  So was she going to be stupid again? Hell, no!

  “Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything I want to talk to you about,” she said in a loud whisper that only he could hear.

  Jarryd sighed. “I probably don’t have much time before Simon gets here, so I’m just gonna go straight to the point. Do you really think I could have faked my feelings for you? Did it look like I was only acting all those times I made love to you? You didn’t believe me before when I said we didn’t have any spark—and that’s because we did have a spark. More than that, we burned for each other. Everyone else saw that too. So how can you think I wasn’t being truthful when I said I loved you?”

  She snickered. “Come on, Jarryd. Love and sex don’t necessarily go hand in hand, so don’t give me that crap about being in love with me just because we were good in bed together. You found me attractive, but most men do. I opened my legs for you and you took what I offered. Most guys would have taken the opportunity had I made them the same offer. What we did together wasn’t anything special.”

  Jarryd’s eyes hardened. “Please don’t talk like that.”

  “Well, I know better than to listen to a guy who was practically lying to me every single day,” she said bitterly. “I don’t even know who you are, Jarryd. How can you expect me to believe anything you say when the person I got to know wasn’t the real you?”

  “But that was me! That was all me!”

  Marilyn leaned across the table, shooting him a disgusted look. “Oh, really? So who was Margaret O’Neill’s son? Who’s the half-owner of Greeves Minerals? Who’s the billionaire? Those are the things that you kept from me. Why? Because you want a girlfriend from an influential family to help save your image when Patrick goes ahead with challenging the validity of Margaret’s will? Or because you want to acquire Well of Brilliance? Or maybe it’s both, huh?”

  Anger flashed in Jarryd’s eyes. “None of those is true.”

  “Unfortunately for you, Patrick is kicking up a stink,” she continued in a derisive tone. “Out of the blue, you wooed me back. Around the time my parents decided to make a bid for Well of Brilliance. Convenient, huh?”

  Jarryd closed his eyes for a long moment, clearly trying to rein in his emotions. “I was honouring Margaret’s wish to keep my relationship with her a secret, which meant I had to keep my inheritance and my ownership of half of Greeves Minerals a secret too. If you’d let me explain everything to you from the beginning, you’ll see that I never meant to use you or hurt you. Please just give me that chance.”

  “Give you a chance? Why didn’t you take that chance on Christmas Eve when I wanted to introduce you to Elliot? No, you had plenty of chances, Jarryd. Plenty. But you were you still lying to me till the very end, until you got caught with your pants down. Now you’re just trying to salvage the situation as much as you can. And because I told you I loved you, I bet you’re hoping that I’ll continue to be stupid enough to listen to more of your lies so I’ll help save your ass from whatever legal action might be coming your way. No more, Jarryd. I’m done being used by you. Done.”

  “Marilyn,” Jarryd whispered pleadingly, his eyes moistening.

  Her heart lurched at Jarryd’s look of despair, but she hardened it. God, he really was a great actor. A great con man. “I want you to leave me alone, or I’ll be forced to hire someone to stop you from coming near me.”

  “Hey,” Simon said, appearing by her side and touching her shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes,” she answered. “Jarryd was just leaving.”

  She didn’t look up when Jarryd stood up and left the table. But, unbidden, she stole a glance as he was exiting the premises. All she saw was his back, and that could very well be the last she’d ever see of him.

  Her heart ached. To her consternation, it was not from anger, but from grief.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Jarryd walked out of the coffee shop, his vision blurry and his chest so tight he wondered if he was having a heart attack. But who cared if he was? If he had to be admitted to a hospital, maybe Marilyn would finally take pity on him and listen to his full explanation, right?

  Or wrong.

  With Marilyn’s obvious anger, she might even give him the middle finger while he was on his deathbed.

  But no, it didn’t look like he was having a heart attack. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to walk this fast towards...

  Who the fuck knew where he was going? He didn’t. The only thing clear in his mind was that he wanted to rip his heart from out of his chest so he wouldn’t have to deal with all this pain.

  He had absolutely no idea how to fix things with Marilyn. He could see why she now hated him so. Her assessment of the situation was totally understandable, even though she’d come to the wrong conclusions. Putting himself in her shoes, even he would think he was the worst kind of asshole.

  Their mutual friends must have also c
ome to that conclusion. He’d lost a lot of them—or so he assumed, considering that Simon hadn’t even said a single word to him.

  He’d texted them all after Barry had thrown him out of the Grants’ mansion. He’d given them an out not to contact him, saying he’d need time to sort things out and would explain everything in due course. But he’d pleaded with them to make sure that Marilyn was okay.

  He’d received their responses—mostly saying “okay.” He had no idea what they thought of him after that event on Christmas Eve. He wouldn’t be surprised if they all believed Patrick. Who wouldn’t?

  Yes, it was all his fault. No matter how much justification he had for his actions, the bottom line was he’d been too afraid to trust anyone with the truth—Marilyn, especially. It served him right to suffer like this for hurting her like he did.

  But what could he do to make her understand that she was wrong in her assumptions? He might deserve Marilyn’s wrath, but he couldn’t stand the thought of her believing that she was nothing to him but someone he’d only used for his own gain.

  He needed to find something—anything—that would somehow make Marilyn believe that he wasn’t a heartless scammer before he lost all opportunity to win her back. That was, if he hadn’t totally lost her already.

  Jarryd stopped at the lights and glimpsed an ad for Well of Brilliance on the body of a passing bus. He frowned in thought, then turned around to walk the other way.

  Twenty minutes later, panting and sweaty from the heat, he was entering the Greeves Minerals building. He didn’t have an appointment to see Olivia, but damn it, he owned half of this company, right? He should have access to the CEO on short notice.

  He took the lifts to the top floor and plastered a smile on his face when the doors opened. “Good afternoon, Lilah,” he said to the receptionist.

  “Mr. Westbourne! Good afternoon, sir,” Lilah said with a smile, her brows furrowing slightly as she took in his appearance.

  “Is Mrs. Greeves in? I don’t have an appointment, but it’s an urgent matter.”

  “Let me check if she’s free, sir.”

  Lilah spoke with someone else, presumably Olivia’s secretary. There was a few seconds’ wait, when Lilah smiled at him shyly, before frowning at whatever the person on the line was saying to her.

  “But Mr. Westbourne said it’s urgent—that’s why he didn’t worry about making an appointment. He came straight here.”

  Jarryd hid his smile. This was the kind of employee he wanted working for him.

  After another few seconds’ wait, Lilah smiled smugly. “Mrs. Greeves is waiting for you, Mr. Westbourne.”

  “Thank you, Lilah. Great job,” he said with a grin before heading to Olivia’s office.

  He still wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing coming here to talk to Olivia. But something told him this was worth pursuing.

  “Hello, Jarryd,” Olivia said in a bemused voice when her secretary ushered him to her big room.

  “Hello, Olivia. Thanks for seeing me.”

  “I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for my curiosity as to what this is about. It’s urgent, you say?”

  “Something like that.”

  Olivia stared at him questioningly as they sat down on adjacent two-seater sofas. “Have you been ill or something?”

  He chuckled. “No.”

  “You just look...”

  “Like shit. I know.”

  “Your words, not mine,” Olivia said with a dry laugh. “Anyway, what brings you here? I’ve tried to contact you numerous times until that lawyer of yours told me to talk to him about anything I want to discuss with you. I have to tell you, I was insulted by that. I’m the CEO of a company who couldn’t talk directly to the biggest shareholder at a time when a big scandal could be breaking.”

  “I’m sorry about that. Carl is just the careful type who wants to make sure that this scandal won’t become public. But he doesn’t know I’m here.”

  Olivia’s eyebrows lifted.

  “I’d like to ask you about Margaret,” he said.

  Olivia blinked at him. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  He smiled lopsidedly. “You weren’t expecting me to get Margaret’s shares in Greeves Minerals. No one, not even me, had expected that. But I assume you knew Margaret well, having been married to Harold’s brother and having worked with her for years. So I was wondering if there was anything at all that she said to you to indicate that she’d been searching for me—the son she’d given up for adoption?”

  “Why are you asking this all of a sudden?”

  Jarryd gazed at an artwork hanging on the wall he was facing as he collected his thoughts. “My gratitude and sense of loyalty to Margaret had me keeping things from Marilyn, and now she can’t stand the sight of me. It’s Patrick’s accusation that’s giving weight to all these question marks on my integrity. If Patrick weren’t calling me a scheming thief, I doubt anyone would be so quick to think I’m up to no good. I’m clutching at straws here, but I’m hoping that I can find something that would suggest—even remotely—that Margaret did mean to leave me her wealth so I can have something to fight Patrick with apart from my word.”

  He glanced at Olivia, who seemed to be scrutinising him intensely.

  “It’s not even the money I’m concerned about,” he continued quietly. “I’d let it all go in a heartbeat if it would clear my name and, especially, show Marilyn that I never meant to use her. But I have to fight the allegations that I forced Margaret into anything, and I want to honour her wishes. Believe it or not, holding on to this inheritance is holding on to the love Margaret has shown me in that short space of time we knew each other. I’m still in shock that she died so soon after she found me, and I just can’t let go of her gift that easily. But I’m losing Marilyn because of it and I don’t know what to do. So I’m hoping you have something that could possibly help me counter Patrick’s accusations against me.”

  Olivia stared at him before standing up and walking to the window. It was a long minute before she turned to face him. “I don’t have anything for you right now, but I’ll let you know if I remember something.”

  He inhaled his disappointment. “Okay. Thank you.”

  “By the way, I’m assuming your lawyer has told you that we are not pulling out of buying Well of Brilliance?”

  He nodded. “I understand you have to do the right thing by Greeves Minerals. Besides, it would probably look suspicious if we pulled out after what happened.”

  “Exactly,” Olivia said.

  They said their goodbyes and Jarryd left the building, feeling as heavy-hearted as he had when he’d arrived. Patrick could drag this thing out for months before anything got resolved. And even if the courts declared the will valid, Patrick could say it was merely from lack of solid proof. The popular man’s reputation and influence would still give weight to his conviction that Jarryd was a scoundrel—a tag that Jarryd might have to carry forever.

  And he’d never be with Marilyn again.

  His eyes smarted at the thought.

  He trudged back in the direction of Marilyn’s office, having left his car near there. Should he try pleading with her again? But the last thing he wanted was to make her angrier. She might make good on her threat to hire a bodyguard just to stop him from trying to talk to her, and that would be worse.

  He turned to the street where Marilyn’s building was and slowed down his pace when he saw Marilyn and Simon walking out of the café. Clearly, they’d just finished lunch. He narrowed his eyes when Simon put his arm around Marilyn’s shoulders.

  Fuck.

  He hoped that was just a friendly gesture. As Marilyn had said, Simon was like a brother to her.

  But... Simon was interested in sleeping with Marilyn, and the two had dated in the past. What if they developed deeper feelings for each other while Simon helped Marilyn through this?

  Marilyn spotted him and froze.

  “I’m not here to hassle you,” he answered hurriedly. “I
went for a walk and was going back to my car. Just so happens that the two of you just finished lunch.”

  Marilyn didn’t respond. She simply turned her back to him and smiled at Simon, who tightened his arm around her as they crossed the road back to her office.

  Jarryd stared at them, his heart being wrung dry as he forced himself to hold back the tears that pooled in his eyes.

  He wanted to yell, to run after Marilyn, to fight Simon for her. And he also wanted to sit on the pavement and bury his head in his hands.

  Ah, but he’d be much better off hitting something. And he knew just where to go.

  He had a new project in the suburb of Kingsgrove. His company was going to get rid of the old, small house on a big site and build a modern duplex. Work wasn’t supposed to start on it until next month, but he might as well start now.

  He sped home to grab one tool from his garage—a sledgehammer.

  *****

  Jarryd swung wide and banged the sledgehammer against the wall separating two of the bedrooms in the old house. Sections of the brickwork gave way, creating a big hole.

  After three weeks of knocking down walls by himself every afternoon, this was the last non-load-bearing wall that he could hammer down with his hand-held tool. He supposed he could start yanking out the floorboards next. It wouldn’t give him the same satisfaction as hitting something, but it would still be a good outlet for the anger he felt at the hopelessness of his situation.

  Funny how he’d never felt so low when his finances had never been so high.

  A billionaire.

  And he couldn’t have the only thing that really mattered—Marilyn’s heart.

  His phone rang loudly and he trudged to the table where he’d left his personal belongings. He wouldn’t pick up if it was his parents or other buddies outside of Marilyn’s circle. He was getting sick of people asking him how he was doing. Or rather, he was sick of giving the same lie that he was fine.