Rising

by Laurelin Paige

  “As for the lack of sleep, I can only imagine what that must be like,” I offered in sincere sympathy. “Congratulations and consolation. My wife is pregnant, and I’ve been dreading the coming exhaustion since she told me of her condition. I’m much relieved at the moment that we only have a single baby on the way. I don’t think I have the stamina for more.”

  “You find it when you need it. Even if it has you running late to the office on a Wednesday.” His back straightened and the weariness disappeared from his features, tucked behind his mask of professionalism once again. “Please accept my congratulations to you as well. I’d only just heard that Celia was expecting.”

  I surmised what that news must have meant to Hudson. He’d claimed to be the father the first time she’d conceived, hiding that it had actually been his father who’d knocked up my wife. He’d likely been relieved when she’d lost the baby since it had alleviated him of his duty, but if he was a decent man—as I supposed he was—he’d probably felt guilty for feeling that way when the loss had hurt Celia so terribly.

  The news that she was now pregnant must have lessened that guilt if not eliminated it all together.

  It would have been better for negotiation if he still carried that shame, but there was nothing I could do about that. “Yes, she’s four months along now.”

  “She must be thrilled.”

  “We both are,” I lied. Because that’s what people were supposed to say in these situations. It was uncouth to grumble about the coming of a baby. And it showed weakness to allow anyone to believe I wasn’t on board with it. Men with power such as I had didn’t have unwanted children. They got rid of them, or they got rid of the women who conceived them.

  Truthfully, I didn’t want to get rid of either.

  Celia was mine for all of eternity, despite the contention that wound around us concerning her pregnancy.

  And it wasn’t her baby that was unwanted, really. It was all the rest of it. The trickery. The deceit. The secrets she refused to share. The clipped conversations between us. The sliver of cold space that separated our bodies every night in our bed at the Park Hyatt.

  The discord in my marriage leaked into every aspect of my being. I’d become meaner over the weeks. Brutal. Defiant. She argued to go home to London as soon as the charity was over. I insisted we stay in the States. She refused to give me what I needed to continue seeking vengeance for the past. I refused to drop the pursuit. She wanted to let control of her father’s company go to whomever Hudson Pierce chose to lead it. I wanted to be the one he chose.

  She’d got to have her baby. I should get to have what I desired as well. I was determined that I would.

  Another stop of the lift and when the doors shut this time, it was only me and Hudson in the car. Fueled by thoughts of Celia, by the dissension coursing through my veins, I turned to my would-be nemesis. “I’m not going to waste either of our time here, Hudson. You know from my emails what I’m after. It should be an obvious choice to put the company in my hands.”

  He opened his mouth and then closed it, and I could practically see the gears spinning in his head, trying to decide what excuse to give me, perhaps. Trying to guess what I knew about his possession of the majority stocks.

  He was aware that I knew he owned them and that Warren Werner was in the dark. I’d made that clear in my correspondence so far. I hadn’t yet admitted that I knew why he owned them. I was curious whether or not he’d bring it up himself. Throwing accusations at a man’s wife took guts, but it was also a dirty move. If he chose to expose my wife’s manipulative past, I might be impressed. I’d be equally impressed if he continued to step around it. Whichever choice he made would tell me a lot about the man. Would tell me what I was up against. Would help me prepare my own weapons.

  “I have great respect for Warren and the company he ran,” Hudson said finally, all traces of informality gone from his tone. He was pure businessman now. Focused and sharp. “It would be quite desirable to see Werner Media continue in that direction, and I understand the attraction of keeping it in the hands of family. I am not, however, yet convinced that your motives are as noble.”

  Impressive. Without mentioning Celia at all, he’d managed to hint at her possible intentions while throwing the accusations at me instead. He was smooth, that was certain.

  “Then I need to do a better job of persuading you of my business plan.” The business plan wasn’t the problem. In our previous communications, I’d given him a five-year and ten-year prospective. He’d returned with a number of aims he wanted to see added. Some of them had been ridiculous asks, but I’d implemented them all. It was a solid plan.

  What Hudson needed would have to be given off-page. Behind closed doors. Just between the two of us.

  The lift opened, and I followed him across the hallway to a waiting area with frosted glass walls. He paused to greet the woman behind the desk.

  “Coffee’s still brewing,” she said. “I’ll bring it in shortly.”

  “Thank you, Patricia.” He turned back to me, gesturing for me to follow as he opened the solid wood doors revealing a luxurious office space behind. “It’s not what you intend to do with Werner Media that I’m concerned with,” he said over his shoulder. “It’s how that will affect Pierce Industries.”

  Rather than lead me to the comfy seating area, he sat in the oversized chair behind a magnificent wooden desk, staking a clear position as king. He held all the power here, and he wanted to be certain I knew it.

  It made my insides seethe with envy. I rarely encountered a situation where I wasn’t the one sitting on the throne. Even if he gave me the reins to Werner, we still wouldn’t be on equal footing. He’d still have the majority shares.

  But I’d get those too. One day. Somehow. I had patience.

  For now, I’d have to accept the inferior role. I sat in the chair facing him. “I can assure you, Accelecom has no interest in taking any predatory action against your company. I’ve conceded to every one of your conditions, Hudson. Our position should be quite obvious.”

  He eyed a messy pile of papers on his desk and his brow creased, as if he were annoyed that any of his belongings would fall out of complete order. He straightened them, his gaze quickly scanning the room lingering on a spot behind me.

  I followed his line of vision to land on an ordinary coat cupboard. When I turned back to him, his attention was focused on me, whatever had distracted him apparently gone from his mind.

  I took that as a cue to press on. “What more can we do to prove good faith?”

  He steepled his hands together, leaning back in his chair, and considered.

  My jaw twitched, and I realized it was time to make a choice. I could sit here and listen to a list of unfounded demands, or I could cut to the chase.

  “Let me be candid,” I said, leaning forward. “I’m well aware of how the Werner shares ended up in your hands. Celia told me.”

  His eyes widened ever so slightly. “She told you everything?”

  “She did.” On the subject of Hudson Pierce, at least, she’d been forthright.

  But there was someone else from her past that she’d kept secret, a mysterious man she’d referred to as A in her diaries. A man who had used her to play devious games on the innocent simply for entertainment. A man who had taught her to be manipulative and cold and unfeeling.

  He wasn’t convinced. “I’m curious what exactly she said.”

  He was being cautious, but I could understand if there was a bit of curiosity as well. I also was curious about his relationship with my wife. I would love to hear his version of events. Whether or not he’d justify the way he’d led her on before sleeping with her friend. If he’d take full blame for her running to his father’s bed or if he’d pass that blame to her. I especially wondered how he’d discovered about the games she played, and wondered what specific reasons he had for thinking he needed insurance to keep her from coming after him and his family.

  Honestly, I wouldn’t have
been surprised to find that his side of the story painted Celia in a much harsher light. I knew what kind of woman she’d been. I knew what kind of woman she still could be if not nurtured and cared for.

  Guilt stabbed between my ribs. I hadn’t done a good job of caring for her lately. There had been too much hostility between us, and the will to nurture her had been eaten in the flames of that fire.

  I’d shirked some of my duties, it was true. But I was here because of her. For her. I focused on that, stepping carefully as I spoke of her past misdeeds. “She’s told me about the ways she’s preyed on innocent people around her. It’s clear that she attempted to play you as well, and that you required leverage to protect yourself. It might not mean anything coming from me, but I can assure you that she isn’t the same person she was when you had to make that move, and I’m certainly not a man who would allow his wife to behave like that in the future.”

  He scrutinized me with narrow eyes, his expression calculating the risk of trusting me. “You’re sure that she isn’t currently playing you?”

  She had played me in the end, hadn’t she? Though forcing a baby on me should hardly count. It was par for the way we negotiated with each other. The games between us would likely be deemed as sick to anyone on the outside.

  None of that was relevant to the conversation. “I’m certain that any way she is playing me has been welcomed and deserved. Point being, she has no interest in playing you.”

  “But you see how I can’t take that on blind faith. You could be in on the game along with her. Or you could be a man blinded by a pretty woman. The Celia I knew would never stand for a man ‘allowing’ her to do anything. It’s suspicious that you believe you have such complete control of a woman I’ve always thought of as a dragon.”

  “Dragon?” I let out a gruff laugh. She’d tried to convince me of the same and failed. “Hardly. She’s a little bird. Menacing only if you’re an unearthed worm.”

  I sobered. “However, I do understand your plight. Which, I believe, gives you even more reason to want me in the lead position at Werner. You lose your power over her as soon as Warren steps down. If I were to replace him, your thumb would be on her once again.”

  He nodded an acknowledgment. “Or the two of you have figured out a way to ruin me from the inside out. I have a lot of money wrapped up in Werner. It behooves me to see it do well.”

  “Please. Even if I ran Werner into the ground, it wouldn’t ruin you. Pierce Industries is as solid as they come.”

  “Unless you discover a way to bring both companies down.”

  It wasn’t on my agenda, but if it were necessary, I would do just that. It was possible he might see that in my eyes, which I wasn’t sure was a bad thing. If he thought I was against him, he had even more reason to keep me in his sights. Keep your enemies closer and all that.

  I let silence be my response, allowing it to fully settle before I spoke again. “There’s no way anything I can say will persuade you one way or another. All I can do is offer you a solid business plan and give you my assurance that I want to see Werner succeed, and that I am fully convinced that with the power of Accelecom behind it, I can take Werner to levels you’ve never even imagined.”

  It took a beat, but eventually he smiled. “I do like that sort of certainty in my CEOs,” he admitted. “But I’m going to need more time to make a decision. You’re not the only candidate I’m looking at.”

  I refused to let any disappointment show on my face. It was standard phrasing. It didn’t mean that I hadn’t gained any ground. It didn’t mean I didn’t have him exactly where I wanted him.

  He confirmed my confidence a second later. “You do currently have a nice lead, however. So let’s discuss next level. The prospects you’ve shown me are ambitious compared to the ones I’ve had drawn up myself. I’d like to look closer at the discrepancies.”

  “You can only reach as high as you dream,” I said smugly. “I’d be happy to justify the differences. It would please me to show you where your team has been small-minded.”

  “I would find that quite interesting. Do you mind?” He stood, signaling me to stand as well. “My chief financial advisor can show you the projections she’s put together. Her office is just down the hall. Let me walk you over.”

  I followed behind him like the moon in the shadow of the sun. On the surface, he may have appeared to have the superior position. But the sun only ruled the day. Everyone knew when the night dawned, the throne belonged to the moon.

  Two

  Celia

  I stepped out of the sunk-in tub and grabbed a towel from the oversized bathroom counter. While I greatly missed the house in London, the Presidential suite at the Park Hyatt was nothing to frown at. We’d been here for more than two months, and I was already addicted to the luxury amenities and sleek modern design.

  I’d give it all up, though, in a heartbeat, to have things go back to the way they’d been in England.

  No, that wasn’t true. I wouldn’t give it all up.

  I put my hand over the bump that had just begun to protrude noticeably from my abdomen. I couldn’t feel my baby move yet, but I was always aware of her presence. She’d changed my body completely, high-jacked it like she was an alien invader. Besides the constant exhaustion and the intermittent nausea, nothing about who I was felt the same. Food tasted different. The taste in my mouth was different. The temperature of my body was different. My head spun differently. My muscles and joints ached differently.

  I hated it, and I loved it. I’d already decided one would be enough because of how miserable the ordeal of pregnancy was. I also already knew without any doubt that she would be worth it.

  “Totally worth it,” I told my belly. I imagined she found the sound of my voice comforting, so I spoke to her often like this. Or maybe I spoke to her because I knew she couldn’t respond, unlike my husband who had taken to spending long stretches of our time together in silence. There was a sexiness about the way he brooded, as there was about almost everything he did, but knowing I was to blame for his taciturnity put a damper on the visual benefits.

  Would he be like this forever? Distant and withdrawn. He didn’t pick out my clothes anymore, didn’t dictate my days. Didn’t command me or boss me around.

  And I resented him for it, which was ridiculous since almost everything I did was meant to push him away. If he tried to care for me like he once had, I’d most likely argue or ignore him outright, and since he surely knew that—because didn’t he always know everything?—why would he make an effort to connect?

  I didn’t even know why I pushed him away anymore. At first, I’d been angry. He demanded to know the identity of the man who’d taught me The Game, and if it were simply because he wanted me to share everything with him, I would have told him long ago. But it was because of his stupid quest for vengeance. A quest that had come to mean so much to him that he’d lost sight of the person he claimed to be looking after. Me.

  And that felt worse than the anger. That hurt.

  Add to that his secrets—what he’d done to Camilla’s husband, the lengths he’d gone to for other acts of justice. I was scared on top of hurt. Not for what he’d do to me, but what he could do—what he would do—to Hudson. To my father. To himself.

  But then I found out I was pregnant, and my anger and hurt and fear became centered around something else. Someone else. Around her, the child living inside me that I was certain was a girl despite not having confirmation yet. She was everything, and I’d hoped beyond hope that she would be everything to Edward too.

  And for a moment, when he’d walked into my parents’ apartment and declared his love to me in such beautiful words, I really believed it was possible everything would work out. “I’m better at your side,” he’d said, “and I believe you’re better at mine.”

  But then I told him I was pregnant.

  His response to that announcement stung so sharply it erased anything he’d said before that.

  “How is th
at possible?” he’d asked.

  “No birth control is infallible.”

  “You didn’t get your shot.”

  I hadn’t expected him to put the pieces together, but when he did, I couldn’t lie. So I’d said nothing.

  And he’d walked out of the room.

  We hadn’t recovered from that. Nine weeks later and we lived in a shell of the marriage we’d once occupied. I didn’t know how to go back to what we were, and maybe he didn’t either. Point was, neither of us made much effort to try. We’d fallen into a wretched cycle—he wouldn’t reach out so I’d do something to make sure he didn’t reach out the next time, and sure enough he wouldn’t, and then I’d do something else to make sure he wouldn’t again.

  We’d been good lovers. I truly believed that. But we’d been even better rivals, and we fell easily into that well-worn groove.

  “He’ll come around,” I said, as much for my sake as my baby’s. “He loves us too much to stay away forever.”

  Please, oh, please let that be true.

  With a sigh, I toweled off, staring at the pile of panties and tank I’d brought into the bathroom with me. It had become a standard bedtime outfit for me—not purposefully provocative, yet still revealing in a way that caught Edward’s eye. He tried not to notice, I could visibly see him trying, but he always did. His eyes would skate over the bare skin of my legs, lingering at the V of white cotton at the top of my thighs.

  It was a passive-aggressive move on my part, wearing what I knew would grab his attention when we were barely on speaking terms. It hadn’t yet worked in my favor though. No matter that he couldn’t resist looking, he somehow was still able to resist the need to touch.

  He was fantastically good at self-denial. I’d learned that from the first time we were enemies. It put me at a disadvantage because I did not have that skill. And I was desperate for him. Desperate for his words and his care and his regard and his love, and definitely desperate for his touch.