I roll my eyes at his last remark. “Addison, I’m in love with you,” he declares, his voice soft and quiet, which makes my heart literally skip a beat. “Like, so in love with you.” I blink away the tears.
“And it has nothing to do with Avery. It has to do with when you hold my hand, I feel a sense of peace. It has to do with when you kiss me, my heart speeds up. It has to do with when you smile at me, I feel like I could take on the world with just you by my side.”
“You.” I put my hand to my mouth to stop the sob from coming out, but it’s too late. “You aren’t leaving?” He is in front of me in one step, his hands on my face, tilting it back to look at him.
“I’m not leaving,” he reassures me, “not now, not ever.” He finally lowers his head to kiss my lips. I put my hands on top of his.
“I didn’t know that,” I admit and then laugh out through the tears.
“No shit,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t even know what you thought you knew.”
“You are not picking a fight with me right now. Not after I spent four days practically sleepless because I was missing you,” I grumble between clenched teeth, “and then you come home and kiss my cheek.”
“You were being weird,” he replies between clenched teeth.
“You were being weirder,” I counter. I know it’s not a good comeback, but it’s all I have right now.
“When is your lease up?” he asks me. “Doesn’t matter, it’ll just sit vacant.”
“It’s over next month.”
“So do you think you can move in with me tomorrow?” He smirks at me. “I mean, I would ask for you to do it today, but it’s late. I have to feed my daughter, and then I have four days of sex to catch up on.”
“Four days?” I can’t help the smile that fills my face. “That’s a lot of sex.”
“I have faith in us,” he declares, kissing my lips. “Now, let’s go tell our daughter that you’re moving in.”
epilogue one
. . .
Stefano
One year later
“H ow are you so calm, cool, and collected?” I look over at Casey as he just stands there looking down at his phone.
“Well, for one.” He tries not to smirk. “I have no skin in this game. I’m here because they heard of me and took the meeting. And number two, I’ve been where you have been.” I look at him, my eyebrows pinched together. “First thing I did when I had money was buy the farm my ex owned. No one knew it was me. I broke it to her in the middle of the barn, where I found her fucking someone else. It was a good day.”
“So the moral of the story is?” I look out the window.
“Moral of the story is I won, one, by buying her farm and, two, by finding the love of my life, which wasn’t her.” He puffs out his chest. “Now, relax.”
I’m about to say something to him when the door to the conference room opens, and a woman comes in. “Showtime,” Casey says and I nod my head.
She’s dressed head to toe in a designer outfit. “Hello, gentlemen.” She smiles at Casey and then her eyes fall to me as she smirks.
“Kristina.” I nod at her as she pulls out her chair, putting her phone on the table.
Her brother is the next one in, who looks annoyed that he was called into this meeting. Which doesn’t surprise me since he actually has no idea what the fuck he’s even doing. “I have a meeting in thirty minutes,” he huffs, pulling out a chair, and I know he does. He’s actually having an affair with his fiancée’s best friend’s boyfriend.
I don’t bother even acknowledging him, because in walks the man of the hour. I have never in my life been more nervous, but I’ve never in my life hated someone more than I hate this man who is walking into the room next. “Gentlemen,” he greets, smiling to me. All I can do is nod instead of wanting to throat punch him.
“Mr. Laurier.” I nod at him. “How has your day been?”
“It’s been good,” he replies, pulling out the chair at the head of the table where the president usually sits. I look over at Casey, who pulls out the chair in front of him that is in the middle.
“Shall we get started?” I look over at them.
“Should we not wait for the rest of the shareholders?” Kristina smiles at me as she taps her finger on the table.
Gerald takes a deep exhale and looks bored AF and just wants this over with. They are the only three who we haven’t shared the news with. News I’m ready to share with them. News I hope shatters their whole fucking world. “I think we can start without them,” I state, looking over at Casey, who leans back in his chair. Cool, calm, and collected.
“Yes, let’s,” Casey says, smirking. “Knock them dead.”
“Well, I don’t want to drag this on, so let’s get to the point. Since your company is public, and Casey has been looking into purchasing stocks to become a majority shareholder in Laurier Lumber for a while now.” I look over at Casey, who just rocks back and forth. “I’ve met with several of the shareholders.” I put my hands on the table. “And your numbers are, well, how do I put it?” I look over at Casey. “Fictitious.” I look at the reaction of all three of them, the only one who isn’t surprised by this is the man at the head of the table. “You see, I’m really good at my job.”
“He’s lying,” Casey cuts in. “He’s the best at his job, even I’m somewhat impressed.”
“Thank you,” I tell him. “Now, as future shareholders of Laurier Lumber, I think it’s our right to see how much Mr. Laurier has, how do I put it?”
“I think it’s called embezzling.” Casey leans in like he’s going to tell me a secret, but the whole table can hear him. Kristina, who smiled at me before, now just looks at me with big eyes.
Gerald suddenly sits up in his chair, now paying very close attention.
“Excuse me?” Mr. Laurier says, sitting up in his chair.
“You’re excused,” I say to him as I open the folder I placed on the table when we walked in. I hand them each a sheet of paper with columns and numbers. I slide it to them, Mr. Laurier snapping it up in his hands. “As you can see, the three of you have been, well—” I look for words to say.
“Having a field day with funds that were not yours.” I look over at Casey, whose face grimaces. “So, for the past couple of weeks, we’ve had the pleasure to show this to some of the shareholders.”
“Past couple of weeks?” Mr. Laurier says. “Are you saying you went behind my back?”
“I am, in fact,” I say, nodding, “saying that we went behind your back.”
“I’m not taking the praise for this,” Casey declares. “This was all Stefano. I’m just here because I knew someone.” He looks at me. “Go on.”
“This is bullshit.” Mr. Laurier slaps the table with his hand. “I want you out of this office now.”
I just stare at him while Casey laughs. “I don’t think so.” I laugh also. “You see, I sort of—” I move my head from side to side. “Kind of”—I snap my fingers—“am the majority shareholder.”
“That’s,” Mr. Laurier shouts, “that’s impossible!”
“But is it?” Casey asks him, then turns to me. “Go for it.”
“Mr. Laurier,” I say his name, “from my findings, you have been dipping your hand where it shouldn’t go.” I smirk. “But you aren’t the only one.” I look over at the other two. “You see your son, Gerald, has a hotel room that is booked four times a week with the company card.” I look at him, and his face goes white as I turn to him. “And I don’t think you are bringing clients there.” I don’t wait for him to say anything. “And, well, Kristina over here, she has a little bit of an issue that she needs help with.”
“Shut the fuck up,” she says, slapping her hand on the table.
“And, well, you.” I point at Mr. Laurier. “There are the family vacations. The hotel suites. The private jets are all paid for by the company.”
“I have an allowance.” He shoots to his feet as his chair flies back. “My father started this company.”
“He sure did,” I confirm. “And we aren’t even going to go into all that. Because if we went through all of it, your father would have been behind bars for the way he obtained some of his materials. But, in the end, I’m sure you will be handing it down to your kids.” I look at the two next to him.