Reborn (Sequel to Wilting Roses)

Looking to Buy

Chapter Thirteen

~Dathan~

"You cannot try to negotiate with the manure company. They are one of the business we do not own only because our need to seek fertilizer for our crops has made them filthy rich." Kyle argued.

"I think it's time we try to buy them out, why not? I said. I stared at Kyle from across the room. I couldn't stop clicking the pen in my hand. I was growing frustrated with him, why couldn't he simply agree with me? It was a good move for our company, if we ended up buying them out I'd successfully achieve to find means of splitting Aria and Jim apart.

Maybe I was a devil for going to high extremes but I wasn't going to let her slip from my fingers so quickly. I was willing to set whatever price over the table to make sure Jim didn't take his pathetic little cuddling farther. Would Aria hate me for going after his job? I shook my head, determined not to let it get to me. I was feeling guilty but my attraction for Aria was greater.

"Dathan, they will not, and I repeat not bend to whatever price you put on the table. Your father tried to negotiate something along that line and it didn't even happen with him. Don't get your hopes up, I doubt that Mack will consider even hearing you out." Kyle explained.

"My father tried to negotiate with Mack twenty years ago, who knows he might have had a change of heart since then." I pressed.

Kyle rolled his eyes and stood from his chair. He was growing frustrated with me, I could tell. Walking along side the long fourteen chair table in our meeting room he adjusted the button on his blazer and walked out. The door shut and I was left to sit at the head of the table. The room was spacious and fresh, nothing like the awful June weather outside.

Mack was well along in years and since his last grandson died in a skiing accident last year, he had been left with no descendants to pass along the company. Maybe there was a way I could convince him that his company was better off in the hands of my family than anyone else's. My thumb stopped clicking the pen and I set the writing utensil on the table before rising out of my own chair.

It was nine in the morning and Mack always used this time to drive over to a Panel Room to have breakfast. If I was quick I was certain I'd catch him just as his food arrived. I walked out of the meeting room determined to negotiate with Mack no matter what Kyle said. I was very persuasive when it came to negotiating. A smile formed on my lips as I hurried to reschedule my calls and make it to the panel room on time.

Once inside my car I began to recall the newest entries I had read on my grandfathers journal. The year had been faded away, leaving only faint indentations of his writing at the top. No doubt some water damage had gotten to the journal before it was safely put inside the box, along with a few other important things of his.

...the beauty of the world will forever turn black and white in my eyes. I fail to see the colors and the smells like I once did. Its torture knowing I will forever carry the guilt of having lost her. It is much too late to consider trying to salvage our partnership. As I walked the halls of my lonely, hollowed home I could not bear to live in it any longer. Every corner of the place held terrible memories. The guilt was forcing me to waste away and I could no longer live under it's cold comfort. The only heart ache I do carry is having left behind her wonderful refuge. The garden began to mean so much more to me, now I could understand the reason why she had spent so much time in it...

My grandfather had lived elsewhere before purchasing the mansion I lived in now. I was determined to look for it in hopes that maybe knew explanations could surface as to why I was dreaming his past. Every night I read his journal I began to realize he and I were not so different. He presented this hard and harsh persona but on the inside he was just like me.