Life's Second Chances

Thirty-Seven

ANU

"I'm telling you one last time, leave or I will have you forcibly removed," Sidharth's deep grinding voice echoes from the foyer.

"Just hear me out Sidharth. This entire Panacea ordeal is a rouse! They're staging a coup in your own company against you!" frustrated, Natalia flails her arms groaning loudly at Sid's outright refusal to listen to her pleas.

"You don't think I've figured that out by now?" he shouts causing the muscles in his neck to tense flexing against his tight jawline. Darkly his eyes narrow and forehead creases with great annoyance. "It seems that you're forgetting the last time I had to fire someone you appointed on the board I was fucking shot at!"

"Sidharth, if you're insinuating that I put Jameson up to that...you're so wrong. We had our differences back then, but I would never,"

"I'm not insinuating anything, I'm bloody telling you what I know, Natalia. This Panacea shit-storm is all the work of one very unhappy board member who has been doing your bidding at the table since you got the boot,"

"Fredrick has nothing to do with this,"

"I never mentioned Fredrick but thanks for that bit of information," smirking cockily, he nods to Gideon to escort Natalia away.

"Just be careful," she whispers defeatedly, worry glinting in her eyes.

"Do you think she's somehow responsible for all this?" sliding my hand up his stiff back up to his neck, I brush my fingers through his hair grown past the nape of his neck.

"No. She's turned a new leaf, trying to make amends for the bad blood between us," gripping my waist, he pulls me into his hard, warm body. "But I can never trust her with anything,"

"How did things get so bad between the two of you?" perching my hands on his shoulders, I wrap my fingers around the back of his neck, feeling the tension in his muscles ease from my touch.

"I was six when maa and dad sat me down and told me I would be meeting my little sister soon. I was suspicious because I knew mothers had to grow a baby first and maa was not pregnant, but I didn't ask questions. Dad would bring Natalia home on the weekends, I would play with her, help feed and bathe her. I loved being the older brother," shaking his head, he smiles nostalgically.

"Then her mother started using Natalia against my dad. Everything she demanded my dad had to fulfill. It eventually got to the point where she stopped me and maa from seeing Natalia and dad started to split his time between us and them. My parents would argue almost every day, it got so bad that one night when dad stopped in to see Nat and fell asleep there maa got so pissed that she packed our bags and went to New York to stay with Neal chacha," sitting on the edge of the table, he pulls me between his thighs, wrapping his arms around my hips.

"When dad came to bring us back home that's when I found out the truth. Natalia's mother, Alessandra, was dad's ex-girlfriend from his college days. He was still dating her when he met maa on a trip back to India and basically showed up to Oxford with her as his new girlfriend. Years after my parents got married and dad started the company and yours truly graced the Earth with my presence, he met Alessandra on a business trip to London where she drugged him with GHB and raped him in his hotel room," grimacing, I clutch onto his shoulder.

"Natalia was born nine months later, and the DNA test proved she was my father's, alright. He never pressed charges against Alessandra for the sake of his child, but he used the evidence and reports of the incident against her to gain joint custody of Natalia. Years after my parents died and I was already CEO, Natalia came to Rai Consolidated to stake her claim. With the poison spewed by her mother against me and the family clouding her mind, she tried everything she could to ruin me. False accusations of sexual misconduct, tabloid articles on my promiscuous lifestyle, sabotaging deals with potential business partners, the list goes on,"