I'm angry with Evelyn for taking Jackson's side over mine, but only a dick wouldn't understand the position he was putting her in. And for every night I spend alone... every call or text that goes unanswered by my wife, Jackson will pay.
And he'll pay handsomely.
I have my people dig up every secret, skeleton, and the tiniest morsel of information about Jackson they can find. Then I set my plan in motion. Putting pieces of my revenge in place until I'm ready to pull the rug up from underneath him. While doing everything in my power to get Evelyn to talk to me.
I've sent flowers.
I've sent gifts.
I've even gone as far as to pay off all her family's debt.
Everyone but Mary. Hoping they'll pressure her into speaking to me again. Or realizing she would be stupid to walk away from me. But my efforts are futile, and her silence is killing me.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, I go back to my old tactics of showing up wherever she is. But her new security detail is more than efficient.
They block me at every turn.
Successfully keeping me from my own wife.
With that avenue being a dead end, I turn up the heat on Jackson. My despair would be his until he sought to end it. Releasing Evelyn from whatever hold he has on her. And it isn't long before security in my office building informs me that my wife is on her way up to speak to me.
I haven't seen her in weeks, and just the thought of seeing her again has me thickening in my knickers.
It's been way too long.
Sitting behind my desk, I wait for her to arrive. Hearing the footfalls of her delicate feet outside my office mere moments before the door swings open and her furious gaze meets mine.
"Ello love." I drag my eyes down every inch of her body from head to toe.
She looks ravishing.
"Why?" She asks me. Her angry eyes doing nothing to calm the swelling in my trousers. If anything, it bolsters it.
"Why what?"
"You purchased Jackson's family's company out from under them!" She shouts. Though I can't tell if she's angry with me or reacting to something Jackson may have said or done once he realized it was me. Then she softens her expression and adds with more despair in her voice and eyes than I can bear to handle, "He's threatening to take my son from me if you don't fix this, Alex."
Ah... so, the latter.
Those thirteen words wipe the smile clean off my face. Replacing it with a burning rage that Jackson would have the balls to threaten her instead of coming to me like a man.
"How? He won't have a pot to piss in when I'm done with him."
"What?" She recoils. "No. Alexander please just leave it alone."
"I'll handle it." I assure her.
"No." Her words are final. "What you need to do is let me handle it and stop trying to destroy him."
"And let that wanker win?" I balk. "By the time I'm done with the Hewitt's, they'll all be bankrupt."
"This is exactly why I have to hold you at arm's length," she sighs. "Is that what you want?"
"What I want is your naked body gracing my silk sheets."
Evelyn turns beat red and completely ignores my comment. She looks down at her fidgeting fingers, unable to entertain my words because Jackson has her backed into a corner.
"Yeah, well... that's the last time that's ever going to happen."
"Fuck you." I regurgitate the words she said to me the first night we slept together. Because I'll be damned if I allow her ex-husband to ruin this for me.
"Excuse me?" Her brow scrunches together in both confusion and offense.
Closing the distance between us, I'm determined to shatter this wall she's put up between us.
"I said Fuck. You."
"I'm leaving." She turns to leave. But I grab her by the wrist to stop her. Determined to make her sit here and listen to me until she gets her head on straight.
"You're not leaving. You're going to stand here and listen to what I have to say until I'm done speaking my peace." I instruct.
Her mouth opens like she's going to protest, but when I quirk my brow at her, as if to say, 'try me', she snaps her mouth shut again. Folding her arms across her chest.
"First off, you pushing me away has fuck all to do with you not wanting this," I motion between the two of us, "and everything to do with that wanker of an ex-husband of yours coming between us." I call her on the lie. "Let's really get to the heart of the matter. Shall we?"
"Elijah is the heart of the matter." She argues.
"Bullocks."
Frowning, she sasses me, "I'm not British. What the hell does that mean?"
"It means bullshit, as you Americans so bluntly put it. You and I both know the reason you're keeping your distance is because that wanker of an ex-husband of yours is using your son like a chess piece." I rip the Band-Aid off the gaping wound I know her relationship with Jackson has inflicted upon her. "You're out of his league, and you always have been. Now that he sees you've moved on to bigger and better things, he's intimidated by the potential of your happiness without him."
Evelyn turns away from me, shaking her head. But I won't back down from this. She needs to hear this.
"You know I'm right."
"It doesn't matter." She replies.
"Of course, it matters." I sigh. "It matters to me. I feel alive for the first time since Stephanie died and I'll be damned if I let you go that easily."
Nor will I listen to another minute of her singing his praises when he doesn't deserve them.
"Will you please just... fix this. Sell his family back their company." She clenches her eyes shut and sighs.
It pains me that he's laying this at her feet instead of facing me like a man.
"I told you... I'm in the business of hostile takeovers. G Technologies included. It's nothing personal... it's just business. But if Jackson or his family ever threatens you again, I will make it personal. And you can tell them I said that."
Evelyn's pleading eyes meet mine. Her stress on display for the world to see, and I hate that her ex-husband and her family has her wound up like this.
"This is my son we're talking about."
"And I would never do anything to hurt that relationship. You have my word."
"But you are."
I'm never going to reach her like this. Not with her wound up so tight. So, I take her by the hands. Pulling her into my arms, and she melts into me. Exhaling a shaky breath before pulling fresh air into her lungs.
"I'm sorry my business dealings and our arrangement have affected your relationship with your ex-husband negatively, creating this hardship." I tell her. "But business is business."
She pulls away to glare at me. Her resolve having returned with a little something extra that feels dangerous. She blames me for what's happening with Elijah instead of Jackson, and I refuse to allow her to lay that grenade at my feet.
"I want this fixed... now." She wipes her tears away. "Especially considering I wouldn't even be in this mess if it was for your pissing contest with Jackson. You owe me."
And her commanding tone elicits a rise out of me.
I can't seem to stay flaccid near her.
Seizing the moment, I press my lips to hers. Savoring the feel of her soft lips against mine before she breaks away from me. Shaking her head.
"Don't." She heads for the door. Not even bothering to look back. Then she disappears from my sight.
Normally I would go after her, but I have a meeting in five minutes that I can't push off. I do, however, dial Benji the moment she's gone. And he picks up on the second ring.
"Yes, boss."
"Evelyn's ex-husband is threatening to take her son from her if I don't sell him back his family's company. I need it handled." I tell him.
"The custody issue or the ex-husband issue?" He seeks clarification.
"Both."
The door to my office swings open, and I'm surprised to see Evelyn's sister Mary walk in. Hanging up the phone with Benji, I cross the room to greet her, and she blushes.
"I have a meeting in less than five minutes. This better be important, and I'd caution you not to utter your husband's name in my presence."
"I'll make it simple for you then." She puts an extra twist in her hips as she saunters over to one of the chairs in front of my desk. "I can give you everything you need to ensure Evelyn keeps her bastard."
"In exchange for what?" I ask. Wincing at the derogatory term she uses to describe Elijah.
What's in it for her?
"A controlling portion of Hewitt Corp."
Bloody hell.
Who needs enemies when you have a wife like Mary who will sell you down the river?
"Does Jackson know you're here?"
"No. And I'd like to keep it that way." She flashes me a cat-like smile.
Evelyn's sister Mary is every bit the shark her reputation in the courtroom leads you to believe she is.
"Why should I even consider such an offer?"
"Because it will keep Jackson focused on me and not Evelyn." Her smile deepens. "That's what you want... isn't it?"
So that's her angle.
"I'm not worried about Jackson's obsession with Evelyn. I have my own ways of dealing with blokes like him."
"Well, you should be." Mary snaps. "What if they're still in love with each other."
"They have a child together, which means they must co-parent and try not to kill each other." I point out. "It doesn't necessarily mean they're still in love. But I'll tell you what... if you can find a way to ensure your sister gets primary custody of Elijah, I will grant your request and sell three percent of the company back to you. At a hefty price, of course."
"How hefty of a price?"
"For having called Elijah a bastard–which, by the way, never refer to him like that again–I was thinking a little something like this."
Writing a number down on a piece of paper, I fold it and slide it over to her.
Mary grins wide, and quickly reaches out to shake my hand. "Deal."
She tosses an envelope down in front of me, not bothering to explain what's inside, before disappearing as quickly as she came. And inside the envelope is some dirt on every member of the Hewitt family. Including a police report regarding a statutory rape charge against Jackson that his family and their money had swept under the rug about a year before he married Evelyn.
And I know the alleged victim very well.