“Are you sure that grandfather has enough evidence to make sure that you stay as the heir?” Ophelia asked. Since they got the memo that the shareholders meeting was going to be held, she had been worried about it and biting the insides of her cheeks. No matter how much Cade had told her not to worry, she could not help but worry.
“I am sure that we have nothing to worry about,” Cade said, holding her hand and rubbing his finger against it. “Can you stop worrying about it already?” he said.
“How can I not worry? See how much we have had to face in just a few days,” she muttered as he bent her head.
“With the way you are worrying, I would have thought that you were with me for my money,” he said in a teasing tone. “It seems like you do not want me to go broke; are you going to leave me if I go broke?” he asked, and she raised her head slowly. He could tell from her expression that she knew that he was teasing her, but she did not like the sound of it.
“I might leave you,” she said, a serious expression on her face that sent shivers down his spine.
“Are you being serious now?” he asked, and she nodded.
“So make sure that you win today,” she said, taking a deep breath. She was not going to leave him; there was no way he would ever go broke; he was smart, and if he got ousted by the family, he could start his business. With the connections he had gathered through the years, his business would be up and running in no time. If he never started a business and were to just live on the returns of his shares all over the place, he could still live a pretty decent life, and she was already making enough to keep them comfortable, but she knew how hard he had worked to come to this point; she did not want those years of self-denial for everything to suddenly seem like a waste.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said in a stern voice as he mimicked a salute.
LATER
Carter thought that his eyes were deceiving him when he saw Marie walk in behind Charles. What was his wife, whom he had thrown out years ago, doing there? He had not heard a word about her since she left. How was it possible that she appeared years later and looked so good? What was she doing with Charles was an even more important question. He wanted to stand up, but the meeting was in progress, and he did not want to make a scene. He did not deserve to make a scene.
When his assistant had brought him evidence that his wife was cheating on him, why did he believe her? Why did he not listen to what his wife had to say? It was after losing her that he realized that his assistant was just trying to take his wife off so she could fill that position; by the time he discovered it was already too late for him to redeem himself, and no matter how much he searched for her, nothing seemed to turn up. After a while, he stopped looking because he did not know what he was going to say when he saw her. His believing the lies of his assistant over the word of the wife was looking bad, so he just let it.
“I told you that Garrett had a plan,” Cade said as they stood up after the meeting. They did not need to fight dirty as they expected; the notion that Abigail had raised was dismissed because two of the highest shareholders bid against it.
Cade had always wondered who the highest shareholder aside from his grandfather was, and today he was going to get the opportunity to meet him. “I wonder who she is,” Cade murmured, pointing to her.
Ophelia had been staring at her since she was sure that was the face of her mother that she remembered from her childhood, but her mind had refused to accept that it was possible. She was a hundred percent convinced that her mother was dead; if she were alive, she would have found a way to search her out.
“She is my mom,” Ophelia said, not peeling her eyes away from the woman.
“What?” Cade said he was caught by surprise. His ears must be deceiving him; how could she be her mom? Her mom was nowhere to be found. How could her mom be the second biggest shareholder? How could her mom appear here after all these years? What was the relationship between her mom and his grandfather? “You must be mistaken,” Cade said in a dismissive tone.
“I am not,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Shall we go ask her?” Ophelia began walking towards Charles and Marie, who stood in front of the stage talking. With each step Ophelia took, she could not imagine what her life was; her mother was alive, and she even looked so good, yet she spent her life suffering and thinking about her. Why was she smiling from ear to ear? Why did she look so good? Why was she alive?
The thoughts she was not supposed to think plagued her mind; she hated herself for thinking such, but they were the only questions that made any kind of sense in that situation. If she had turned up dead in this situation, she would have felt a bit better about herself. Before she could get to Marie and Charles, her father was standing there.
“Marie?” he let out.
She turned gently to him, and as if nothing had happened, she gave him a brief nod and then turned back to Charles. “Why don’t I head back out?” she asked.
“What are you doing here?”
“See you for dinner tonight,” she said to Charles instead. She had no business with Carter; he was dead to her. She turned, and right there her daughter stood with her eyes wide at her and her hands to her mouth.
“Mom?”