Divorcing My Hot billionaire

8: Crooked Old Man.

Dorian’s Lawyer was saying something when his cellphone vibrated slightly off the center table before its ringtone burst loudly out of the speakers. He spared it a glance to the side but paused, finding the name that crossed the screen of his phone odd and perplexing.

Mia.

It was both odd and unusual considering the fact that she has never actually called him, save for the multiple text messages she has sent him over the years. It was even more odd now that she wasn’t miles away from him anymore.

Briefly nodding towards the lawyer as an appeal to be excused, he picked up the phone and stood from his seat while his lawyer continued to arrange the papers on the table.

With one hand in his pocket, the other holding up his phone, Dorian turned his back to the room and looked through the glass walls of his office that overlooked the bustling city below. He answered the phone and put it to his ear.

At first, it sounded like Mia didn’t realize he had answered the phone because he could hear whispers from her end that almost sounded like silent prayers to his ears. Maybe they were, he wasn’t sure.

Dorian paused in an attempt to give her time to realize that he had already answered the phone but he soon got irritated by her wasting his time, none of which he had the liberty to let go to waste.

“Do you have something to say to me?” He said flatly after waiting for seconds for her to get whatever s**t she had going on together.

Dorian could have sworn he heard a sharp gasp from her following his question.

He was right.

She didn’t realize he had answered the phone. Typical Mia, he thought.

“Huh…hi.” She breathed.

Mia half sounded like she couldn’t believe that he answered the phone and half sounded like she didn’t remember why she called him in the first place.

“Did you call me to say hi?” Dorian asked, frowning and taking his hand out of his pocket to rub the crease on his forehead. He really didn’t have the time to answer unnecessary calls but he knew Mia and she never did unnecessary things. Why then was she calling?

“What? No…of course not,” The nervousness in her voice was clear and it disturbed Dorian. What was it she wanted?

Was this about their already concluded discussions last night? What else did she have to say about it when he already assumed she was ready to do whatever he asked of her?

“Is this about the divorce papers?” Dorian said, going straight to the point. He has never been one to mince words or cut through corners especially when he knew what he wanted. Most especially when Mia was concerned.

When Mia didn’t answer him immediately, he spoke again.

“The lawyer will have it finalized and sent to you soon.”

His words were followed by silence from her end. Dorian could imagine her nodding to his words from her end of the call without realizing that he wasn’t in front of her but on the phone instead since she always had little to say.

“Huh…okay, sure,” She said but quickly added “I’m sorry for the disturbance.”

The call ended immediately.

Dorian stood, peering down at his phone and wondering if he was too forward with mentioning the divorce papers when she might have wanted to say something else. But then again, since when did he care about the things she had to say?

He shook his head. Her arrival shouldn’t bother him this much when he had imagined everything going smoothly long before he even sent her a text for a divorce.

“Mr king?” The lawyer’s voice called for Dorian and he turned around swiftly, dipping his phone into his pant pockets. The lawyer was already on his feet, suitcase in hand. The table before him had the rest of the papers organized.

“I best be leaving now,” The lawyer stated and Dorian nodded, walking back to the spot he sat with the lawyer earlier.

“Call me when it’s done.” Dorian was referring to the papers being signed but he didn’t have to tell the lawyer what to do. The man, slightly older than Dorian, was Dorian’s most trusted and personal lawyer that no one knew exactly who he was other than the fact that he showed up at the company a few times and left just the same way.

The lawyer nodded in response to Dorian and turned around to walk away while Dorian also attempted to return to his seat. Both men stopped on their tracks when the door opened to reveal an old and all too familiar face.

Dorian’s eyes widened at the unexpected appearance and quickly, he cleared the rest of the documents on the table and put them behind him as he stared straight in front of him.

The old man at the door had yet to pay attention to him or the Lawyer in the room as he was all chatty with a few people at the door of Dorian’s office,smiling appreciatively at the warm welcome he was obviously receiving.

Ass-lickers.

It’s what they were. Kissing up to the old man who rarely showed his face at the company. But it did give him more than enough time to shove the divorce papers underneath the heap of documents already available on his table.

The old man noticed him right about that time and waved the men at the door away, closing the door and assisting himself forward with his walking stick.

“Mr chairman,” Dorian said, bowing forward.

The old man chuckled as he shifted closer, his attention closely pinned on the other man in the room other than the one bowing to welcome him.

“I haven’t seen you around,” the old man said to the lawyer with genuine curiosity marring his features. The lawyer opened his mouth to speak, but it seemed words failed him as he looked over to Dorian for help.

Shit.

Dorian forgot the old man had a memory that was too vivid for his own good. He knew every single face that worked at the King’s Automobiles and was probably a few more years close to knowing every of their names and department.

He was the kind of man who would stop to greet an employee at the grocery store because he simply knew him.

Dorian was quick to move forward. He couldn’t afford having the old man catching on and knowing him, it was only a matter of seconds. And then he would find out about his plans to divorce his wife.

“He isn’t from here,” Dorian said.

The old man looked skeptically at the lawyer who looked like he was about to s**t his pants.

When the old man laughed and patted the lawyer on the shoulder, Dorian knew the worst was over.

“Did I scare you?” The old man asked the lawyer.

“Not in the slightest chance, sir.”

It was a lie. Beads of sweat had already formed on the sides of his face. The lawyer turned to Dorian and nodded his way.

“I’ll leave you two, goodbye sir.”

With that, the lawyer walked out of the office–more like scampered and shut the door after him. Dorian hid a sigh before ushering the old man to a seat.

“Have a seat, Mr chairman.”

“It’s just us here, you don’t have to call me that,” the old man said but still took the seat Dorian offered up to him.

Dorian chose to ignore the words that he has heard countless times–long before he even took control of the family business.

“Coffee?” Dorian asked, moving to ring up his secretary on the telephone. The old man waved to say no and Dorian nodded, returning to a seat beside the old man.

“You know, sometimes it feels like you are punishing me by not calling me grandpa.”

Maybe he was.

Asides the fact that Dorian was usually withdrawn and closed off from the rest of his family and maybe the world at large–he and his grandfather haven’t really had the smoothest of relationships.

Dorian had been his first and only grandson, the future of his company after the death of his own son–Dorian’s father, he was the child who had every tendency to be the favorite with genes of his father that were as if he was reincarnated but Dorian and his grandfather broke all clichés common to families like theirs.

They were not best of friends and they had a lot of experiences in the past years to show for it as reasons.

All the years he spent doing the biddings of his grandfather and things that were for the family and never for himself. All the years he spent studying to take over the multimillionaire Company. All the years he spent locked up in his room. All the years he spent being deprived of the things he really wanted.

None of those years were ever for himself.

But of all the things that made Dorian’s relationship with his grandfather strained, his arranged marriage to a woman his grandfather deemed fit for him topped the list.

It changed everything.

He didn’t detest his grandfather. No. But he wasn’t going to give him the Joy of feeling he had everything in Dorian’s life under control. Not anymore.

And divorcing Mia was only one of the few steps he needed to take to break off the chains.

“I wouldn’t want to get used to calling you that in public, it’s better this way.”

And so, Dorian gave the same excuse he has given all those other countless times. His grandfather didn’t argue and just looked around the office, the one that once belonged to him but that has gone through a major change ever since his grandson became the CEO.

“What have you been up to?”

The old man questioned.

“Nothing,” Dorian replied flatly. Thinking back to it, why was his grandfather there?

“The media has been silent lately,Dorian. It’s unusual.”

That’s because he has kept them silent.

These days, there isn’t such scandalous news about him circulating the internet and the only place his faces have appeared on were business news and business sections of the newspaper.

He kept it that way. But of course, his grandfather would think it was odd that his son wasn’t involved in one scandal or the other. The last thing Dorian wanted was for his grandfather to grow suspicious when he hasn’t even gotten anything started yet. He didn’t trust his grandfather as much as the old man didn’t trust him.

“How is Mia doing?”

Dorian’s gaze shot up to his grandfather. The old man was already looking at him. The switch up in conversation was unexpected.

The subject of Mia’s travel has always been an edgy one for the both of them. Dorian and the old man had argued to no ends when the old man learnt that he sent Mia abroad to study.

“She is my wife now, I decide what I want to do with her!” Dorian had argued.

That day, his grandfather had showed up to his office just like now, to confront him about the decision he made.

“We shall come see you together,” Dorian responded. For as long as he could, he would kiss up to his old man and act like everything is okay with him and Mia. His grandfather nodded.

“Be good to her, Son.”

Was that why he was here? To ask about Mia? Dorian knew his grandfather doted on Mia– in fact every one of his family members loved her to bits but it was confusing that his grandfather came all the way to his office when he could have gone to the Mansion to see Mia instead.

Dorian suspected there was another reason for his presence at the company but he couldn’t quite guess what it was.

The old man stood abruptly from his seat, seemingly ready to leave. Dorian was instantly flooded with relief.

“I shall expect your visit before your grandmother’s birthday party,” The old man said, heading for the door as Dorian followed politely.

“Of course,” Dorian responded and attempted to see his grandfather past the door but the old man held up a hand to stop him.

“You don’t have to.”

His grandfather said, patting him on the shoulders and bobbing his head in approval before walking out the door and shutting it behind him. Even after he left for what seemed like minutes, Dorian still stood by the door like he could see his grandfather back through the wooden door. He handled it pretty well, whatever that was between him and his grandfather just now.

Just when he was about to turn around, the door opened again and Dorian almost second guessed if he had handled it well and his grandfather was back to s**t on him. But it was just his secretary.

“I forwarded a mail to you sir,” the secretary said. Dorian didn’t spare her a glance as he turned around to walk back to his seat in front of the table where his computer laid. He sat and scrolled through the computer with its mouse.

“What mail?” He asked.

“The revised list of the shareholders.” She responded quickly and Dorian snapped his head up at her.

“The shareholders meeting is in a month from now, who dared to revise the list without consulting me?”

His secretary seemed to be caught in a corner, unsure of how to answer his questions.

“Are you just going to stand there and look at me? I asked a question.” Dorian said.

“I thought you knew about it sir.” The secretary was obviously being careful. In situations like this, hierarchies scare ordinary workers and Dorian already had his suspicions but he wasn’t going to base anything on it yet unless he confirmed it.

“The only other person who can revise the list is….”

Dorian stopped talking, his voice trailing off as realization came at him in a flash and in a flash, his fingers were back on the mouse, using it to navigate through the heap of mails on his computer before he finally found the one his secretary forwarded to him.

And then he paused, his fingers stilling on the mouse and his body going rigid as he stared at the computer with wide eyes.Dorian wasn’t sure if time stopped for everyone or it was just him who was thrown into a world where everything seems to be coming apart under him.

The contents of the mail sitting on his table drained the blood from his face and made him as pale as death.

“Mr king? Are you okay?” The concerned voice of his secretary called him out of the sinkhole of emotions he had fallen into upon seeing the mail.

“Leave.” He commanded.

“Sir?”

“Get the hell out!”

The secretary scampered out of the room and Dorian shot up from his seat, the leather recliner suddenly feeling too hot underneath him. Dorian fought himself back into control and when he was finally able to, his hands rushed to dial a number that picked up on the first ring.

“Mr King?” The voice came from the other end of the phone, surprise vividly lacing it.

“Where are you?” Dorian asked, his voice as hard as the expression his face bore.

“I just pulled up in front of your ho—”

“Return. Now.”

“Sir? But I have to serve the divorce papers to your––”

Dorian gripped the edges of his table hard, knuckles paling around the tight grip as he tried to keep himself from cussing out the lawyer.

“You give her those papers and that’s the end of me. Return right now.” He gritted out.

Dorian ended the call and gripped the table even harder as he looked in the direction of the door where his grandfather walked out mere moments ago.

Crooked old man!

Dorian had been wrong all along; divorcing Mia wasn’t the easiest part of his plans. The evidence of that was sitting pretty in his computer.