The Billionaire Deal

Chapter two

[Christian Castillo]

•

I was seven when I heard good news came just before the stroke of an ill luck. For one, today started pretty well and I could tell when my nephew, Lil Bej—as I called him, who was old enough to use a cellphone—sent me a text with a picture of my profile on NY’s billboard and a cheesy emoji. I wondered why his mother couldn't be as sweet as he was.

I stepped off the treadmill, using the towel to wipe my sweaty face, and stepped into the shower. My phone came on with a notification and a call as soon as I was done with my morning routine, and I stepped out to have breakfast. There was the same lady dressed in a uniform gown by the door, her head bowed slightly to my presence as soon as I bypassed her.

The house was silent as usual and only the shuffling of my workers' feet could be heard at intervals when they were tending to one thing or the other. On some other days, the house was a bit filled with the presence of my best friend and chief of staff of the Castillo's conglomerate who happened to be Ace Cromwell.

“Hi, Nomi, you look good today!” speak of the devil. “Where’s he? Breakfast?” he asked almost immediately as he made his entrance into the grand diner room that had only me sitting inside over a paper and laid out breakfast of pancakes and omelets.

Ace leaned on the doorway, I took a moment to glance at his frame in the brown pleated trousers and a black Cole Buxton sweatshirt which he paired with black boots. He had one hand stuck into his trousers and the other pulling out the earphones that he wore, “I can see you're already stuck with the morning papers.”

I sipped the steaming black coffee that had been placed in front of me, flipping the paper close, “Good morning to you too, Ace.”

“Wassup’ brother.” he raised a hand with a small grin.

“You seem particularly cheerful today.” I noted. In fact, his expression oozed of excitement, I was tempted to ask what the occasion was about.

He dragged himself off the doorframe, ambling closer to me, “You read the CNN business article, right? It wouldn't be so bad if we made our move right now.”

Ah, the stroke of ill-luck.

I couldn’t have agreed more with him until, I had seen the papers and there's the asinine talk of how shrewd our acquisition has been and despite the fact it was not the first time things like that were written about any business person making it in the industry, there was the crafting of words in a way that it'd make some conniving individuals rear their heads up in scrutiny of what attack they had against you.

“Or we could hear what the board has to decide on before we talk about what our next move will be.” Ace pulled out a chair, swiping through his phone as he read out aloud, “Could the acquisition be made capable seemingly for the reasons of Christian Castillo understanding little to nothing about what family heritage means, although that would be hypocritical not after his success as the most deserving CEO of Castillo's—”

“We are going to move as planned, Ace.” I said in a low growl, the coffee suddenly losing its taste in my mouth with every sip. Ordinarily, I was going to let go of whatever the f*****g tabloids wrote, they didn't matter as much as how I operated my life and my business. But today's news was a shitshow. Definitely aimed at throwing spikes at the work I have built from being able to understand the Asian stock markets till now.

“For all we know he could have— wait, what?” Ace arched his eyebrows, “Bro, you just heard me read out what the NY Business Times had published.”

NBT was a freaking media company owned by shithead Darren Walsh, who wouldn't stop poking into what I did with my company, and after consecutively inflicting a crisis in his company, he was coming at me this time with a brazen publication about my personal life.

“He’s seeking attention Ace, since when were you ever bothered about what Darren Walsh and his stupid blog posts wrote?” I was surprised with how cool my tone was as opposed to the seething anger I felt with every word Ace read out of the bloody tabloid.

“Yeah, but objectively speaking, The public is going to care much more about whatever the asshole says. Everyone loves good gossip.”

I got up, taking one sip of my coffee, “We should schedule a meeting with Reyes tonight. The venue is his call.”

“So what are we doing about this news and today's board meeting?”

“Ignore it?” I responded dryly. I was not going to overlook the fucker and his stupid media company. This was his last strike, and I was going to crush everything he was worth as a payback gift.

Ace narrowed his eyes at me just as soon as the valet stepped out of the car for my driver who held the car door open, “I hope we can, bro. Although something tells me a meeting with Reyes isn't something Darren would see coming.”

I twitched my jaws, got into the car, and signaled to the driver, “Move.”

•

I scrolled through my phone, going through the news one last time before I shut it out of sight. My mind reverted to the acquisition, wandering to the events of seven years ago. I thought of her—the girl with perpetual messy brown curls wrapped in an updo and her brown siren eyes pleadingly staring at the documents that lay before her.

I didn't deal with regrets or past actions especially if they led me to achieving whatever I had set out to do. I pushed back the images of her out of my mind. There was no use wondering how different things would have been if we made different decisions years back. I didn't care what had become of her ever since then. I had a f*****g business to run and she could be alive for all I know. Actually, she was. The last time I dug into her life, I knew she was.

My phone chimed in with an email from Ace, “Vespera. 9 pm.”

The car pulled up to the gigantic building, with the name of my company boldly strewn upon it. Employees bowed a little at every turn I made, it was easy to pick them apart except the one woman who had just sauntered past me like a wisp of wind.

I skimmed back for a minuscule only to be met with the back of her neck as she walked out of the building. I felt the familiar presence of someone I thought I knew. Waving the impression off, I took an elevator to my office, settling down just as soon as my secretary came knocking at the door.

“Good morning sir,” she greeted solemnly.

“Tell everyone in the boardroom to proceed without me.”

“I’m afraid that already happened seeing that Shane Castillo is presiding over today's meeting due to the tabloid's latest release which has gotten quite viral since its publication,” she reported.

For fucksake.

I grunted, pinching the bridge of my nose. Turned out that this cleaning up needed more work than I estimated. Good one, Darren Walsh. And what the hell did Shane think she was doing?

“Will that be all?”

“Sure. I'll email the rest of your schedule to you sir.” she finalized, shutting the door behind her as soon as she left.

I tugged at my tie slightly, cursing under my breath as I strode to the board room which was in full swing with Shane Castillo, my sister being the chairperson of whatever this gathering of everyone dropping their opinions on the latest news was about.

I walked into the room and it went pin-drop quiet. Ignoring their silence, I took a seat, flipping through the file placed in front of the desk, “You may continue.”

“Of course, we were doing just that before you walked in.” Shane said, a sly smirk resting on her face, “And since you're here, maybe you will have a few things to say about you making the headlines on the newly acquired asset.”

I gave her a hard stare,“Shane, what exactly are you trying to ask?”

“I am sure you have come across the news that says your accession was illegal and of course, an outright disregard for family-owned enterprises since you don't have a family outside the Castillo's household.”

I felt the muscles in my jaws tick, “Get to the point.”

“Now, literally speaking, the board members and I would of course disregard irrelevant rumors that do not shed a good light on our company,”

“As you should. No?”

“Except that this one was irresistible to ignore knowing that the blogs weren't entirely telling a lie.”

My lips pressed into a thin line as my brows creased into a deep,m frown, “Indulge me, Shane.”

“Given that the conditions of you becoming CEO was a merger and acquisition that came with you being married before you become thirty. I don't see how the latter condition have been met.”

I arched my brows at her, “With the acquisition already concluded, I don't see why we are having this meeting and going around in circles.”

“What Shane is trying to say is,” a timid voice which I recognized as that of Shane's husband, spoke up, “You ought to have had a family of your own by name before the company fully goes under you and coupled with the acquisition stories, it is not exactly projecting well on the company.”

“Good one, Frost.” she flashed him a satisfactory smile.

I gave him a once over, unsurprisingly, Shane was going to drag the poor guy into her power struggle and because he had no say in anything she decided, he was stuck with making sure her senseless points were brought up and many times, disregarded.

“Maybe, if you're that concerned about the portrayal of this company, one of you would have taken steps to debunk every f*****g article that existed in projecting its image. Right?”

“You can be assured we have had that settled, Christian. How about you doing your part?”

“And I presume it has something to do with whatever suggestions you come up with.”

She grinned wildly, “Now that's what we're talking about.” gesturing to the file in front of me, “The board and I agreed that to maintain your position as the CEO, you need to get married in six months. Otherwise, you forfeit the position which you have upheld for the past seven years.”

“This is for the good of the company, sir.” one of the board members chipped in in acknowledgment, “we recognize your hard work but for formalities essence, we think you should be bound by these terms too.”

“And while at it, I'm so sure I am perfectly capable of handling things in the meantime.”

I felt my knuckles squeeze tighter than it ever was since the beginning of this ridiculousness. I didn't work my ass off, burn my bridges and emerge to this point only to be dismissed by a whiff of some stupid tabloid that thinks it could ever subject me to giving up my position in this company.

Shane Castillo had always been the one person I was blatantly aware tried to rip all my hard work into shreds. She was willing to go to any length to make sure she controlled the company. As much as she was one of the largest shareholders of the conglomerate, this was my hard work and I was never going to let it go down the drain all because of some silly news.

I glared icily at Shane, “I believe I have entertained this foolishness for a little too long now, sister. You have had your fun wasting my time and that of every reasonable person seated here. I would call off this ludicrousness now if I were you.”

The air in the room grew a little thicker than it ever was. Shane’s smile had vanished as easily as it appeared on her face when she held my stare.

“You-”

“This meeting is dismissed and of course, I'll pretend we never sat through this ridiculousness, not to talk of entertaining it.” I cut

her off abruptly as I walked out, putting a call across to my personal assistant, “Call Reyes, tell him to meet me now.”