BRING THE CEO DOWN!

5. DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Ara

"You have to come back home for this. You have to deceive Fabian; make him feel that you want the two of you to be together again, like you are willing to make your marriage work, and then you will gather evidence of his crimes; infidelity will even do, all we need is proof that he is cheating on you in court, and we will be able to get the company back," he said and I shook my head. It wouldn't work that way. I already knew that. I was angry with Fabian. I needed him to pay for what he was doing to my father's name. I needed him to pay for all the pain he had caused me for the past few years. Yet I knew how difficult that would be for me and my baby. Could I do it? Could I uproot my life just for revenge? To bring Fabian Lewis to book and make him suffer for destroying my family? I knew the answer immediately after the question was asked. Yes, I would do it; I could and I would. I would do all I can to bring him down, to the justice that I feel he deserved.

“I don’t know Quincy. How would it work? We have a child together. William is here. He would take that up in court and prove we can’t get divorced.” I was grasping at straws at this point. I needed to make the right decision to calm myself at this time. William was in my arms, and it occurred to me that one day my little boy would ask about his dad, and I may have to talk about him with so much hate and anger that I would hate him. I do hate him. My son would grow up knowing that I hated his father. All this hate had to go out somehow; it had to disappear. I knew then that there was no need to be convinced; I would do this and everything more for William. Revenge was the best thing to do. When Fabian has paid for his crimes, then my anger for him will go. My father’s company will be there, and it will go to my son. I didn’t want William to have anything to do with Fabian, but I also wanted him settled, and the company was mine, and my baby deserved to have it. My mind was made up.

“Fabian doesn’t know about the kid, does he? He doesn’t need to know anything; you don’t need to tell him; take the kid anywhere, but just don’t let him see him; problem solved.” If I hadn’t already made up my mind at this point I would have changed it. I absolutely hated the way my brother talked about my child like he was the scum of the earth like he was only Fabian’s son and not his own nephew. It annoyed me so much that I spoke up.

“My son has a name, you know; he is not just the kid!” Quincy sighed at the other end of the phone, and he actually sounded remorseful, which was quite surprising but good.

“I know, I know. It’s not easy. If you were here for longer, and you know the way Fabian is right now, he is much worse than he used to be, and it’s hard to think that my sister is married to him and that my sister has a baby for him. I have never seen your son, but it’s easier to just believe that he doesn’t exist.” Quincy sounded regretful, but I wasn’t having it.

"Well, William does exist, and he didn’t get to choose his father, and if I decide to come back to the States, you will have to see him, so deal with it.” I had already decided I was going. I couldn’t let Fabian get away with everything. Regardless, it felt good to scold my brother.

“So will you? Let’s ruin this motherf*cker’s life, Ara, just the way he tried to ruin ours. An eye for an eye.” I smiled in my house, holding my son and feeling like retribution would be made in the future for Fabian getting married to me, making me feel less of myself, then actually making me fall in love with him, the stupid girl that I was, and then breaking my heart so violently, making me feel very stupid, to just think that we were family. I smiled as I imagined him in court, losing every single thing that he had, crying and begging me. That would suffice. I would feel better after that. It was good enough for me.

“An eye for an eye. Let’s bring the CEO down.” This would be very fun.

After I disconnected the call with my brother, I started cracking my brain, thinking about how it would all work. Where would William stay? What story will I tell Fabian? How would I stomach being with this monster? How long would I have to live with him? How would I gather evidence? Where will I get this evidence from? How will I survive?

I barely made friends since I came to Australia; it was just Nicola and me, and she was just so far away. I only spoke to the moms at Liam’s preschool, and I could barely call Kiara the stay-at-home mom of three. I was thinking about uprooting my life, just to go back home and ruin the life of my husband. She would be like, Don’t you mean ex-husband? and I would be like, No, there was no divorce, but we have been separated for four years, ever since I found myself pregnant with our first child. How awkward that would be! The only people I had to talk to were myself and Tricia. My best friend in the whole wide world was still there, back in New York. When she heard about what Fabian did to me, she wholeheartedly supported me in leaving him. She didn’t like the way I did it, but she was very supportive throughout the process, and now I would have to reach out to her again so she could help me take care of my child.

I panic for all but two minutes about how I am a terrible person who keeps depending on Tricia without having anything to give back. Then I remember Tricia; we have been in constant contact for all these years, and she has always been wanting to see Liam. I need to talk to her, though, about everything. I can ask for her advice even if I have already made my mind up. I will talk to her because she is my friend and always supportive.

I have to wait until later that night to call her when it's early in the morning to call her because of the time difference. She worked as a teacher, so it would be best to call her when it was evening in New York and she was back from work. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t really sit and watch TV with Liam anymore, so we cleaned the house together and started getting ready somewhat. I looked through people that will be willing to buy the properties from me when I leave, or at least someone that I can hire to take care of the houses when I am gone. I do plan to stay in the US after it all blows down. It felt like I ran away from my home just because of Fabian, and I did want to go back home. Luckily enough for me, there was someone that I was sure would be willing to buy most of the property from me. He had been on my neck for several things since I started buying buildings here. I don’t know if Charlie will be able to come up with that amount of money in so little time, and I at least wanted to leave something until when I spoke to Tricia, even if I already did know what I would do. So I waited, let William play in the yard, made a simple dinner of mac and cheese, which my baby loved, and then we played some more before I gave him a bath and tucked him in bed. Then I texted Tricia.

I am thinking of moving back to New York.

The call was almost instant. Tricia was on her phone and called me back.

“Hello Tricia, How are you doing?” I asked as I picked up the phone.

“You are moving back home? Oh, I am so excited; that is great news. You know, Stan and I are getting serious, and I hope that we get married this year. It will be so exciting to have you and William there as we plan it.” Tricia sounded so excited, and I felt guilty; she had been so supportive of me leaving that it didn’t really register how much she would miss me, and here I was, about to tell her that the sole reason I was coming back was not to see my friend that I hadn’t seen in four years, or to even just move back home; it was revenge. I should probably begin by apologizing, but I couldn’t ignore the good news.

“You are Stanley are getting married?” I asked. Stanley, Tricia, and I had gone to school together; only Tricia was on scholarship. They had this sweet high school romance, and now they were getting married.

"Well, he hasn’t actually asked yet, but he is being a little sneaky, and I can tell he has a surprise lined up; his laptop was on the other day, and he was looking at rings online," I screamed out of excitement for my friend.

“I am so happy for you, Tricia; this is great news,” I said.

“Thank you so much. I am so excited and nervous.”

“So tell me, when is this move happening? I get to see William soon, my sweet godson.”

“Well, like in the next few weeks if I can sell out the properties, then I will be home, so as soon as I can.” The minute I said the words, I knew it sounded weird; it would sound very odd to my friend, who had known me all her life.

“In the next few weeks, and you are selling? What is bringing all this on?” She asked, and I sighed. I knew there was no way I could avoid it, and I told her everything from the start.

“Revenge? And because of who? Quincy? This isn’t you, Ara. Quincy doesn’t get to tell you what to do with your life; he doesn’t get to tell you that you need revenge. Have you forgotten who we are talking about here?” Tricia was right. I couldn’t even ignore that. Quincy was very questionable; even if he was my brother, I could clearly see that. But I wasn’t doing this for Quincy; I was doing it for my son and for myself. I just needed Tricia to understand that. This entire conversation just sounded so similar, like it was not just four years ago that I was telling her I was pregnant and I wanted to surprise Fabian, and she was telling me to calm down. This situation was very different; it had to be. And apart from that, I was very happy that I went to that office that day, it was a whole lot of pain, but at least I knew. I wasn’t some dumb wife in the dark anymore, not the way Fabian kept me for the first few months of our marriage.

“I am doing this, Tricia; it is the right thing,” I said. Tricia huffed in the background.

“I just really need you to help me look after William in that time.” William knew Tricia, though there was never a physical meeting, but they always talked on video call. William grew up seeing her face and listening to her voice. Separating from my son will be very hard, but if I at least knew he was in very safe hands, I wouldn’t worry.

“This isn’t right, Ara, but I can’t force you into anything, and I won’t send away my godson.”

“Thank you, thank you.” I knew that Tricia had heavy reservations, but she wouldn’t push, and she was taking William. That was settled. Now to set my house in order.