The Billionaire I Hated

CHAPTER FOUR: UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Daphne rarely slept that night. The memories of the past kept haunting her. The sound of Liam’s laughter when she said something funny or when she was being teased by him. By the time she realized, it was already dawn so she got up when to their home gym and did a little workout before fleshing up. When she finished it was already six in the morning so she sat at her desk and reviewed some documents until breakfast with her family.

Whiles she was working on her MacBook Pro, she got an email notification from William and she wasn’t surprised at all.

Subject: Project Coordination

From: William Carter

Good morning, Miss Lancaster. Let’s schedule a follow-up meeting to finalized on the proposal before the meeting with the investor. Your personal input will be really appreciated.

Her jaw tightened. Personal input. He knew exactly what he has to do to get her worked up. Fine. Two could play that game.

She replied instantly:

Noted. Claire will confirm the timing. Please direct all future correspondence through her. She pressed send before she could second-guess the sharpness of her tone.

William read her response with a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. She knew Daphne to well and her controlled and sharp tone, didn’t surprise him a bit. The same Daphne he’d always admired, strong enough to act indifferent while her pulse gave her away. He leaned back in his chair, fingers tapping his office desk. Patience. That was the key. He’d already instructed his assistant to route all future meetings directly through Daphne’s schedule. If she thought she could hide behind Claire forever, she was mistaken. He didn’t want to trap her; he just wanted proximity. Enough time for her to remember what they once were and what they could still be.

William and his team were already seated when Claire and other members of their team entered with her. He wanted to ask the whereabout of Daphne but he kept his cool and waited until they all got seated. The meeting was to start in 10 minutes but Daphne had still not arrived so he asked Claire and she told him that Daphne had an emergency while remembering what went transpired between them this morning.

She had called Daphne to ask her if she was ready for the meeting “we are supposed to be there in an hour time.

‘Don’t tell me you’re backing out. “She continued when there was no answer from Daph’s side.

“I’m not backing out,” Daphne said tightly, even though she was. “I just need to finish some paper work. Moreover, you would be the one to take ninety percent of the decision”

Claire sighed. “Daph, it’s a business meeting, you can’t back out because of personal reasons.”

“I am not backing,” Daphne snapped. “There is a lot to be done and you didn’t even tell me when this partnership was agreed on”

“Because I knew you would object but this is very important for your business” Claire replied calmly. “You don’t have to like him; you just have to show up.”

But she couldn’t, not yet. Her heart wanted to betray her when she saw him but she had to bury that feeling before it resurfaces fully because the only thing that was important to her right now is her business. The way his smile made her feel butterflies in her chest, the way his voice had a soothing effect. Ten years should have been enough time to forget, but it wasn’t.

“I’ll read the minutes later,” she said finally, and hung up before Claire could argue.

He’d expected her absence. He knew her well enough to know she could miss the meeting to avoid him. She always avoided things she couldn’t control until she had full control or had her emotions in check. He respected that about her. She most of the times didn’t rush in anything, she would rationalize everything before she did it.

“Miss Lancaster couldn’t make it?” he asked rhetorically.

Claire cleared her throat. William leaned back in his chair, keeping his tone professional. “No problem. We’ll move forward with the preliminary phase. Make sure she reviews the proposal personally; I’d prefer her signature before we proceed.”

Claire nodded but avoided his eyes. She knew exactly what he was doing making himself unavoidable.

After the meeting, Claire sent Daphne the summary file. A few hours later, Daphne opened it, her fingers tightening around the mouse as she saw his comments in the margins. Every page had a comment written by Williams. He was very good with details.

At the last page of the document, he’d written:

Would appreciate your feedback in person. — W.C.

She groaned aloud. “Of course you would.”

Claire appeared at her office door not long after.

“He’s not trying to torture you, you know,” Claire said softly. “He’s trying to make this work.”

Daphne arched an eyebrow. “It looks exactly the opposite.’

That evening, Daphne left the office late to prevent mind to drift to unnecessary memories. It had also started raining so he to rush home before it got worse. She had to stop her due to traffic and she wondered what William was doing at the moment. She hated it.

She got a text message and wondered why Claire was texting her this late because she was the only person that would text her this late. Her brows unconsciously creased when she saw who sent her the text.

You couldn’t make it to today’s meeting. Hope you’re well. — W.C.

She rolled her eyes as she felt herself blushing involuntarily.

Of course he noticed. Of course he reached out.

Busy day. I’ll review the documents and give you feed back tomorrow; she typed back. She didn’t want to make it an everyday thing so she deleted it and couldn’t bring herself to block his number as she had initially planned.

In his office, William’s phone stayed dark after he sent the message. No reply, as expected. He walked toward the window, looking out at the city as it rained. He could see her apartment block in a distance, Lancaster Holdings. He didn’t need to chase her. He just needed to keep showing up until she trusted him again.