Debt of Desire

Chapter Four

Corvin’s POV

I had learned a valuable lesson very early in life. And that had been to never give people the impression there were no consequences of their actions. I learned that whenever a person knew they could get away with something, nothing stopped them from doing it.

Situations like this one have happened several times over the years, and yet this one seems to matter more to me. I was confused as to why.

I was currently sitting in the boardroom watching the shareholders tear into Andrea. They didn’t give a s**t whether her father had died. They just wanted to take what would be left of the company since he was dead.

“I hold a fifteen percent stake here, and I expect to get a return by month’s end.”

“Is this the person that’s supposed to run this place and make it better? How laughable.”

“Fredrick was a shrewd man. Apparently those genes had not been passed down to his daughter.”

Andrea simply sat there, unable to utter a word. She had been abstract and unable to function after hearing about her father’s death. It had rattled her deeply.

“With Fredrick gone, we clearly need a new chairman. The daughter may hold a twenty percent stake, but as she is, she’s unfit to be chairman. Thompson, on the other hand, also has a twenty percent stake and should be the next chairman.” Alfred Butler, one of the shareholders said.

“We disagree on many things, but this is one thing we have to agree on. The daughter is clearly unfit to run anything. Things should be handed over to Thompson as to such a time when the daughter is ready to handle the organization,” another shareholder said.

“Looking at her, that’s probably never going to happen. She may as well sell her shares and be done with the firm.”

On the drive back home, Andrea was silent as she stared out the window of the limousine saying nothing.

I felt sorry for her when I saw the way the shareholders ripped her apart and elected a new chairman there, disregarding her and her vote entirely.

“You can’t let them treat you like that, Andrea. Your father would have wanted you to fight,” I said, breaking the ice.

“Well, that’s too bad. Lucky for me, he won’t be here to watch me become a disappointment to him, because he’s dead.” She responded flatly.

“Don’t you care that your heritage is being stolen away from you?”

“f**k it and f**k them. They can have it if they want it so badly. I don’t mind selling my shares for a couple of hundred grand, and starting up with it once I'm free from you.”

I looked at her for a long while and said nothing. She was in no condition to make decisions that would affect her future.

While in my den trying to organize some papers, Andrea kept popping into my mind, and all I could see was her crying. That was most likely the situation, considering that was all she did recently.

When I realized I wouldn’t be able to get any work done with her in my mind, I decided to check in on her.

As expected, she was crying. I could hear it from outside her bedroom door.

I knocked.

“f**k off.” She yelled from inside.

“Andrea, we have to talk,” I said from outside.

“Like I said before, f**k off.”

Normally, I wouldn’t take this much disrespect and I didn’t know what was making me do so much for this particular girl, but I just couldn’t walk away from her. She needed someone by her side.

“Andrea, can I come in?”

“Do whatever you f*****g want. It’s your house.”

I opened the door and stepped inside. There were several rolled up tissues on the ground. She had been crying for a good long while.

I sat down next to her on her bed.

There was a long awkward silence that settled between us, and I began to regret coming here.

“What are you going to do about the shareholders?” I started.

“Like I said before, f**k them, and f**k the company. Nothing else matters with my father gone.”

“But you can help preserve his memory. He built that firm from nothing. He made it what it is today, and he wouldn’t want it to die out just because his daughter chose not to fight for it.”

“And what am I supposed to do? I don’t have the resources to fight them. I have no money, considering if I did I wouldn’t be here, and I don’t even have enough stakes in the company to compete for CEO. It doesn’t matter anymore. The company died with Dad.”

“It doesn’t have to. I hold a five percent stake there, and we can do something with our combined shares. I could move to buy more shares and make it so that you become CEO. As is rightfully yours.”

She turned to look at me. My breath caught in my throat. Could it be that I was nervous?

“Why are you doing this?” She asked, clearly wary of my reasons.

I stared at her for a long while and I couldn’t place my finger on the exact reason I was going out of my way to help her.

“You just remind me of someone,” I said, and got up.

She grabbed my hand as I walked toward the door.

“Corvin…” she paused. “Thank you.”

My heart began to beat even faster. What the hell was happening to me?

“I haven’t actually done anything. Thank me when we have something tangible,” I said, and walked out.

I leaned against the wall taking deep breaths. What the hell was happening? I stumbled back downstairs, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

It had been years since I last felt like that. I tried remembering the last time I had felt like that, and it came to me.

The last time a woman had made me feel that way was when Derek’s mother was still alive.