“Check your email,” I tell him.
There’s a pause on the other end. But then I hear another intake of breath and assume he’s looking at the details I’ve sent him.
“It seems like you’ve forgotten, in that delusion of yours, but I have access to every single Mather & Wilde document from when you were the CEO. Your financial record isn’t exactly… clean, now, is it?”
He’s breathing fast on the phone. “Her shares are still not hers. The will saysmarry the love of your life. I married my lovely ex-wife to get my shares; my brother did the same.”
“That clause in the will is paper-thin and you know it.”
His voice turns low. “Paige never understood what it cost to lead. The expectations and the pressure to carry on something greater than yourself. I couldn’t let it fail. That’s why I kept expanding. Itcouldn’tfail.”
“Ben, let me level with you. There’s so much I could do to make you look like the most incompetent man that’s ever lived. You will never work again. You won’t be given a seat on any board. Your name will be completely persona non grata in the fashion space. You know I can do that. I know everyone and everyone knows me. Whatever friends you think you have, they will turn on you the second I put the full force of Maison Valmont into this.”
He’s quiet on the other end of the line, but I know he’s listening to every single word.
“You built your reputation and family on a legacy, but I’ll make sure everyone knows what kind of man you are,” I say. “Your poorly thought-out, misogynistic power play against a young woman… How about we let the world judge who really failed the company: you or Paige, hmm? I’ll take my chances,” I say.
“You wouldn’t,” he says. “You care about your reputation.”
Another day, maybe. In a lifetime before Paige danced into my life, with sparkling eyes and a quick mouth. But there are bigger things to care about now.
But not for Ben. He only has his reputation left. It’s the last thing he clings to.
“I don’t. I care about Paige.”
“She’smyniece,” Ben says.
“No. She’smywife,” I snarl back, “and you’ve forfeited the right to call her family. You will never contact her again unless she reaches out. Ben, I always win. You know this. That’s why you fought me for so long. But you have no cards left to play, and I hold them all. Give up before you lose the little you have left.”
“Fuck you,” he mutters. But it’s weak, and it’s shaky, and I can taste victory.
“That’s not what I want to hear.”
“Fine,” he says, “fine, you win. I understand.”
“Good. Now I’m going to distribute these documents to the rest of my team with explicit instructions to make all this public if you ever raise a finger again.”
“I understand,” he grinds out. “I pity my niece, you know, if she has to spend every day with you.”
“Aw, acting like you care? How sweet. Goodbye, Ben. We’ll never talk again.”
“No, I don’t expect we will,” he mutters.
The phone line goes quiet. I lean back in the chair and take a few deep breaths. Fuck. He said it to wind me up, but it still gets me.I pity my niece if she has to spend every day with you.
The only thing I can think of is Paige. Of her face earlier. She looked so devastated.
This should get him off her back. But it’s not enough to fight against the ghost in the room, the guilt between my ribs.
I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want her love.
And there’s no way I deserve it.
All she ever wanted was to save her company. She never wanted to marry me, and she never wanted to be in the news. She never wanted any of this.
And she’s only a target because of me.
My father and I drove a wedge into her and Ben’s relationship by slowly acquiring all those Mather & Wilde shares over the years. The hammer I struck when I exercised those rights a few weeks after finding out about Ben and my sister.
