Chapter 60 – Xavier
“Can someone pleasetell me what the fuck is going on?” I threw the contract across the table, startling the three managers on the opposite side of my desk. No one had seen me angry, not even when dealing with incompetence. Still, I couldn’t rein it in, no matter how hard I tried. “Who authorized that deal,” I barked.
“It has your signature, sir,” one of them replied.
“Am I blind or fucking old, Chris,” I growled. “You think I don’t know what I signed or didn’t in a company I’ve lived and breathed practically my entire life.”
“No, sir.”
I stood, knuckles pressing into my tabletop. “Then find out who the fuck signed it. Now!” I swiveled away to stare out the window.
I didn’t have to turn to know Juliette stood on the other side of my table. Her rich fragrance wafted in before she did. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a megaphone attached to that mouth of yours.” She’d become a pain in my arse since Mikaela left seven months ago, wanting me to go after her. “Christ, Xavier, you’ve become a sourpuss of note and practically have your employees scared shitless.” Admittedly, she was right. Lately, my mood swings had taken a turn for the worse, and my usual gentlemanly behavior walked out the door with it. Juliette blamed it on me missing Mikaela.
With a long-drawn-out sigh, I turned. “What do you want, Juliette?”
“You won’t listen to me, so I brought reinforcements,” she stated plainly.
I frowned. “Reinforcements?”
She nodded, looking at the door, her smile wide. Saint walked in a second later.
Annoyed with her, I breathed in deeply to hold off my anger. “What did I say about calling him, Juliette?” I grunted. When she wouldn’t stop pissing me off about going to visit Mikaela, she threatened to call Saint a few times. I’d warned her to leave him out of this.
Typically strong-willed, she shrugged. “If you plan to remain a stubborn ox, and I’m failing to help you, then I must resort to these tricks.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I rounded my desk to accept my son’s embrace. “You should’ve ignored this woman’s caterwauling, son.”
Saint chuckled. “You two should’ve just fucked and got it over and done with.”
“See, that’s what I said.” Juliette rolled her eyes and blew me a kiss before walking out.
“How’s Levana?” I asked after we took our seats on the opposite sides of the table. Saint’s silence forced my distracted gaze to meet his, my brow shot up.
He leaned forward in his seat. “Missing someone isn’t about how long since you’ve seen or heard from them, Father, but merely by performing the very act that defined that person’s character.”
Confused, I frowned, and he tipped his chin at my hand. My gaze dropped to the pink ribbon I unconsciously caressed between my thumb and forefinger.
“That’s Mikaela’s,” he said softly.
Wordlessly I nodded. After she left, I’d moped in her room for days. One evening when I had a terrible day, I opened the drawer she’d kept the ribbon in. “This was her most prized possession, and she left it behind with a simple note that said thank you.” It wasn’t the words that got to me, rather the thought behind it. “Although Mikaela could read, she couldn’t write. She got Beth to show her how to write those words.” The childish scrawl had me enthralled for days after then I took to carrying the ribbon around with me. Oddly, it helped keep my sanity in check.
He rubbed his jaw, his expression thoughtful. “Why did you send her away?”
Inhaling deeply, I calmed my soul and kept my smile light, hiding the pain I felt beneath the mask I’d perfected for years. “Because her heart shouldn’t be allowed to settle for her savior just when she’s learned to breathe without restriction.”
