“My brain’s in such a muddle, I don’t know what to think.” Slowly, I lower my hand and let my head fall back onto the chair. “I miss her,” I say, my voice husky. “I fucking miss her, and I’m furious about it.”
“If you really thought she was manipulating you, you wouldn’t be this wrecked.”
That hits hard. I stare up at the ceiling, trying to think it through. “I’m convinced Tom sent her to soften me up, but she got angry when I implied Tom asked her to seduce me, and that he intends to use the pregnancy to manipulate me. I want to believe her, but she admitted lying to me, so…”
“Isn’t it possible that both things are true?”
I lift my head to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“That she lied about knowing who you were, but that she wasn’t trying to seduce you? And that she was too naïve to realize Tom was hoping she’d soften you up at Blackridge?”
My mouth opens, but no words come out.
“Dude,” he continues, “I think she probably likes you. That’s why she didn’t tell you who she was. And that’s why she didn’t mention the pregnancy at Blackridge. She was afraid you’d assume she’d done it on purpose and walk away.”
Understanding dawns, and gradually the pressure that’s been sitting on my chest lifts. He’s right, I know he is. I was so angry at her grandfather that I couldn’t see it clearly. I was convinced he must have had a hand in our connection, becauseI couldn’t see him passing up an opportunity to interfere. But even though he obviously sent her with me to Blackridge, that was possibly the extent of his influence.
Maddie wouldn’t have seduced me because he asked her to. And she certainly wouldn’t have tried to get pregnant to please him. Now I let myself think that, I’m ashamed it entered my head at all.
“Is she keeping the baby?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah.”
“Does she want you to be involved?”
“No. She told me to pretend I was a sperm donor.”
“Before or after you accused her of seducing you?”
I lean my elbows on the table and cover my face with both hands for a moment. Then, eventually, I lower my hands and get to my feet.
“What are you going to do?” he asks as I go over to the window.
I run a hand through my hair. “I don’t know yet. I need to think. But we do need to talk about the partnership.”
He nods. “Malcolm, Dad, and Aurelia are openly for it. Hemi and Emily are wary. I think they’ll follow your lead, and so will I. I’ll stand by you, whatever you decide. If you vote no, it won’t happen. I’ll understand if you do. It’s just…” He pauses.
“Just what?”
“I completely understand that this is personal for you. But is it the best decision for the company? I’m not trying to sway you either way. But it’s not like you to let your emotions interfere with business. If you were to put them to one side and think purely about what’s being offered… would that change things?”
I look up at the sky, watching the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Once again, he’s right. I’ve let my bitterness and resentment over the way Tom treated me when I was younger overshadow this whole affair. Maddie told me that weneed to forget about us and our family feud. She said,We have to be bigger than that. And she was right.
I turn and look at Marcus. “The thing is… the soil restoration program is revolutionary. Maddie said if we were to integrate her technology into our pasture management system, it could mean a thirty percent increased yield, right across the board. That’s life changing. We really could feed the world with technology like that.”
He sits up and points at me. “I know that look. What are you thinking?”
The idea comes to me like a bolt of lightning. I don’t know why I haven’t thought about it before.
But I do know. My fixation with Tom was standing in the way of being able to see things clearly. Now I’ve removed that barrier, it’s finally let in the light.
My lips slowly curve up. “I’ve got a plan. But I think we need to go and see Dad first.”
*
Thursday, 10 a.m.
Maddie
