4: Truth as it is

"There's this place in me where your and your whispers softly echo. It's the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me." 

~Gretchen Kemp

The dinner date with Felix Zain was good, even better than I expected, considering my business relationship with older men has not been too well. Some men tend to always underestimate a woman in power, they always see you as incapable or someone they can subdue and over the past years, I've put those men in their place. I do not have any pleasure working with men like Adeyemi, but if I hope to expand and make the lives of my employees better, I have no choice but to stoop down to his filth level.

Before Lucas died two years ago, he divided his inheritance and in the will it was stipulated that they report back to me with twenty per cent income of their monthly report which then I felt was too easy considering the company they were both handling although small could bring for forty per cent profit with the right amount of work and dedication, I guess Lucas knows his sons better and knows twenty per cent would be hell for them. So for the past two years, I handle Lucas' five companies all over the world while Jacob and Alvin have two to run.

Lucas also gave me a goal. I have to hundred per cent profit on the five companies he's handed to be in my care, twenty per cent for each which should have been easy, but being a little girl, the wife of an old man and still being seen as his killer, I can hardly have a business discussion without having them treat me like an object good for nothing but sex or a bad thing they don't want to associate with. Alvin and Jacob are not helping either as they continuously keep spreading negative rumours about me to all my client in hopes to frustrate me.

I am so not the bad guy they think I am, but I might as well become one now and so the client I can't convince to come on board, I seduce into coming on board.

Felix Zain seems to be one of the reasonable ones yet and we've been able to reach an agreement soothing to the both of us.

The fund raising is in three hour and thirties minutes and I can do this. I pick my bag and then sketch file and get out of the car before walking into Caleb Mickelson's company building. I entered the elevator and make my way to the fifth floor and as I step out, I approach the secretary seated at the side of the room close to what I can tell is the office door. He's in a white long sleeve and a purple tie as well as an inner purple jacket.

The young man with adorable brown eyes and pouty lips, who's probably in his mid-twenties looks up at me and warmly smiles. "What may I do for you?" He asks with a little taint South African accent.

I glace over his desk and I see Evan Smith, "I'm here to see Caleb Mickelson, is he in?"

"Yes, but he's busy at the moment, but I'll call him and tell him someone is here to see him," he licks up his desk phone, "Who should I tell him you are again?"

"I'm Alexander Paige Black, tell him we met at the Von Quaint hotel yesterday," I say before stepping back and waiting patiently.

"Sir, a young lady is waiting to see you, she goes by the name Alexander Paige?"

He goes silent as he listens to what Caleb tells him carefully with a paused lips and then a small smile flashed over his face before he quickly brushes it away. He nods before saying, "Okay Sir, I'll do just that."

He drops the phone and stares at me, a wide smile appearing on his face. "He said you can come in."

"Oh thank you, Evan," I say, walking past him and smiling as I see the surprise on his face from the corner of my eyes.

I open the door and step into the office and I see Caleb in a black suit, looking much better than the man I'd run into yesterday. His hair is in a very low cut and his brown-grey beards looking way too good for his age. He gets up immediately he sees me and offers me a seat which I immediately take and find myself sitting down.

"To be honest, I never thought you'd show up." He admits looking a little impressed he places his hands on the book on his see-through glass desk.

I smirk at that, "What can I say? I'm a woman of my word."

He suddenly becoming all too formal as he asks. "So do you have it?"

"Do you have the paperwork?" I ask as I place the file on my lap protectively.

His eyes dim as he stares at me and I don't let him make me feel uncomfortable because I stare back at him until he averts his eyes and chuckles, "You're a smart woman. Too smart for your own good, but I am a man of my word as well and I had the paperwork ready yesterday." He picks the file having a lot of papers in it up from the side of his desk and places it in front of me. "Here's everything regarding the company, it has not officially been opened, so you will have the honours of doing it." He hands me the paperwork and I collect it before handing him the sketch file.

He opens the file and I speak, "They are two actually, but both are like him. The sketch artist was a terrible one, but good thing is, I can identify him still and you can with the first one sketch," I point to the one in his left hand as I explain further, "but his jawline and neck is the second one though. I'm pretty sure I'll see him again, the world is not that big enough, surely I'll find him."

"Good 'cause this isn't worth shit!" He says, tossing the file on the table and his hand hits a box at the side of the table and the box falls off the table to my side, under the table and I quickly reach down and pick it up, and looking up at the transparent desk in front of him, I pause when I see pictures probably turned upside down so no one will see and it's a picture of Caleb and another young male, holding hands and smiling sweetly at themselves and he looks so familiar that I'm pretty sure I've seen that face somewhere not too long ago and my brain begins to wander off, but not wanting to cause any more suspicion on his part, I get up and bring the box back onto the desk as it used to be.

"So what do I owe you for this?" I ask gesturing to the deeds of the company now in my hand.

"Five million 'cause I like you and I think you are capable of handling this." He says, patting me on the back with his words and for a reason, it feels weird.

I get up and stretch my hand to him which he takes and shakes, "I'll go over the paperwork and we will begin work as soon as possible, thank you

I turn to him with a smile, but it dies off when I see him. He's the young man holding hands with Caleb and smiling at him in the picture on Caleb's table. It's Evan, but what is he to Caleb though? Evan doesn't strike me as a homewrecker, the stranger I saw yesterday, however, did at first sight. But he can't be his lost son 'cause they do not look like him in any way so there's only one last option, he is Caleb's lover.

"Is something wrong?" Evan asks carefully and I snap out of my thought to look at him again, "it looks like you've seen a ghost."

I've seen something I wish I didn't see though.

I laugh and shake it away, "No don't mind me, just remembered something I needed to do. Have a nice day too Evan and always keep that charming smile on your face."

To that he smiles even more and nods, "I'll try."

I make my way into of the building and into my car, and I try to keep a clear head and focus, but it seems so hard to do and I feel like I need to tell someone and let it off my chest.

Caleb Mickelson is one of the most respected family men in the state if not all the country and his reputation has never been tainted or pulled into the mud and seeing him yesterday and hearing him talk about how he worked hard to keep his wife happy might make one sympathize and take his side, but like there say, there's always two or even three sides to every sob story.

I heave a very deep breath, I am not going to get myself involved in that shit, even try to figure it out or jump into conclusion because that would just complicate things for me since Caleb and I are now connected through business. I'm going to hands these documents to my lawyers and have them tell me if this is a clean and legit business to go into and how much profit this new company can bring to the table.

.

"Is Julian in?" I ask, getting down from my car and approaching Maggi, my lawyer's intern who is probably out getting lunch.

Julian Castillo as the name goes has proven once again that your family name does not make you and that you can be just as good as the name goes, He owns his own law firm in three cities and he has never lost a case in court before and neither has any lawyer in his firm. He's so good that if he were to defend a killer caught in the act, then definitely the killer will be set free.

His problem, however, is he's never been one to keep his personal relationship separated from his business relationship. Has he made advances at me before? The answer is yes, but I turned him down, he had everything I wanted in a man and he had good looks to go with it, but Lucas just died and my whole world was shaking and I needed a lawyer much more than I needed a lover. He does that still as in the past he's let his personal life get so into him that he almost lost a case in court because wasn't focus, I know cause he told me.

She abandons her money in the hand of the man selling the hamburger and falls in step behind me, doubling her pace just to keep in step with me. "Yes, he told me that he's been trying to reach you since morning, but your number was unreachable." She replies with her polished London accent.

Maggi Ian is a twenty-something year old lawyer working as an intern for Julian and though he's got a lot of them, she is his favourite because she's just as smart as she is beautiful with her short, curly blonde hair just like mine, blue eyes and a full rose-red lips and coupled with this she has a high neck to support all her excellent features. Her curvy body too as an addition to her flawless features and makes her stand out in the crowd.

I nod in agreement, "Yes, my phone fell and broke yesterday and I've not gotten around getting a new one yet, maybe I'll use his for now; is he busy?"

"Yes he's a li-little occup-occupied," she stutters before clearing up her throat and going formal again "but he'll clear it all for you."

I chuckle, a little impressed with her effort to make me feel happy, "He knows I know what I bring to the table." and I'm glad she does too. He's one of the few reasons I'm where I am today and I'm not going to brag or ever admit it in his presence, but he's fucking good at what he does and he's so hot when he tears people down in court. "How's the case he was handling last week that he had to put me on hold for one fucking hour when I called him?"

"He was having an issue with his girlfriend, but that's under control now." Comes her answer in a voice so low I can barely hear her.

I roll my eyes, so typical of Julian Castillo. "Well, I'm glad that it's under control now, nothing should get in front of those dedicated to their work."

"Have you ever been in love, Ms Paige?" She suddenly blurts out, a little too curious for her own good.

I turn to her with a frown as I pause in my movement, "Do you ever pray to one day get stabbed in the neck?"

Her eyes widen as fear registered in them and her right hand quickly find its way up to her neck as though she'd already felt the pain. "No."

I smugly smile at her before getting into the elevator. "Well, there is your answer."

I enter into Julian's office and he's attention is completely on the file in front of him, on the desk that he doesn't even notice that we are already in his office.

I clear my throat and his head bobs up to look at us and those captivating brown eyes lock in mine and damn he's so fine! His brown hair falling over his face in a complete messed up way, his lower lip a little swollen from him biting down ever so hard on them and as we lock gaze I ask myself why I never gave in to the temptation of having his face between my a relationship with his or her client.

Screw the rules.

He smiles at me and I refuse to return the smile 'cause if I smile back, it'll just be an opening and we surely won't get anywhere today so instead, I toss the document in my hand on his desk and take a seat.

He signals for Maggi to leave and she silently complies and walks out, closing the door behind her. "Happy new year to you. I just realised I haven't seen you since the week before Christmas when you kicked me out of your house for showing up unannounced." He points out.

I give him a reproving look, remembering the day like yesterday. "You had to learn the hard way. And you would have seen me last week if you didn't put me on hold for one hour."

He raises his hands up in surrender, "I had issues I had to attend to."

I rolled my eyes, "Maggi told me your reason and my advice for you this new year is to learn to get your shit together. You're a greatly and badass lawyer, but you're a disastrous mess when you are dealing with your own private life for the love of God stop fucking around with every girl that call you cute."

"Still as cold as ever." He commends with a tip of his imaginary hat.

I mockingly curtsey, "Won't have me another way cute face."

His cheeks heat up, but he rolls his eyes at my cockiness before asking, "What brings you over." returning to a formal businesslike mode and I take my seat and clear my throat. The playfulness of Julian is good but his seriousness is hotter, but I'd never tell him that.

"I acquired this company from a friend for five million just now," I point to the document secured in the brown file on his desk "I want you to go through it and see how much it can bring to the table."

He stares at me, too impressed to speak for a long while, "You used the power of persuasion between your legs again?"

Yes, Julian knows about my other side of making deals and he was the first and only person about that other side of business. He told me to go for it if it will get me what I wanted and he taught and educated me on what to say or do to get what I wanted. He explained the idea of men to me, their needs want and what brings them to their kneels. He told me most men like strong women and women they cannot get and making them beg for me as a key to attaining control. He knew me too well and knew how much I loved being in control.

I don't know if there's pleasure in it for him as they is pain. Pleasure because he get to hear me say these things that turns him on and he say them to me as well and pain because he know he can never have me or see me the way the other men can.

I shake my head, "I didn't have to, he needed something else I was having, besides he's no longer interested in the female gender. He's got his eyes on the younger males now." I conclude, wiggling my brow at him.

He gives me a weird look as his brow rises, "Why are you looking at me like that? I'm not gay, you know that."

"Do I?" I tap in my chin thoughtfully, having a shit ton of fun messing with him.

"Yes, do you want me to show you how straight I am? I'm single now and I don't mind." He asks, with his brow still raised and sheer hunger flashes through them. It is a dare and he knows how I am with him, I wouldn't mind seeing him, but to what gain? I can't have him to myself so there's no point.

I sigh in defeat, one which I've never had with him. "No, I don't. You're not gay." I answer and his eyes gets pained that the fun ended quickly. "I also bargained five hundred million with Patrick Adeyemi and he agreed."

"That's my girl! Cheers. Told you you could get more out of men like him." He applauds, looking a little too proud and happy for my liking.

"You did." I reply, a smile appearing on my face. "Also, I'm gonna have to tell my brother everything soon enough." I add randomly, not knowing the best way to say it.

He gives me a curious look as he gets up and walk over to me. "Do you think he'll be able to understand and handle it? One word to the wrong person can cause a lot of damage." He says, placing his hand on my shoulder and harmlessly fondles it.

"I know, I pray he would under...... Wait what do mean single now?" I suddenly asks recollecting all the words he was saying earlier. At the heat of the moment I must have passed it up but I just realised he's single now and I realise his touch is not so harmless anymore and I slap his hand off me

"Rebekah broke up with me after we came back from the family reunion, she believes my family is full of drama, more drama than she can handle." His eyes drops and genuine pain registers in it.

"Oh," my voice drops a little at his words, the last time we spoke, he was waiting for the right time to pop the question to her and now he's lost her for good. I knew their relationship was doomed from the very start, he was just too good for her and too blinded to see that, but still sad to see him hurt "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'm moving on and I don't think I'll be putting myself out there for now or maybe ever except you're offering." He suggests wiggling his brows at me.

I laugh hysterically, "There's a reason why what we had ended with just a blow job." I clarify plainly.

"Best I ever had though." He mumble under his breath, but I hear him. "I'm just saying." He picks up the document I had dropped on his desk a while ago and move to his seat.

I bite my lower lips, "When you told me how things worked, I knew I needed you more as my lawyer than my lover and that's not gonna change. Beside I believe you will find the real girl who will be willing to stick with you through it all."

He doesn't reply me as he get invested in the document in front of him, doing a brief reading before looking back up. "The business looks solid and legit, and it might pull a huge profit for you but I can't completely sum it now, I'll get back to you before the end of the day."

I smile and get up as my job has been done, "Thank you Julian. I'll get a new phone as fast as I can and you'll be the first I'll call."