Chapter Twelve

A Sinister Offer

Maria’s POV

   Helena and I celebrated and talked about the investment for a while, then we had to prepare for the day.

  “Hello, momma.” Nathan greeted me with a wide grin when he saw me. I smiled,, thinking about how his grin looked so much like Sebastian’s grin.

  “Hello, my baby. Did you sleep well?” I asked, then gave him a squeezy hug.

  “Yes, but I missed you last night.” He said it in his baby accent.

  “Awww, I am sorry, baby. I will play bricks and castles with you tonight. Do we have a deal?”

  "Yeahh!” he shouted in delight and ran in circles.

  “It’s time for your bath, baby, then I will make your favorite waffles and pack your lunch for preschool. How does that sound?”

  He jumped, then wrapped his chubby arms around my neck and pecked my cheeks. I took him to his bathroom and bathed him, then Emily got him ready for school while I made his food and packed his lunch, then pecked him and prepared for work while he ate.

  I put on a two-piece corporate outfit with loose pants and a pointy-toe stiletto, then I styled my hair in a chignon and put on minimal make-up and jewelry.

  When I was done, I took Nathan to school and kissed him goodbye, then headed to work.

  Immediately I got to my office, I called Sebastian and he picked up on the first ring.

  “I see someone has read her mail.” He said with a smile in his voice after I said hello.

  “Yes, I did,” I said in a sing-song voice. “Thank you so much, Sebastian. I am very certain that you will not regret this move. I have a question though.”

  “What’s your question?”

  “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to invest in my company until we got married. What changed?”

  He cleared his throat and said. “With all that is going on and with the pressure coming from both sides, I think it’s time we also start making serious moves so that we will not just be many steps ahead but also be stronger together.”

  “Many steps ahead. I like the sound of that. Anyway, I know you have a busy day ahead so I will leave you to it and I will invite you to dinner sometime to celebrate this forward step and plan our next course of action.”

  We talked for a while, then I hung up the phone and beeped for my executive assistant to come into my office.

  “Carrie, we have good news," I informed her as soon as she entered and then briefed her. “We’ve finally gotten a major investor for our company. I will share a brief with you so that you can share it with our senior executives. We need to set up meetings and plan and execute projects as soon as possible. I am sending the necessary details to you now so I need you to draft the mail immediately and send a memo.”

  My EA asked questions and I was about to share feedback when the intercom beeped. I pressed the receiver button and asked. “What is it, Chloe?”

  “You have an unexpected guest, ma’am.” My secretary replied. “Mr. Bolt is here.”

  “Mr. Bolt? What is Sebastian doing here?” I asked myself out loud with pinched brows.

  “Not Sebastian Bolt, Ms. Bellucci, but his father.”

  My brows furrowed deeper when I heard her reply. “Uhmm, let him in.” then I asked my EA to go ahead and carry out my instructions.

  I wondered what Sebastian’s father wanted but from his reaction during the dinner the other evening, I knew that he most likely wasn’t here for a friendly chat so I prepared myself for whatever was to come.

   “Hello, Mr. Bolt. It’s a pleasure to have you visit.” I stood up and extended a handshake to him when he entered.

  He was an older version of Sebastian in body size and carriage but it was obvious that Sebastian must have gotten his striking looks from someone else, probably his mother, even though I don’t know who she is.

  Thinking about it, I realized that Sebastian was always almost in the news because the media was obsessed with one of Amsterdam’s eligible bachelors; his father and his sister also appeared in the news because they were sort of a celebrity family but one would hardly see his mother in the news or on the media.

  “Hmm,” was the only reply he gave as he shook my hand briefly and then sat down while looking around my office.

  “You’ve got a nice place here.” He said, nodding his head.

  “Thank you, sir.” I replied with a pleased smile but his next words smacked the smile away from my face.

  “So how much do you want?”

  “Excuse me, sir?”

  “I hear you need investors to keep this place running; is that why you’re marrying my son? To push your gold-digging claws into him so that you can use his money to keep this place running? How much do you want so that you can take this marriage idea out of your head?”

  I sat back on my chair and took a deep breath to calm myself down. No matter how disrespectful he was, I needed to respect him, even if for now. “Uhmm, Mr. Bolt, with all due respect, I must say that I am not comfortable with your choice of words, nor your manner or tone of addressing me.”

  “If you don’t like it, then leave my son alone. I am addressing you this way because you seem to have lost respect for yourself. How much do you want? I don’t have all day.”

  “I don’t need your money, sir. I am more than capable of getting investors on my own and I am not marrying your son because I am a gold digger. We’ve known each other for a while and when he asked for my hand in marriage, it made sense. I love your son, Mr. Bolt.”

  “But you see, Sebastian is already betrothed to someone else.”

  “I don’t think your son is a dishonorable person, sir. If he thought he was betrothed to someone else, he wouldn’t have come to me, and even if he did, he would have already cleared it with the other party involved.”

  He shook his head vigorously and said,. “The Kidmans are not the other party; they are the party and will be the only party involved with my son where marriage is concerned. When I started pressuring him to get married, I knew what I was doing. I had it all planned out, and you just waltzed in and spoilt everything.”

  I stood and mustered all the calm I could find. “I don’t think Sebastian is a child, nor are we in the sixteenth century where marriages are arranged. If anything, you should be talking to him right now and not me. I didn’t propose to myself nor did I force him at gunpoint to propose to me. He made the decision himself.”

  He stood up and said. “This is not over and I will not rest until the Kidmans become my in-law.” then he stormed out angrily.