Alpha Billionaire Series
Loving the One I Should Hate Chapter 26

GRANT

There was something about Gregorian Chants that let me focus. I looked over notes concerning a hiccup in the production supply chain. We had deadlines for getting a product line to market, and because of necessary resources being delayed at the point of origin, our deadline was in jeopardy. I needed to assess if this was going to be a costly error, or simply an annoying one. Were there any fines that would be incurred? How much market share would we lose to the competitors by not being on the shelves? The droning sound of the chant was lost in the background of my thoughts and filtered the random sounds from the office. It was the perfect white noise. It allowed me to not notice people coming and going at Mina's desk. I was blissfully unaware there was a situation in the building until it burst through my office door.

"I'm sorry Grant, I couldn't stop her," Mina said.

"Vivica, this isn't the way to handle this," Dylan yelled.

Everyone spoke at once.

And in front of two of them was a pissed-off bristling ball of fury in the form of Mandy's best friend, Vivica.

"You are a fucking bastard; I can't believe you are going to go through with this. Don't you have any humanity? I used to think you were in love with her, that's why I didn't tell her to run away from your a*s when I had the chance."

I was on my feet with Vivica bearing down on me, her pointer finger armed with a sharp nail and all of her righteous rage. That nail was coming closer to my face with each gesture, each step.

I put my hands up and stood my ground. Vivica was not a big woman. She was a few inches shorter than Mandy and less curvaceous. Not that I would harm her, but I could physically remove her without any more damage than a few scratches if she got those nails on me. Full of rage she was an intimidating little force, and she kept coming at me.

"I swear to God, Grant Carpenter, I'm going to rip your fucking heart out and give it to Mandy in a box, all wrapped up with a ribbon. She's practically killed herself and the-" she stopped that train of thought and shifted quickly, continuing to accuse me of everything wrong in the world. "Mandy has worked herself to the point of exhaustion getting the money to pay you back and she had it. She had every last penny, and you put her in the position of having to choose between her family business and her mother's life. I can't believe you are just going to take everything away from her!"

Dylan got his arms around Vivica and lifted her. She shrieked. She clawed at his arms and thrashed and kicked. Red marks appeared on Dylan's hands and forearms. Vivica was a fighter all right. "Vivica, stop," he yelled.

He wrangled her out from behind my desk. I followed them.

"I'll call security," Mina reached for the phone on my desk.

"Mina, stop," I commanded. "Put her in that chair." I nodded indicating where I meant.

Mina stayed by the phone, poised to call if I gave her the go-ahead.

The furniture in my office was early-century Bauhaus-inspired, with clean lines, tubular steel, and leather. Dylan deposited his struggling cousin into a Wassily-style chair. The seat was deep, and the arms somewhat boxed her in. I was a tall man, so I took advantage of that, and I loomed, standing over Vivica. I wanted her to feel intimidated. I wasn't going to hurt her, but she needed to calm down.

"Vivica," I started. "What are you going on about? What do you mean I'm making Mandy choose?"

I swear she grabbed the arms of the chair and lunged forward hissing at me. She did not back down. I didn't want to run into her in a dark alley with her like this.

"Vivica, you need to calm down, or I will call security myself," Dylan said. "Don't make me have to call our grandmother."

I didn't know what kind of woman their grandmother was, but as a threat, it worked. If their grandmother was anything like Vivica was being right now, I could see how pulling family strings was a useful manipulation.

Vivica huffed back into the chair, she crossed her arms and glared at me more like a caged beast than a petulant child.

"Start from the beginning," I said.

I cast a glance at Dylan, who was doing a perfectly fine job of being intimidating. He was slightly shorter than me, but his shoulders were massive. His arms were crossed, and he glared at his cousin.

I pulled over a second chair and sat so that I was close and facing Vivica. "Tell me. What do you mean she had the money?"

She took a deep breath. I hoped it was to quell her inner rage. Her expression did not soften, she was still angry with me.

"Mandy had the funds. She was all set to have a check cut and delivered but her mother collapsed."

I started. "Is she okay? Do they need anything?"

"Yes, you idiot, they need you to stop threatening them with the loss of their business!"

"That's a done deal. If they can't pay the loan back, in full, and by the deadline then the ownership reverts to me. Mandy has had plenty of opportunities to talk to me about this, but she hasn't. The last time I saw her"- she threw wine in my face and accused me of being a shark in chummed waters- "she indicated that she was handling her company's financial situation."

Vivica rolled her eyes. "Damn it, Grant. I thought there was a chance that you still loved her. I had a glimmer of hope that you would, oh, I don't know, change the terms of the loan so that Mandy didn't have to live on the brink of poverty and sell off all of their possessions just to collect the funds in one place. You know, if you cared anything about her, or her condition, you could have extended the repayment deadline. Hell, you could let her make part payments."

"She never once asked," I pointed out.

"She shouldn't have to ask! I seriously thought you were in love with her, and that you were a smart businessman. I mean, look at what you have achieved, and didn't it ever once occur to you to make some kind of grand gesture to show you care? There are so many ways you could be playing this, and you have gone for the worst one possible. You are bleeding her dry."

Vivica wiped her angry tears. Or maybe they were sad ones. She looked up and blinked. "What the hell is this music?"

"Mina, will you?"

The music stopped.

Vivica leveled her glare at me. "Mandy's mother is in the hospital again; she's dying unless they do this expensive treatment. Mandy barely has enough money to cover rent and food. Every extra penny has gone into the reserve to pay you back." "MiMa Play is a multimillion-dollar-"

Vivica scoffed, cutting me off. "The company might make money, but none of that is profit. All of that gets rolled back into production. I would have thought you were aware of that, being so keen to take them over. Mandy's family has never been rich, they've just been like a normal middle-of-the-road middle-class family. Not even upper-middle class."

"They have a lake house," Dylan pointed out.

"They have an old lake house that belonged to her mother's grandparents. That's all they have left."

I sat back. I had no idea that the Wilson's were so financially strapped. I mean, I knew at some level, but having to sell off their belongings, I didn't realize it was quite that bad.

"Dylan, you have all the files on MiMa. I want you to pull what we have regarding their finances. How did that get missed?"

"We didn't miss anything. MiMa Play reported high earnings and low expenditures. Their biggest expense was manufacturing, but all of that was substantially under earnings and profits."

I looked up at Vivica. "Did they doctor the books?"

"I don't know. I don't know if Mandy would be able to tell. All I know is that she complained that the finances made no sense and have been a total mess. Her father never once showed her how he ran the business, but I know she was convinced it could be done more efficiently. Look, I only know what she's told me, and she tells me everything"- she leaned forward and narrowed her gaze on me- "everything."

I let out a heavy breath.

"I thought her mother was doing well. Wasn't that the whole point of spending the summer at the lake?"

Vivica wiped her eyes. "Her mother has been lying to her. She wasn't doing better. They couldn't afford the full course of treatment for this new treatment. It's why her father took the loan from you, to begin with. Her mother didn't tell her because she didn't want Mandy to worry. Mandy was already stressed over having to save the company so she could hold onto her father's dreams."

"Didn't she have a brother?"

"Yeah, him too. Her dad and brother were the ones who wanted to have a great business. Kids playing, kids having fun. They convinced many that their dreams were hers, and when Michael died, she took that on, giving up anything that had been hers. And so she goes and gets an MBA, and it turns out her father didn't have the money to pay for. I don't remember exactly if it was because that's when her mother got sick, or if there just hadn't been any money. But Mandy took on so much in student loans to get the same MBA her brother had. She did everything she could to step into Michael's shoes, but she still hadn't been part of the decision-making process."

"Mandy made it pretty clear she would fight for that company."

Vivica signed. "She's fighting for a company for memories at this point. I don't even think she realizes it."

"No wonder she's holding on so tightly." I stood, running my hands through my hair.

I paced and stopped to look out over the lake. This is what Dylan had been trying to tell me, I was destroying Mandy because I wanted the company she inherited. She needed the memories.