In Love With Mr. Billionaire - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

No words were exchanged between my family and me after my short dance—that I later realized was not short at all and had gone for three consecutive songs straight. It had not felt that long while dancing, to be honest. For if I was aware of the music, I would have tried to get away from Mr Woodwords the instant the first song came to an end.
I was not sure if the momentary loss of my senses and hence the obliviousness of my surroundings was because I was too engrossed in trying to compensate for my behavior the previous evening, or it was because I was too lost in the man's words that had held no anger whatsoever. It was strange that a man in his position was not offended, for I had seen how my father reacts to the simplest of mistakes. It was even stranger how he had avoided certain subjects and deliberately brought up a few, but all that was nothing compared to his last statement.
After the dance, Mr Woodwords had walked to the other side of the room. Twice, dad had tried to start a conversation with him—once taking Lahaina along and once without her—but had failed miserably to capture his attention.
Mr Woodwords was obviously a person of importance. There was always someone wanting to exchange a few words with him. Even now, as he stood at the other end of the hall, he was talking to a group of men and women who were listening to him attentively. It could be because he was extremely busy that he had failed to acknowledge my father, but his earlier statement to me made me wonder if he was doing it deliberately. Did he not like him?
I shook my head trying to get rid of the ridiculous thought. There was not much that I knew about my father's company but the fact that Woodwords Corporations was one of the biggest investors in his company was a public affair. And there was no way Mr Woodwords would put such an enormous amount of money in my father's company if he disapproved of him.
There were certain moments where I felt him looking in my direction but the lack of courage to match his gaze deprived me of a confirmation. Dad, along with Lahaina and Juliea, was socializing with other business people. They had not said a word to me since that dance and it worried me for what was to come.
I emptied my glass of white wine when I saw dad talk to the hosts. By the looks of it, he was thanking them for the party and I made my way towards them from the little corner I had chosen to stand alone, away from the crowd. None of them seemed to notice my presence as I came to stand with them. I stayed silent and followed them out to the car.
Fortunately, Lahaina decided to go with dad and Juliea in their car and I was relieved to not have to share the vehicle with them. I was about to head to the other car where Jake, our chauffeur, was waiting with the door open, when dad spoke.
"Wait for me at home. I need to talk to you." His voice sounded like he was holding his calm by barely a thread.
There goes my relief of not sharing the car. My whole ride back home was spent dreading the talk that dad wanted to have with me. He was going to blame me for wrecking their plans. He was going to accuse me of dancing with Mr Woodwords when it had to be Lahaina in my place. And there was nothing I could say or do to make him think otherwise.
Since my luck has been on a vacation for the past few days, dad's car reached home just ahead of mine. I thanked Jake for the drive and went inside. I hadn't even entered the living room properly when I heard Juliea speak to me.
"You might want to explain what happened back there at the party," she said, coming forward to meet me midway. Her eyes were ablaze as she glared at me.
"I did nothing," I told her, looking directly into her eyes.
"You did nothing?" Lahaina screamed, standing only a few steps behind Juliea. Her shrill voice resonated around the room, threatening every ear to bleed. "You're fucking telling me you did nothing? You're such a whore, Caroline. I was supposed to be with him. He was going to agree to make more investments in our company. You ruined it all!"
Screaming at me was not enough so she turned to dad. "She fucking ruined it all! Did I not tell you to not take her along? You said she would do nothing. Turns out she is a whore. Now look at what happened."
Juliea turned and made her way to Lahaina, trying to calm her down. Dad did the same. Placing one hand on her shoulder as a pacifying gesture, he spoke with a low voice.
"We'll have more opportunities. I've known him for years. You don't have to worry."
"It didn't look like you've known him for years, tonight. He paid no attention to you," Lahaina countered.
I saw the fury rise on dad's face with those words. Juliea stepped in between before things got worse and pulled Lahaina away. "Calm down, sweety. Your dad knows well what he is doing. Trust him."
Lahaina looked like she still had a lot to say but decided to follow her mother's words and remained silent. With her outburst at rest, dad turned to me. With no words said, he slapped me with the back of his hand.
"Why didn't you say no to him?" He demanded.
The burning sensation and the pain across my cheek was something I had gotten used to a long while ago, but the surprise at the impact was always like the first one.
"I was going to," I told him, honestly. My voice to my ears sounded scared, reflecting my emotions.
"Then why didn't you?" He shouted and I shuddered in fear. "I saw him talk to you. What was he saying?"
"He bought- he bought my cafe today. We talked about that." I gulped, as it got harder to speak with the threat of getting slapped again looming over me. One wrong word and I would be dead.
"What else?" I could feel his angry eyes piercing the bones in my skull as my head hung low before him. Thoughts were hard to gather and I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.
"He wanted to know if I work for you."
There was a brief silence followed by that statement. I didn't dare raise my head. Minutes later, he stepped away.
"Now fuck off," he said.
And I did. I made my way to my room and dropped on the bed, defeated. How nicely he had talked to Lahaina when she was screaming at him, taunting him, blaming him. I had not said a bad word to him, ever in my life, never done anything that would make me look bad to him and yet, he had never cared for me.
I wondered if I was like Lahaina, helping him in his questionable business ethics, would he care for me then? Would he consider me his daughter then? Would he love me then?
I looked at the little picture frame resting on my bedside table and sighed. It was a picture of mom and me on my first trip to an art exhibition. I was seven and we had sneaked out without dad's notice to visit the exhibition. Then I had barely understood anything about the brilliance of the paintings hanging all around but they had fascinated me. They always had.
The picture was taken outside the exhibition. I had my arms around mom's neck as she kneeled next to me for the picture to be taken. She was happy that day. We both were.
Without realizing, a smile had made its way to my lips as I reminisced the happy times spent with her. I missed her dearly. It also made me realize how much of a fool I was to think being like Lahaina would make dad love me. I didn't want to be like her because I knew what I was like. I was very much like the woman who was smiling at me through the picture. And I loved her with all my heart.
With that thought, I went into the walk-in closet to change into something comfortable for the night. Getting back to bed, I connected my phone to the charger. There were two missed calls from a private number and I frowned.
My first thought was to not fuss about it and go to sleep but my curiosity got the better of me. After a little google search that gave me ways to call back a private number, I did it. There was a short beep then it went to voicemail.
I shook my head. Whoever it was, maybe they called the wrong number. Placing my phone on the table next to my mother's picture, I closed my eyes.
There was a faint ringing sound echoing in my head. It was probably my phone making that noise. Was it the private caller again? I should pick it up and tell them they have the wrong number. Yes, I should.
That was the last thought before the fatigue of the day overwhelmed me and sleep took over my senses.
In the morning, I was awakened by a similar ringing sound. Since sleep was always the top priority and there was hardly anyone important who called me—except Nadia, whom I can always call back later—I was going to reject the call, but something in me forced me to swipe the screen and put the cell phone to my ear.
"Hello," I said without looking at the caller ID as my eyes were still heavy with sleep.
"Caroline?" A husky voice of a man spoke from the other end. The few cells in my brain that were not drenched in sleep seemed to recognize the familiar voice, but the major part of my brain that was muddled in sleep put no effort into trying to remember where I had heard it before.
"Yes. Who is it?" I asked, eyes still closed.
"Aaron," was all he said.
"Who Aaron?" I asked.
Silence.
Thinking the man on the other end might have hung up, I was about to remove the phone from my ear when I heard him speak again.
"It's disheartening to know that you've forgotten me already. Don't you remember throwing money at my face, Caroline?"
That statement flooded my brain with memories of the last few days and my eyes shot open as the realization of the identity of the caller hit me like a brick straight to the head.
"Mr Woodwords!" I exclaimed, sitting up on the bed and running my fingers through my hair to untangle them as if he could actually see my appearance through the phone.
"So you do remember me," he said.
"Of course, I do. And I regret that day very much, Mr Woodwords," I told him, intentionally adding the last line to convey my guilt and not offend him more.
"You regret meeting me, Caroline?" Now I was sure he was teasing me. But oh how I wish I never met him.
None of this would have happened if only I had been a little early or a little late at the jewelry store. I internally cursed myself for missing the fact that none of this would have happened if only I had driven properly. Nonetheless, things had gone bad and then worse since the incident and no matter how I look at the situation now, none of it was his fault.
Except for the cafe buying thing. That was totally his fault.
"I'm pretty sure that's how you feel about me, Mr Woodwords," I sighed.
There was a short chuckle before he spoke again. "I should," he agreed, then after a pause said, "but surprisingly, I don't."
That caught me off guard. He didn't regret meeting me? Not even after what I did? And what happened to being a Marshall? Not wanting to press him to give me details about the current topic, I switched the subject.
"How did you find my number?" I asked, keeping my tone genuine and not accusatory. I also wanted to ask him why he was calling me but that question, however I put it, was going to sound rude. And it was never clever to be rude to a ridiculously resourceful man whose car—a very expensive one at that—you broke.
Also, the other thing I did that day but let's not think about that.
"I have a lot of money invested in your father's company, Caroline, and he has been a business associate for a very long time, so I think it would've been very embarrassing if it took me more than 5 minutes to get your number," he explained and I nodded my head in agreement.
It made me wonder if it would have taken him any longer even if I was not related to my father. He told me at the party that he had tried searching for me. Back then he did not even have a name, now knowing my name and also about my previous workplace would make the search so much easier.
"Yesterday, you told me you lost your job because I bought your cafe," he stated.
It wasn't just the cafe, Mr; you bought the entire area.
"I did. Yes," I told him while nodding my head. I do not know why I kept doing that when he could not even see me.
"I have a job for you," he said. I had to take a few moments to process his words in my head.
"Are you offering a job to everyone who lost their jobs because of you?" I asked sincerely.
"No, Caroline, but I'm willing to make an exception for you," he said. I felt my face heat up a little at that.
If the situation was any different, I would have been thrilled to accept it. Who would not? He had just offered me a job at one of the best companies in the country. But after everything that had happened these past couple of days, not to mention the very pleasant conversation I had with my family last night, accepting a job at Woodwords Corporations would be like buying a spade and gifting it to my father to dig my grave.
"Thank you very much for the offer, Mr Woodwords but I can't accept it," I told him with deep regret.
I just got a once in a lifetime opportunity and I totally blew it up because my father would not approve of it. Way to go, Caroline!
"Why not?"
"Because I'm going to work with my father," I lied to him. I had said the first thing that came to my head when he asked me for a reason but after giving it a little thought, that was the only option left with me. There was no way dad would allow me to work anywhere else.
"Alright. Give me a call if you change your mind," said Aaron and hung up. The act was so abrupt that I stared at my cell phone for a few seconds after the end of the call. His voice had changed from playful to grave with that last sentence and I sat there contemplating the reason for the change. Did I offend him again? What did I say to do that?
I double tapped on my phone's screen to make it light up. There were two more missed calls from a private number. I frowned and opened my call logs. The call from Mr Woodwords had been from a different number, he was not the private caller. Unlike last night, I did not call back but made sure my cell phone was on full volume to not miss the next call—if it ever came.
With my morning being unusually eventful, I took a longer shower than usual and went down for breakfast. I had expected the three of them to be already on their way to the office but there they were, sitting at the dining table having breakfast. I was about to turn and head back to my room but dad's voice stopped me.
"Take a seat here, Caroline," his voice was stern and left no room for disagreement.
I nervously sat on the chair. There were not many instances when my father wanted to talk to me. None of them ended well for me ever.
"Lahaina told me you lost your job," he said, filling his cup with hot tea and never once looking at me—for which, I was very thankful.
"I'll find a new one," I told him with a little hope that was shattered with his next statement.
"No need. You'll work for me from now on."
"But dad-" I started to speak but his eyes snapped at me with a warning.
"With me, or not at all," he said with a finality in his voice.
I could not afford being stuck inside the house all day long. That wasn't an option I was willing to accept. I nodded.
"Come to my office at noon. We'll see where we can put you."
There was nothing I could say more. I sat there in silence and gulped down my breakfast as quickly as I could without choking on the scrambled eggs and bacon. Once my plate was empty, I wiped my mouth and excused myself from the table.
Wanting a little bit of sanity before I head to dad's office for my new job there, I went to visit Nadia. Her apartment was a half an hour's drive from my place but it took me three-quarters of an hour to reach there because of the heavy New York morning traffic.
Nadia did not answer the door when I rang the doorbell, twice, so I took the key from my bag and unlocked it, only to find her sleeping on the couch. A laptop was kept on the small table in front of the couch whose screen had gone black. Knowing from experience, she must have been working on it late and dozed off while working.
"Wake up, Nadia," I said, placing my handbag on her face and moving to the kitchen area to brew two cups of coffee—mine with cream and sugar and a plain one for her.
When I returned with the cups of coffee, Nadia was sitting awake on the couch, staring at the laptop screen with such defeat as if everything good in her life had just burned down. "I didn't save it before I fell asleep!" She said as I placed the cups on the table and took a seat next to her.
The laptop screen was filled with programming codes that were way too advanced for me to understand anything. "Was it a lot?" I asked.
"Not really," she said, taking a sip of her coffee, still staring at the screen with disappointment. "It would've been nice if I saved it though."
"How was the party?" She asked. That was the one question I was waiting to be asked.
"I met Aaron Woodwords," I told her and she nodded her head, taking another sip from her cup.
"The super-rich guy your step-sister is trying to seduce to steal some money from him and split the wealth with your father, right?" I burst out laughing at the description.
"That's right," I agreed, still laughing.
As if realization had struck her like a bolt of lightning, Nadia put her cup away and turned to me, "Did you ask him why he bought our cafe?"
I shook my head. We had definitely talked about the cafe but I had failed to ask him that particular question, because he had changed the subject to inquire why I was not working at my father's company instead.
Well Mr Woodwords, looks like I do now.
"It turns out he was the man I threw money at, Nadia, so that question totally slipped my mind," I told her and watched her eyes widen as her hand flew to her mouth.
There was a long silence followed by a very obvious question, "how are you still alive?"
I was not sure about it myself. I went on to tell Nadia everything that had happened, my conversation with him, the phone call in the morning, his job offer and my new job at my father's company missing a lot of details about the event that had followed the party.
"You're in deep shit, Caroline."
"I know, Nadia."
"There is only one thing we could do to help you cheer up now," she said. With a swift movement, Nadia jumped to her feet, "we still have 3 hours before you go to that stupid company so let's go do some random shit around the city."
The excitement in her voice was contagious. Nadia ran to her bedroom for a quick shower and I waited for her in the living room. I was sure the next three hours with her were going to be filled with a lot of laughter and craziness but it was the time after that that worried me. It was the thought of my new job with my father that distressed me.