Christian

"Where's mum?" I asked Slav as soon as he entered the kitchen.

"She's just running errands." My father replied casually. He glanced over at Derek who was actively powering through the last few bites of his meal. "Good. Good." Slav nodded to him.

"Errands?" I continued, before he could try and steer us onto a different topic. "What kind of errands? Because Alex just told me mum stopped by to have him sign a nondisclosure agreement. That doesn't sound like a casual errand to me. Sounds more like a strategic attack on mother's part."

My father hesitated a moment. I could tell he was thinking hard on what to say next.

"It's just- we were advised that it would be best-"

"Advised by who?" Brad cut in. "Because I'm your lawyer, and I didn't advise jack shit."

There was an immediate shift in tension throughout the room. Derek was looking back and forth between Brad and my father as he finished off the last of his food.

"We thought it would be best to hire on a different legal team. I mean, you must admit that this is all a little too close to home. We don't want you to be anymore involved than you already are." Slav explained.

Oddly enough, I understood that. I just didn't appreciate the way my parents were going about it. Clearly, keeping secrets had benefited no one up until this point. Brad deserved transparency.

"Dad, that's shit you don't keep from me." Brad snapped, as he slammed his water bottle on the kitchen island with a loud thud. It wasn't that Brad never got mad, but he wasn't one to openly express his irritation. Especially not physically. The sound of the aluminum bottle colliding with the marble countertop made me jump.

Slav took another moment to collect his thoughts before he replied.

"Everything we've done. Everything we do... and everything we'll continue to do, will always be in your best interest." He settled on.

"I think it's been established that I don't need you to protect me. I don't need either of you guys to protect me." Brad was quick to reply. "So stop treating me like I'm ten. If you want me to continue to represent this company legally, you'll hire me on this case. If you decide not to, then consider this my two weeks notice."

My head whipped around to Brad so quick, I thought I gave myself whiplash.

"Hey- now hold the fuck on a second here. You're also my lawyer, remember?" I reminded Brad. He gave me a careless shrug.

"You can get yourself any lawyer. You have the resources."

My eyes peered over at him. Brad and I both knew that wasn't true. I could barely keep an assistant for more than a few weeks, and he wanted me to get a new lawyer? He was literally the only person who could effectively help me stay out of legal trouble.

"That's bullshit and you know it." I replied. "I don't want just any lawyer, I want you. If you quit, I'll step down from my CEO position."

"Okay, now slow the fuck down here. No one is quitting anything. I'll speak with your mother today." Slav interrupted. Brad gave our father one firm nod, before he yanked the jacket that was resting on a barstool, and slipped it on.

"Where the hell are you going?" I asked him.

"I'm going to take Joan out for lunch. Then I've got some matters to attend to. Show yourselves out when you're done. I dismissed the drivers that were here this morning so Derek- you're going to need to figure out how you're getting home." Brad spoke as he pulled his briefcase out from one of his entryway closet, and started to slip on some shoes.

"It's okay, I could Uber-" Derek started, but I cut him off.

"Home? Absolutely not. You've got approximately-" I glanced down at my watch, "five hours left of your work day. I expect to see you clocked in at your desk by no later than one this afternoon."

Derek looked up at me with the most broken expression.

"Y-You're really going to make me go to work? In this condition?" He sniffled.

"You look fine. If you take the day off, you'll go unpaid for it." I replied simply.

"Why are you like this?" He whined. "Who hurt you?"

I heard Brad chuckle dryly from the open entrance of his home. "You two figure it out, but I want my home empty by the time I get back." Those were the last words he said before stepping out and closing the front door behind him.

Derek sighed heavily before getting up to place the empty plate in the sink.

-

Out of the goodness of my heart, I ordered Derek a Uber home so that he could change into work clothes and get on that grind with the rest of my overworked employees.

Slav made me drive him home as well. I noticed that my mother must have returned from her errands judging by her car being parked at the front entrance. While I wanted to march in there with my father and confront her on what happened, my need to check in on Alex was just slightly more prominent. So I repressed my anger, dropped Slav off, and made my way into work.

Once I reached Ivanov Corp, I was brutally reminded of the absolute shit show the day after the Gala could be. Marketing was on overdrive with getting the Mavericks promotions running. The sales floor was even worst as they started the pricing for individual items. When I reached the fifth floor, the only thing that managed to calm my nerves was seeing Alex alive and well.

Well... well was debatable.

His tie was completely loosened now. He had a few buttons at the top of his shirt, unbuttoned. The amount of paperwork surrounding him, looked like an impenetrable wall. When his eyes caught mine, you would of thought he had seen the messiah.

"Oh my god thank fucking God you're here." He rushed out as I entered his office.

"You look terrible. What happened? Why didn't you call?" I asked.

"Well see I thought I could handle things on my own... but I've got like 30 open IT tickets, every breathing soul in this building has called up at least once asking questions I had no way of answering, and three major sites are down so the marketing department has completely gone to shit." Alex explained.

I skimmed through some of the paperwork that was on the top of his desk. "Next time, call. You don't have to take on everything yourself." I scolded him. "Brief me on the important shit."

Alex fumbled with a few folders, before he found what he was looking for.

"Okay. Uh- We need to get those sites back up and running so that marketing can continue their work. I took a look at the IT tickets that came through, and the majority of them are just because of those sites. Also, John's investors called to speak with you about some fine details of the drafted agreement. I told them you'd give them a call before the end of tomorrow's business day. I think a specialist from HR was also trying to get ahold of you to have you verify bonus amounts and commission."

I stared blankly at Alex as he rushed all that out in one breath.

"Those are the only things I can think of that are immediate, everything is related to the following weeks." He explained.

I said nothing as I pulled out my phone from one of the trouser pockets. It took me seconds to find the saved number I was looking for.

"Who are you calling?" Alex asked curiously, as I brought the phone to my ear.

"Eddie Chang." I replied.

••

Hey lovelies! Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter. I haven't had much down time to check comments and messages, but I promise I will very soon.
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