The Artist's Wife (BWWM)

Chapter 11~ Friends

"She's a true prodigy, an asset," Mr Strauss, the huge beefy man we had been working with for weeks now to seal a deal, complimented me, beaming with smiles.

"I know, she never fails to surprise me," Mr White said, laughing genially as he appended his signature on the final copy of the documents. It was finally over, we had finalized the arrangements and I released an unconscious breath I didn't know I was holding.

We had been at this meeting all morning and I was relieved to finally see the conclusion, it had been a long, stressful day. I had used aspirin before leaving home earlier, after my fight with The Jade-Eyed Bastard, and my headache was almost gone now. Almost. Whenever I remembered the morning's event it returned immediately.

"Better not let go of her," Mr Strauss chuckled, appending his signature before handing over the documents to me. I promptly returned them into the files on the table before accepting the beefy Mr Strauss' handshake.

"I'll send over my assistant tomorrow. Do have a good day, Karina and you too Randall." With that, he left the conference room leaving me and my father-in-law quite alone. I stood, files in hand and ready to leave when Randall White spoke up, stopping my action.

"I have to thank you for your effort with Mitch," he remarked, referring to Mr Strauss. "That old sly doesn't give in to investments like that so easily, thank you." I waved off the compliment and smiled at the man with the salt and pepper hair, sometimes I wondered if The Jade-Eyed Bastard's hair was ever going to look like this.

"How are things going between you and Gerard?" He questioned, snapping his laptop shut and facing me.

Well, this morning I found his slut in our house and he actually spoke to me today, so I was guessing it was an improvement. Kind of.

"Fine, dad. We're doing fine."

He nodded in satisfaction before speaking in the naturally intimidating voice I had gradually gotten used to. "I'm glad to hear that. How are you coping, you know after hearing about her?"

I shook my head, immediately curious about this 'her' which Gerard was supposed to tell me about. "Her? Who?"

Mr White stood his laptop in hand, looking disturbed and sighed before replying. "He's going to have to tell you himself." With that he left me alone in the spacious conference room, obviously wanting to avoid continuing the conversation.

Talk about cryptic. Again.

I left the room and locked up after me before heading to my office floor. My secretary, Dora was tapping away at the computer screen when I placed the file on her table.

"Hello, Mrs White." No matter how many times I told them not to, they kept calling me that.

"Hey, Dora. I'm gonna need these refiled and reprinted for Mr Strauss' personal assistant coming to pick it up." I opened up the folders, running my hands through the laminated copies. "Also, can you get the financial records behind these and send them to me this night?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll do that." I was leaving when her voice stopped me in my tracks. "Mrs White, I'm sorry but there's a man that--"

"Later, Dora," I cut her off, already walking again. I wasn't in the mood for one of her trivial talks, I wanted to go collapse on my office couch and find a way to drag myself home. Daniel hadn't shown up to drop my car all day and it was mildly irritating, I wish I had insisted he dropped it last night. I opened my office door and crashed onto the lush carpet the moment I slammed the door behind me, I had developed the funny habit of falling onto my soft carpet immediately after entering my office.