Stealing Hearts

Chapter 8 - Natalie Rushman

May 18th, 2010

Veronica Stark's POV

After the whole hearing with Senator Stern and Justin Hammer, my life has been even more chaotic. The mountains of paperwork, fighting off both government officials and paparazzi, dealing with Tony who has been hiding something from me, Fury on my back about getting Natasha in. Let's just say, it's been a lot, a lot of late nights and early mornings, and absolutely no breaks. I walk down to the lab since I need to try and get Tony to do his part as CEO but I know it is probably futile. But I also need to talk to Tony about selling our modern art collection.

I walk in and immediately march toward him. "What were you thinking?" I demand angrily.

"What?"

"What were you thinking?" I demand again getting even madder as Tony stands up and begins walking.

"Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy." Really? Busy? Busy my ass. "And you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don't wanna get sick." I swear I am about to kill my brother, or at least punch him.

"Did you just donate..." I begin before Tony interrupts me. What is it with men and interrupting?

"Keep your distance."

"...our entire modern art collection to the..." I continue before he interrupts me AGAIN!

"Boy Scouts of America."

"Boy Scouts of America?" We say at the same time.

"Yes. It is a worthwhile organization. I didn't physically check the crates but, basically, yes. And it's not "our" collection. It's my collection. No offense."

"No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say "our" collection considering the time that I put in, over 10 years, curating that. And do I need to remind you that this is MY house?"

"It was a tax write-off. I needed that."

"You know there's only 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about." Of course, Tony isn't really listening to me.

"Dummy. Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part."

"The Expo is a giant waste of time."

"I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?" I try to hold back a cough. But my immune system has taken a hit since I haven't been sleeping enough or eating regular meals. But that's what happens when your brother spends all of his days in a lab instead of helping you run one of the largest companies in the world.

"That's rude," I scoff, choosing to otherwise ignore him. 

"There's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're..."

"The Expo is your ego gone crazy." I laugh but it's really not funny and sometimes I want to chop Tony's ego into tiny pieces and shove it up his ass.

"Wow. Look at that." Tony is once again ignoring me as he finds an Iron Man art piece. "That's modern art. That's going up."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding."

"I'm gonna put it up right now." I choose to ignore my brother's antics and get back on topic.

"Stark is in complete disarray. You understand that?"

"No. Our stocks have never been higher," my brother protests.

"Yes, from a managerial standpoint."

"Well, then let's double back."

"Let me give you an example."