And So I Ran - Complete

Chapter 35

"Everything ok?" I asked as Christian came back into the library.

"Fine. I have to make a call, but I can do it here with you..." Christian sat back on the sofa and pulled me against him, resting one hand on my lower stomach, the other playing with his phone. He dialed a number before putting the phone on the back of the sofa with the speaker on.

"Christian! I just got a phone call from Stan Silvers summoning me to a meeting at the salons tomorrow afternoon. He said as the new part owner he wanted to discuss strategic direction with me?"

Ahh. So, Mrs. Lincoln. I raised an eyebrow at Christian, and he smirked, raising his finger to motion for me to be quiet and listen.

"That's exciting. Esclava has been coasting for a while now if the books are anything to go by. Hopefully, a new direction will pick things up?"

"Then it's true? You sold your stake to Stan Silvers?" she shrieked, the thin veneer of self-composure disappearing altogether.

"Yes. That's right. Paid me a pretty penny for it, too."

"Why didn't you consult me? I would have bought you out?!"

"Sorry. Silvers' offer was too good to refuse." Christian was grinning.

"I won't turn my salons into cut-price hairdressers! I'll lose all my clientele!"

"Oh, I am sure you and Silvers can work something out..."

"This is because of that little bitch you're fucking, isn't it? She doesn't like me, so you fuck me over? I was there for you, Christian, when no one else was. I gave you the capital to start your empire. Without me, you would be nothing!"

"Believe that if it makes you feel better, Elena. I made my position about you meeting Ana quite clear. Now we have no business dealings, you have no need to call or visit me. You're just somebody I used to know."

"You haven't heard the last from me, Christian," she said, her words clearly a threat.

"This better be the last I hear from you. It will be worse for you if it isn't," he growled, picking up the phone and pressing end.

Christian leaned in and kissed me.

"Ros sold my interest in Elena's salons today."

"So I gathered. Did you do ok with the deal?"

Christian grinned. "Yep! Ros got us one point four million. By my estimates, my share was worth about eight-hundred thousand, even with Elena siphoning off a decent share of the profit in cash each year, so it wasn't included in the profits."

"She was stealing from you even while you were partners?" I was shocked. After everything that bitch had done to him, she stole from him, too?!

"Almost certainly. But it was cheaper to let her take it. The amount I'd have to spend on an audit to catch her would have been more than she was stealing. Anyway – not my problem now."

"Do you really think she's gone?"

"Probably not, but I have people to deal with it if she gets nasty."

"What if she discloses something about your lifestyle?" I wouldn't put it past the bitch to do it.

"She has more to lose than I do. I had contracted consensual relationships with adult women. She molested me when I was fifteen."

My heart clenched at the words, and I cuddled closer to my darling man.

"You can see that now?"