Hostile Takeover

Chapter Twenty-Two

Quinn was not having it. Here she was in an important meeting with Celia Wright and her ex-husband was texting her. She'd reverted to calling him her ex-husband because she was mad at him and the fact that he wouldn't leave her alone via text message while she was busy was only making matters worse.

"Do you need to answer that?" Celia said when her phone started to ring.

"No, it's just Gray. He can wait. Lord knows I've waited for him enough times."

Celia laughed in agreement. "The secret is that you have to train them. My husband was perpetually late for everything."

"So is Gray! How did you fix him?"

"Gave him a taste of his own medicine. When he realised how highly inconvenient it was, he stopped doing it. But it took years. They're like big kids sometimes."

"Worse if they have a mother who pandered to their every whim," Quinn said. "Before I met Gray, he'd never even been grocery shopping."

"Now that Randall has retired, I got rid of my housekeeper and put him in charge of the grocery shopping, cooking, and the cleaning."

Quinn laughed. "I can't even begin to imagine Gray with a vacuum cleaner."

After a moment she noticed Celia just staring at her. "You're not really over him, are you?"

Quinn sighed. "Oh, I don't know. It's like we take one step forward and two steps back. Just when I think our marriage is salvageable, it all falls apart again. Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to sit here and listen to me talk about my marriage. I see a therapist for that."

"It's a shame, I like Gray."

"You know Gray?"

"Yes, he's the only one of those Holloway's that has any shred of decency. The best decision he made was to distance himself from them. And marrying you."

Quinn contemplated Celia's words. Maybe she had been too hard on Gray this morning. He hadn't really been that late and he was trying so hard to make changes just for her.

"Anyway, I'll get Amanda up here, she's my PR consultant and we can talk about what will happen at the function."

"Sure, sounds great," she said only half listening. Her mind was on Gray. As soon as this meeting was done she would call him. Maybe this time it was her turn to apologise. Celia left the room to make the phone call and Quinn quickly checked her own phone to see a dozen messages left by Gray. Except there was one from Byron.

'Just a quick message to let you know Morgan received the divorce papers from Gray this morning,' it said.

Quinn froze. He'd done the unthinkable. He'd sent off the divorce papers all because she had decided to take control of her own life for once. Quinn couldn't believe it. Of all the egomaniacal, petty things he could do. She was fuming and as soon as she was done with Celia, she was going straight to his office to have it out with him.

****

Gray hated it when things didn't go his way. He hated it even more when his wife ignored his calls and text messages. Why couldn't she just understand that everything he did was for them? The reason he was late was that he was trying to keep Dylan the fuck away from his marriage. He was so close to regaining control of everything that he could taste it, why couldn't Quinn see it that way?

His head pounded. He was sure the effects of his hangover had faded away by now, but the pressure was still there. And when the phone rang on his desk, he almost jumped out of his seat. "Simon," he said.