Chapter 8 Chapter Eight
MARK’S POV
A knock came on my door.
“Come in,” I called out without tearing my eyes away from the files before me.
I heard the smooth creak of the door as it was opened. My assistant’s voice drifted to me, “Luxe Vogue has replied, sir.”
“Hmm,” I hummed, and nodded. “When will the n*ecklaces be ready?”
“It’s not about the n*ecklace, sir. It’s about the acquisition offer we sent them.”
I looked up and pushed my chair back. “Oh, really. When are we meeting to final- ize the handover of the website?” I asked.
It had been a coincidence that Atelier is partnered with the website I’ve had my eyes on for the past months. Their response hadn’t come for months, but I had been relentless. I kept instructing my assistant to keep sending them emails.
After Bella had left, I had searched about Atelier myself and damn! Bella was right. They made stunning jewelry. The quality of their stones was top–notch. It had filled me with pride and reassured me that acquiring the website was a good decision. It would improve GT Group’s goodwill if one of the companies in our grasp is partnered with a studio like Atelier.
“There’s no fixed time for that, sir.” I frowned, a ‘why‘ on the tip of my tongue, but he beat me to it. “The founder had directly turned down our offer, sir.”
sighed. It was more money they wanted. Nothing more. “Increase the acquisi- tion price to a hundred million dollars,” I couldn’t help the smirk that accompa- nied my instruction. No one would refuse such an amount, no matter how much they loved the company.
I
pushed my chair forward to dive back into work, but my assistant was still lin-
gering there. When I arched a brow at him, he spoke up. “They left no room for
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Chapter Chapter Fight
negotiation, sir. They aren’t interested in any acquisition proposals, so they asked us not to contact them again.”
“Hmm,” I hummed and nodded at his words. “And who could this owner be?
Bring me the information of the founder of Luze Vogue,”
“Founders, sir, there are two founders. I’ll bring the files now. He turned and
left the room.
“Two founders? Interesting.”
He was back in a jiffy. He placed his laptop before me, and waves of informa tion rolled down about the founders of Luxe Vogue on the screen.
“Initially, there had been a response that our offer would be given a thought.
Suddenly, yesterday the email turning down the offer came in,”
One of the founders must have been tempted then.
I read about the first image that popped up. Grace.
There was detailed information about Grace. Her parents, jobs she had done,
her schooling history, and many more. The other founder, on the other hand, barely had anything to her name.
There was no picture, and there was little to no information about her. The only worthy information there was ‘Co–founder of Luxe Vogue‘ with a blurry pic-
ture.
I had to squint at the screen to read the name, and it was still not making
sense.
“What’s this?” I asked, irritated.
My assistant’s head hung low, unable to meet my eyes. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve dug for the info of other founders, but that was all I could come up with. Grace’s partner seemed to treasure an extremely private life.”
I hissed and turned back to the laptop. I scrolled back to Grace’s info to see if I
would be able to get anything about her partner.
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The more I stared at the picture and read the name, the louder a bell rang in my head. I tapped on Grace’s picture. She looked quite familiar…distinctly so.
Suddenly it clicked. Grace was the girl Joel had clung to some years back. They had been dating, and he would always go on and on about her.
If I could get a way to reach Grace or know more about her personal life, per- haps it would be easier to discover her mysterious partner. If I was going to push the offer to them again, I needed a one–on–one meeting with both of them.
I reclined in my chair. “Take this,” I pointed to the laptop, “I’ll let you know if I need you again.”
He took his laptop and walked out.
I picked up my phone, scrolled through my contact lists until I found the name
I was looking for. I tapped on it, and the line went through.
He picked up instantly. “Yo, man. What’s up? Been a while.”
“Nothing much. What are you up to tonight?”
He hummed for a while, “Nothing really. Just work.”
“Let’s meet up at the usual place tonight. I need to unwind, and I have some-
thing to talk to you about.”
“Sounds important. What’s this talk about, Mark?”
“You’ll know when we meet,” I said and ended the call.
I got back to work. Went through all of the files I had stacked up for some time.
now.
It wasn’t until late tonight that I and my assistant rounded up.
I first thought of going back home, but the thought of going back to find the house devoid of Sydney’s presence had me driving directly to the bar.
Each time I remembered that she still was bent on Each time I remembered that she still was bent on the issue of divorce, I was filled with an unexplainable rage. I had been able to block away any thoughts of it with work, but now it was
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all I could think about. This was a crucial time for the company, all eyes were on us, and she wanted to ruin the whole thing with a divorce? Over my dead b*dy.
The lights flickering from one color to the other, the sweaty bodies packed tight on the dance floor of the bar wasn’t what I looked forward to tonight. I just wanted peace and a sane night with my friends.
During my drive here, Joel had called me, his voice barely visible over the loud thud of music in the bar. “Will is also here.”
I had asked, “what?” For about three times before I finally heard him.
I met them in the private area, the space specifically hired for just the three of us.
It was the only place where we could talk and also partly feel the vibe thrum-
ming in the bar.
I had my assistant send the file containing Grace’s info to me. Now I turned the
picture to face Joel. “You know her, right? You guys dated.”
Will butted in and whistled. “I remember her; she was that it girl you were shag- ging that time.” He turned to me, “I did ask him if he’d like to share, you know.”
“Asshole,” Joel chuckled and nodded at me. “Yeah, I know. But we didn’t date.
Just, you know,” he wiggled his brows, a smug expression on his face, “f**k buddies, friends with benefits. That sort of thing.”
“That’s even hotter!” Will laughed.
“Shut up,” Joel shook his head at Will. Then his expression turned solemn. Dra- matically, he placed a palm on his ch*st and closed his eyes, “My heart belongs to Sandra. By the way, she’ll be back soon.”
Sandra was Joel’s long–time female best friend and crush. They’ve both had a thing for each other since I had known the both of them. They might have hooked up once or twice, but they never made anything official before she trav-
eled out of the country.
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I shook my head and tucked my phone back in my pocket.
“So why’d you ask?”
“So why’d you guys stop f**king?”
Will and Joel asked at the same time.
Of course, I knew which question to answer. I took a sip of my wine, my gaze going over the twisting and sweating bodies on the dance floor, particularly the girls. If Bella wasn’t back, I would’ve picked one of those girls and have a good
time with them in a hotel.
“She owns a company. I offered an acquisition proposal and she flat out de- clined. Well, she and her partner.”
“Luxe Vogue, right? She used to talk about it. She has a really good eye for fash-
ion.” Joel looked at me above the rim of his wineglass and listened. Will, some-
how, had a girl straddling him.
know. Now the partner is the issue. I suspect the partner might have been the
one to decline the offer.”
As I spoke, I heard Will mutter something about going to the restroom.
“Then look up the partner,” Joel suggested, the look on his face said how he thought the solution was pretty simple.
“You think I haven’t?” I took another sip of the wine. “I have, man. There’s noth- ing about the partner on the net. Some mysterious shit.”
Joel’s l*ps formed an O.
“You still in contact with her?”
He k*ssed his teeth, “Barely. We ended things a long time ago. But I can still
reach her though. She’s cool, I’m sure I can set up a meeting with you and her.”
I shifted to the edge of my seat. “That will be great.”
“Who I’d like to set up a meeting with is that hottie right there,” Will had a huge grin on his face as he climbed up the stairs and painted downstairs. His shirt
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was now unbuttoned, showing the tanned skin underneath and his belt was
nowhere to be found.
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve just got off some slut; would you relax?”
He threw me a smirk, “I can’t relax when I see hotties like that- Goddammit!” He broke off and went to the railing. “Mark?”
.I frowned at his back. His voice was tinged with that mischievousness of his. Before I could let out a coherent ‘what‘ he rushed to my side and pulled me to where he had been standing.
“My God. Isn’t that goddess right there your wife?” His head whipped between my face and the dance floor, and I saw him lick his l*ps in my peripheral vision. He looked at the lady on the spotlight like he was hypnotized, “If not, then I’ll be damned if I don’t share her bed tonight.”
I looked closely, squinting at the willowy figure rubbing against the crotch of some guy. Her butt was clad in the tiniest skirt, her top clung to the top half of her b*dy, and her long legs and heeled feet left little to the imagination.
My heart skipped a beat just as a memory flashed. The lady with the head–turn-
ing smell at the airport.
“Holy shit!” I muttered. Without another word, I pushed Will aside and raced
down the stairs.
