Page 13 of Due Diligence

“Thrilling,” I retorted. I straightened my spine and crossed my arms. “Can’t wait to hear how that goes. But don’t get too obsessed with it, because I’ll be shocked if you’re still on this account at the end of the day.”

“It’s not an account, asshole!” she blurted out, whirling around as she paused the process of packing up her belongings “You’re not a fucking account. You’re a seller and we’re buyers. We’re literally trying to give you hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you know how much money that is? That’s ‘fuck you’ money, Marcus.”

“‘Fuck you’ money?”

She nodded. “Yeah. ‘Fuck you,’ money. It’s an amount of money so large, you could waltz up to your boss and say, ‘fuck you,’ once it came into your possession because the ramifications no longer matter. And all those people out there,” she said as she gestured to the crowd of onlookers, “would love to have ‘fuck you’ money. So if you want to put that at risk, be my guest. To be honest, I don’t care. I’m just doing my job.”

“Then do your job better.”

“I was late twice!” she insisted as she scooped up her bag. “And you have some nerve criticizing me for making a little mistake, based onyourhistory.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked the question, but deep down, I knew what she was talking about. It was theVanity Fairarticle, I was sure. The one that followed me wherever I went.

“So great to meet you,” she snapped, causticity seeping through every syllable. “I really hope this whole thing works out for you.”

“Thanks for your love and support!” I shouted back at her retreating figure.

As soon as she was out of the fishbowl and then out of the building, I kicked my chair, which slammed against the brick wall. When I turned around again, I realized that every single person on staff, Alex included, was still staring at me with wide eyes. I couldn’t blame them. It had been close to six years since I had allowed myself to show this much emotion at work—or anywhere, for that matter.

Six-second reset.

The first thing I did was roll my chair back to its place at the head of the table. I aligned it with the edge, making sure it was centered. Then I picked up my laptop and headed back to my office. Dozens of pairs of eyes followed me as I walked, with only my footsteps on the hardwood floor to break the silence.

I wasn’t supposed to be in my office anymore, but I couldn’t give a shit about that. I took a seat at my desk, which was covered in file boxes and binders, and I put my head down on the surface.

“What just happened?” Alex demanded as he walked in without knocking. “Are you okay?”

Another six-second reset.

“I’m fine.”

“You look…very far from fine, my friend,” he finally said. “Where the hell did Cassandra just go?”

“I don’t care,” I responded. “Alex, tell me: Do you remember her from college?”

“College?” he asked, brow furrowed. “We barely went.”

I forced myself to release a measured exhale. Sometimes, I really wondered how it was possible for Alex to be so brilliantyet so dense at the same time. “We went for four months,” I reminded him. “You don’t remember her at all? She was in our year at Princeton. Class president. Cassie Pierson.”

“Well, that was ten years ago.” He frowned and his handsome face looked young as he racked his brain. “Did I sleep with her?”

“Nope.”

“And we both know you didn’t sleep with her. Was she a friend of ours?”

“Definitely not.”

“Okay, so—”

“She’s the girl from Ivy,” I reminded him.

The Ivy Club was one of Princeton’s eating clubs, which were basically co-ed fraternities and sororities. During our brief stint at college before we dropped out to found Libra, we did most of our partying at those eating clubs. I wasn’t surprised it took Alex a few beats to make the connection. Truth be told, we were blackout drunk most of the time.

“Oh,her.” After the moment of recognition passed, Alex frowned once again. “Wait, are you still upset about that?”

I groaned and leaned forward, resting my head against one of the file boxes. “Apparently I am. I didn’t realize I was so angry about it until I recognized her. Then all those fucked up things she said and did to me just came flooding back, and I just…”

Alex cleared his throat as he took a step closer to my desk. “Look. I want to be your best friend, but I have to be a CEO right now. Marcus, you need to pull it together.”

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