Page 83 of Burning for You

Rupert goes on:

Trust me, I’ve been in this game since you were in diapers. Give her power, take her investment. Let her bask in the glory. Carolyn is single-minded and single-focused. Once she’s in it, she’ll go at it full-on. She wouldn’t even notice her own kitchen burning.

True to what he’s boasted, my former right-hand man knows a lot about me. I thank Levi for making me realize I am about to be ‘burned in my own kitchen.’

The correspondence about Brilliance shares emerges, roughly the same time as Josh proposed that I be a majority shareholder. Josh says:

She’s in. Am I persuasive or what!

Rupert replies:

Whatever you do, make sure the agreement has an air-tight clause of shareholder conduct. I have a plan, a location, and a string of investors to back me on this.

The correspondence goes quiet for a couple of weeks, then in his next post, Rupert says:

Bozeman Airport is expanding. Bid on it as an excuse so you can fly over here when I need you. At the same time, let people see your fiancée’s face more than they see you. People will love her, the press will love her, and inevitably, she will be inseparable from Brilliance—imperative for our long-term goal. What we do in the background, in the eyes of the world, she does it.

The Bozeman Airport smokescreen. So Rupert has thought of everything. But there is no mention about Random Valley. Perhaps they discussed it face-to-face during Josh’s many visits to Montana. The conversation jumps to six months ago, where Rupert says:

New York is saturated and ceilinged. Why do you think a big name like me gave up on the city? Invest in HPI, and I will transfer a percentage of ownership of the plans to Brilliance. I guarantee you’ll be richer than Albert Meyer in no time.

So, my puppet fiancé is stupid enough to listen to Teller. Didn’t he see that the Avatar would eat him alive?

Then there are a few exchanges where Rupert is accusing Josh of moving too slow. And he isn’t happy about Josh leaking the share buy-out to Zac Moss, calling Josh ‘a dull-witted squirrel who can’t even take care of his own nuts.’ From Josh’s explanation, looks like it was an honest slippage.

Then there’s a long post containing Rupert’s instructions, dated on the day before I left for Montana:

We’ll take her down once the project hits the point of no return—we’re close. Then we announce our partnership and Bitterroot, and let Carolyn be the one who appears to spearhead it. This is where YOU HAVE TO BE AT YOUR BEST, Joshua.

Forge documents, make her sick, whatever it takes. All you have to do is to convince the Board and shareholders that your ‘wife’ is in it (I advise that you marry her as soon as possible). She’s the majority shareholder, but as her husband, you speak for the both of you.

Then, it will be time for you to shine. As I said from the beginning, no one knows Carolyn more than I do. Using scandals and misconducts, force her to sell her shares back to you. This is why having an air-tight code of conduct clause was paramount.

So, Rupert Teller is planning to oust me from Brilliance by tarnishing my reputation. If Bitterroot really takes off, despite the outrage it will create in the beginning (I guess that’ll slash the share price and allow Josh to buy me out cheaply), the Board and shareholders will eventually look the other way, when they see the dollar signs.

Rupert also says:

If she could dupe a veteran businessman when she was a naïve twenty-two year old, imagine what she can do as a CEO at the age of twenty eight. No Board, no shareholders would ever trust her again after hearing this. They will believe your story if you tell them Carolyn has deceived you. The cake is there, we just need to add some icing on it. You and I will have fun drowning her in scandal after scandal. Whether you want to divorce her or not, it’s up to you. Have a listen to the attached.

The attachment, as I predict, is a sound bite.

This is exactly why I didn’t want Grant Barnes to deal with Josh’s laptop.

Anton Mendez.

I wish I never had to revisit the darkest part of my life. But if Rupert was a part of it, you’d know it wouldn’t ever go away.

So Josh will claim that I’ve deceived him into making me the majority shareholder with my sexual persuasion, for my own ambition, or whatever else they will fabricate. Eventually, Brilliance and HPI will exist side by side to rake in the money from Project Bitterroot, while I’ll be set to lose all my investments, and be disgraced.

The latest correspondence, dated only three days ago, reveals Rupert’s worry about my disappearance, but Josh assures him that everything is under control.

Suddenly I see an alert that ‘Avatar is online.’ At the same time, Josh’s phone beeps.

“Shit!” I quickly pack up, and then tiptoe to locate the device. It’s lying on the kitchen bench, and I see a notification from the Black Cat Engine:

Avatar: Is she back?

I leave the phone untouched. With dread, I go back to the sleeping lion.

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