Page 66 of The Passion

“Thank you for the respect you showed Felisha by not watching it. And you are far from a fool, rather a very well-respected businesswoman, and from the last hour spent with you, I can also say a lovely lady.” I mean every word I say.

“You are too old to try sucking up to me to get what you want.” She smiles, though, and I know she is not being too serious.

“Far from one to suck up to people, Luchia, I’m usually known more for pissing people off with my cockiness, so let’s get that out of the way straight up. This is something that is extremely important to me and must stay between you and me until the time is right.”

“Okay then, go on.” Waving her hand at me, she leans back into her chair to listen intently to what I’m about to say.

I take a deep breath. It’s now or never.

“I would like to purchase your share in Kentwall Estates.” I can see her trying to keep her poker face, but she wasn’t expecting that.

She lets me continue to tell her the proposed deal. She sits there not saying much but just digesting what I have said.

The sweat is running down my back, and it feels like I’m in the principal’s office and they are deciding my fate from something I did wrong.

“My business brain tells me that I should worry about a competitor trying to buy up shares in a company in secret, but I see through you, Flynn. This is not about business, is it?”

I want to lay it all on the table, but I can’t trust anyone with the full story.

“No, it’s not about business.” That’s all I say, and the fact that Nic has left the meeting would indicate to her that this is personal to me.

“So, you are prepared to pay me whatever it takes to get control of my shares, for a woman?” She taps her long nails on the table like she is thinking but also waiting for me to answer.

I only have one answer.

“Yes.”

“And what are you prepared to do with these shares if you get hold of them?” She clasps her hands together as her elbows are now resting on the table, and she sits forward and shows that she is ready to challenge me.

“Make sure they end up in the hands of the rightful owner.” I take a breath, knowing I’m going to have to give her more if I want to get closer to her thinking about the deal. “Surely you have seen the smear campaign her father has started to discredit her since the video was released. And you would know that she is to take control of the company in nine weeks. However, if my suspicions are correct, her father is trying to stop that from happening.” I’m very careful not to let out anything that I know of what is happening or to be seen accusing anyone of anything.

“Why didn’t Felisha come to me herself?”

And here is the detail that I’m not sure she is going to be happy about, and to be honest, I’m not even sure that I chose the right way to do this either, but it’s too late now.

“Because she doesn’t know. And before you worry that I’m trying to do something underhanded, you are right, but it’s for all the right reasons. This in not in any way business-related, it’s purely personal, and I would never do anything to hurt her.” I flop back in my chair because I know I’m up against not only a killer of a businesswoman, but this is a protective Italian motherand grandmother who will be looking at this as if Felisha were one of her family.

Instead of continuing to interrogate me, instead she also relaxes back into her chair and starts to laugh at me.

“Oh, you poor, stupid boy. If, and that’s a very big if, you manage to pull this off, you are about to be in a whole world of pain when she finds out. Do you have any idea what a woman on the attack is like? Because I have a feeling you are about to find out.”

Taking another sip of her wine, she just looks at me for a few minutes.

“Do you know how I came about owning shares in Kentwall Estates?”

And that’s the part that I don’t know. She has owned them for a very long time, and those records aren’t public property.

“No, but I’m interested.” Because any more backstory I can find out about Ewan Kentwall is going to help our plans.

“My husband, may he rest in peace, acquired the shares from Ewan before he passed away over fifteen years ago. As his sole heir, of course, they came to me, and I could see they were a solid investment, so I kept them. But there were things I found out about my husband after he passed to do with how these shares came to be in his possession. I, like you, keep my personal details close to my chest, but all I will say was they were given to him to repay a debt between him and Ewan.”

The serious look on her face is like she is trying to help me connect the dots, but there is no need.

There are more things connecting in my head right now than she realizes.

I always wondered why he had sold off shares of the company when it was a private family one. Nic’s grandfather never sold off any of his company, although he needed a board to help run it as it grew so large.

But as I’ve been guessing, Ewan has run up a gambling debt that he needed to clear, and the only way not to expose himself in some way was to give away parts of the company.

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