Page 136 of Dex

If my father had told me how bad things were, would I have done this?

Yes.

The answer comes back in a heartbeat.Because if the company was in as bad a state as I’ve now discovered, we would have needed Oscar Ramos...or the Knights.

I couldn’t imagine a life with Ramos, but meeting Dexter Knight was the best thing that happened to me.

I’ve met the love of my life.Only, I don’t know if he wants to be with me anymore.I decide that I’ll sleep in my own bedroom, because he probably doesn’t want me anywhere near him.I have a feeling that he’ll withdraw again and this time it will be worse than before.

When he walks in, much later, looking at me like I’m a stranger, everything we had between disappears.

“I’m going to bed,” he announces.

I want to ask him if he wants to eat.Or if he wants to talk.But no, he’sthatDexter again.Guarded.Closed off.He doesn’t want anything to do with me.

He tosses the car keys into the marble console, like he does every day.But he looks weary, aged.As if he’s been carrying a heavy weight ever since the news broke.“I wish you’d told me,” he says again, the blame heavy in his tone.

“I told you, I didn’t know.”

“You knewsomething.”

“I didn’t know it was this bad, Dexter.You must believe me.”

“But you knew it wasn’t exactly how your father presented it.Fabricating the accounts.”He swipes a weary hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.“Don’t put your walls up, Dexter.Let me in.”

He walks toward me, eyes sad, like this is insolvable.“If you’d told me, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

It’s over.That’s what he’s really saying.

He takes my hands in his, his dark eyes meeting mine.“I just need some time and space.I’m not pushing you away, Daniela.I’m not.I need to work through this myself.Just let me be, for a while, please.”

He’s trying to make me feel better, but I’m already scared.I nod, then retreat to my bedroom and close the door, feeling desolate and broken.My attention shifts when I hear the ping of a notification on my phone.I check it to see that my father has sent me an email with the new contract attached.My eyes scan across the document quickly, and then my heart stops.

My father has signed away control of his company to Paul Knight and the snake now has the majority share.

My insides twist so hard I feel sick.Rage bubbles up, thick enough to choke me.I want to scream, to break something, to tear Paul Knight’s empire down brick by brick and watch him burn in the ashes of what he did to us.

He tricked my father.Manipulated him when he was vulnerable.Pressured him into signing a contract he didn’t read, didn’t pass to legal, didn’t even question because he trusted the devil in a suit who smiled while sharpening the knife.

This is my worst nightmare come to life.I went into this marriage of convenience thinking I was helping my father, and now, Paul Knight owns fifty-one percent of everything my father built.

I read and reread those paragraphs again, disbelief warring with anger.Nostrils flaring, my resentment for this man boundless.

“Papai!”I call my father back quickly, barely able to control my rage.“Did you mean to sign away control of your company?”

He cries out, like he’s in agony, and it tells me he didn’t.I blame myself.I shouldn’t have told him over the phone.I should have flown back home and sat my parents down and explained the seriousness of the situation.

Because I now understand it myself.

What this means for us, for our business.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was Paul Knight’s ultimate goal in the end.If he made my father relinquish control of his company, what was in theoriginalcontract?I remember that he never gave us a copy of it, even though Dexter and I both asked for it.Something doesn’t smell quite right.

Paul Knight claimed that he wanted this alliance to get his foot in the South American market, but he’s a wily man, where my father is not.

What if he had ulterior motives from the start?

---