Page 84 of A Life Imagined
“Hmm.”
“If she comes again…?”
“Lock the door.”
Rayan frowned, and Mathias gave a short laugh.
“I think I can handle my own mother, Rayan.”
“Do you think—”
“She knows.”
Rayan let out a slow breath.“And are you…?”
“Fine.”
They exchanged a look, Rayan clearly as caught off-balance as he was.“At least this time, she didn’t ask where I was from.”
“That woman, I swear…” Mathias said.
“You know, I’m probably not…” Rayan stopped, his eyebrows pulling together.“Someone she’d approve of.”
“What a relief,” Mathias said, stepping away from the door and reaching out to give Rayan’s shirt collar a tug.“I’ve always considered it fortunate we don’t see eye to eye.”
Yet that wasn’t what Mathias had gathered from his mother’s visit.In fact, he’d had the distinct impression that she understood that neither Rayan nor their life together would ever be up for discussion.
Mathias rolled out of bed and stretched his stiff limbs.Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, he saw that the bruises on his face had already begun to fade.He showered and dressed then pulled out his phone and headed downstairs to the study.He took a seat at his desk before dialing.
Heylen picked up almost immediately.“Mathias, it’s been a while.”
“Here are my terms,” he said, wasting no time on small talk.“I’ll agree to the partnership, but ownership is split clean down the middle—none of this sixty-forty shit.I want full day-to-day control and compensation proportional to profits.”
Heylen chuckled.“You’re not saying anything I wasn’t expecting.”
“And I want to relocate the business to Calais.”
There was a pause.“Now, that might be harder for the board to get behind.”
The corners of Mathias’s mouth curved upward.No need to make it too easy for Heylen.He wanted to see how far he could push.His terms, or he’d walk—simple as that.
“It’s a decent port.Not Bruges, but big enough to meet the margins you’re after.And this way, you’d be diversifying.Something shuts down operations in Belgium, and you’ve got a nice little alternative ticking away over here.”
Heylen appeared to be thinking it over.“It’s a fair point.”
“You’ll get your results.There’ll be a longer lead-up, but I’ll deliver.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Heylen said.“Look, with me, you’re golden.I just need to run it by the board.But, Mathias, this could be big.”
Mathias allowed himself a smile.He felt it again—the rush of ambition, the thrill of the hunt.“It will be.”
The fire that started during the riot swept through a large section of the Jungle, destroying tents and shelters and leaving hundreds of people homeless.They began to spread out into the city, squatting in parks and other public spaces.The camp hadn’t even been closed yet, and Calais was already feeling the effects of what would happen if no thought were given to the future.
Rayan took no pleasure in the fact that the predictions they’d given the mayor were becoming a reality.And that reality didn’t truly hit home until Rayan ran into Amer on his way back from the center one evening.The elderly schoolteacher had moved with his daughter and her children to a park near the beach after their shelter had gone up in flames.Rayan offered to help them find alternative arrangements, but Amer politely refused, too proud to accept his charity.Amer bid him good night, and Rayan walked the rest of the way home with a rock in his stomach.
“Patience,” Mathias counseled him when he’d returned to the house, frustrated and disheartened.“I’m meeting with Durand on Friday.Things will get underway soon enough.”
Mathias’s certainty rankled him.Rayan remembered how powerless he’d felt standing in the mayor’s office, listening to Durand refuse to commit city resources to a problem that wasn’t his.“I don’t think you realize how adamantly against this he is.”
