Page 70 of Discord
While we had prepared for Milo’s more predictable moves, other attacks came from left field.
Having exhausted his resources, Milo attempted to seize my company assets. This shouldn’t have been possible, considering all the accounts were under my name. How he had managed such a feat was beyond my comprehension.
In haste, I withdrew my estimated salary for the year, including bonuses. The moment I deposited the money into an entirely separate account, Milo went in for the kill.
Freezing the company assets was a decoy to corner me, forcing me to take that exact action of moving company money without my partners’ consent.
This morning, Milo slapped me with a lawsuit for embezzlement.
“This is all my fault.” Mia covered her mouth with the back of her hand. “I can’t believe he is suing you.”
“It’s not your fault.” I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m not worried about some lawsuit.”
Her voice cracked, tears falling down her cheeks. “How are you supposed to fight this?”
She knew it gutted me to see her cry. Tipping her chin up, I kissed away the tears. My thumb stroked her damp cheeks. “Don’t cry, Bunny. I’ll take care of it.”
She shook her head. “I should have seen this coming.”
“No one saw this one coming. And it doesn’t matter. I’m more worried about what this is doing to you.” More precisely, I was worried she might backtrack because the road ahead would only get worse.
Lawsuits were messy and time consuming. If Milo was determined to sue me, this could go on for months, if not years. And a company our size would be brought to public speculation, especially since the four of us were fairly well known in the New York City scene. A high-profile litigation meant Mia would have to publicly choose a man accused of stealing money from her family.
Mia perched on my lap with one arm around my neck. “I can’t believe this is happening. I should have never underestimated Milo.”
“He is angry right now, but he’ll drop the lawsuit once he calms down,” I lied to console her. Milo would never back down.
“You’re a terrible liar,” she whispered through her broken voice. It might have made me smile if the sadness in her voice didn’t gut me.
Of course, Mia didn’t believe my lies. After all, she knew Milo the best, more so than Raven or me.
“R-Raven called me this morning," she admitted somewhat guiltily.
I felt a black cloud gathering over me. This wasn’t the first bout of drama between the four of them. Over the years, they had ignored each other over petty shit. However, Mia and Raven always had each other’s backs and had never veered off course. It wasn’t necessarily good news because Raven despised me.
Now that she knew about us, how long before she said the words to give Mia a push in the other direction?
“What did she say?” I kept my voice even.
“She wasn’t happy about my dishonesty and wanted me to come home.”
I had a prickling sensation of Mia gearing up to phrase my worst nightmare. I didn’t want to separate. Couldn’t deal with an empty apartment, not after having it come alive under her lure. Couldn’t return to an empty bed when she wasn’t there to excitedly wake me up or talk my ears off at night. Even her snooping had become endearing.
I wanted to solidify things. Drag her to the nearest courthouse. But I had agreed to come clean to her family and wait for their acceptance. It’s what her heart desired, to not be put in the middle between the people she loved. And I wanted to give her everything she desired.
Mia was no longer some little enamored girl, making cartoon heart eyes at me. She was the woman I loved, the partner I had given a voice to, and, for the life of me, I could never take that voice away. Not after a lifetime of others ignoring her voice.
Whatever her choice, we had to discuss it together. I braced myself, snuffing the knife slicing through me. “Mia—”
“I apologized to her for lying. Then reminded her this was a package deal.”
I grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her to my lips for such an abrupt kiss, that her breath hitched. Leaning my forehead against hers, I stared into her blue eyes. The same eyes had known me for her entire life, and now I wanted them on me for the rest of mine.
"They’ll come around,” I whispered.
This time I didn’t have to lie because I planned to sign everything over to Milo and leave the company behind in hopes of starting a peace treaty. I was aware it’d be signing the death certificate for my career. Didn’t care because my objective in life had changed.
* * *
