Page 23 of One Week To Claim It All
“She’s nowhere near as bad as Onyx,” Rodrigo agreed, “but she’s always let Carmelina steamroll her.” Patricio’s youngest daughter was no match for her mother’s malice. “There are still Esmeralda’s shares, which she can’t touch, but she technically doesn’t need her to sell the rest.”
“No, she’s got the three votes.” Jimena’s voice was tight with worry as she confirmed what they both knew. Sambrano’s only provision regarding selling shares to an outside party was that three out of the four majority shareholders agreed on the sale. As things stood right now, the shares were equally divided between Carmelina and Patricio’s three children. With Onyx and Perla on their mother’s side, Esme would not be able to stop her father’s widow from essentially selling the company out from under her.
Rodrigo’s fury rose as he surmised the repercussions of what Carmelina was planning. If she got her way she’d not only get rid of Esme, but would finally get him out of the picture, too. Anger burned in his gut like hot coals. Almost twenty years of this, of Carmelina scheming and destroying because of her fucked-up sense of entitlement over everything Patricio owned.
Esmeralda at least deserved the chance to have a say in the future of her father’s company. That was something that had never been in question—even if he was determined to keep his job, he had never intended to see Esmeralda cast out. But if Carmelina did this, there was no saving Sambrano. He looked at the door and heard the women on the other side chattering happily and swore to himself he would do whatever it took to stop that woman from pushing Esmeralda out.
“Wait,” Jimena said, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I just got a really cryptic text from Magdalena. I told her about the meeting with Deringer and she’s been doing some digging around of her own.” The CFO from Sambrano was a straight shooter and if there was anything amiss, she would find it.
“What did she say?” Rodrigo asked, his focus back on Jimena.
“She’s asking me to come to her place in an hour,” Jimena said, and Rodrigo could hear her fingers tapping on a keyboard. “She says she called in some favors and she’s got some information about Carmelina’s finances.”
Rodrigo had heard enough. He stormed out of the room after promising to meet Jimena at Magdalena’s penthouse in an hour. When he stepped into the living room he found Esme smiling as she chatted happily with her mother and aunts. He’d be damned if he let Carmelina try to break this woman again. “I have to go,” he told Esme, who stood up from where she’d been sitting with her mother when he appeared.
“Are you all right?” she asked, probably noticing the tension coming off of him in waves.
For a second he considered telling her. Maybe it would be good to let her know what was going on. But then he thought of the blow that would be. To know that Carmelina had not even considered playing fair. That her siblings were colluding with their mother to end Esme’s chances.
He didn’t want Carmelina’s machinations to mess with Esmeralda more than they already had. Besides, he was still CEO of the company and it was his job to fix this, not Esme’s. No matter how much he wished for them to be able to find a way to continue to spend time together—perhaps even more than that after this was all over—he had a job to do.
“I’m fine,” he lied, as he leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Something came up that I need to take care of. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”
She nodded slowly, her face doubtful. She could tell something was up, but she didn’t pry. “Okay, I’m going to try to finish my presentation tonight. Would you be able to take a look at it in the morning?”
“Sure,” he said distractedly, his mind already racing with all the things he needed to do. Hoping it would be enough to thwart Carmelina and her kids. “I’ll look at it as soon as I get in.” With that he did a round of kisses and apologies for having to take off, and within minutes he was back in the town car. His phone buzzed and his stomach clenched in response when he saw Carmelina Sambrano’s name flashing on the screen.
“How could you do this?” he growled into the speaker before she got a chance to get a word in.
“Wow, Rodrigo, you actually do have the ability to emote?”
He breathed through his nose, trying to manage the consuming anger this woman was inciting in him. “Are you really going to throw away your husband’s life work just so Esmeralda doesn’t have a chance to be the CEO?”
“I’m not really interested in talking details over the phone, querido, but I do have an offer for you.”
“Why would you think I’d ever agree to do anything with you?” he asked as rage tore through him.
“Because I can make sure you can keep your job—and more importantly, that fifty-million-dollar salary you’re always saying you sacrificed so much to get.”
There it was. He’d known she’d do this. She thought she finally had the thing that would lure him to her side. He felt his back molars grind together at the derision in her voice. Like he hadn’t earned every fucking cent he made. Like it wasn’t a fraction of the money he’d brought in for Sambrano over the years. “Deringer has agreed to keep you on as CEOifyou help facilitate the negotiations. With your support behind the sale, the board will be more amenable.”
All the blood rushed to his head at once and he felt like he was going to be sick. This woman really thought she could just buy him off. That he would betray Patricio, Esmeralda and himself for money.
Then again, Carmelina didn’t understand loyalty; she didn’t get what it was like to stand by something because you believed in it. She only believed in one thing: herself. She only cared about winning. And that’s where he would beat her at her own game.
Fifteen
“Where the hellishe?” Esmeralda was trying not to panic. But it was now a full eighteen hours since Rodrigo had stormed out of her apartment and had stopped answering her texts.
She winced, remembering what they’d been up to right before whatever he saw on his phone caused him to take off without an explanation. After he’d left, she’d shut everything out and gotten to work. She’d used the files she’d gotten from Mr. Piera and worked all night on her presentation. She was pleased with what she’d come up with, confident this was a plan the board could get behind. It was bold and it was more ambitious than anything the studio had done in decades, but she believed it was the key to taking Sambrano into the future. Except she had no one to run it by, and Rodrigo was MIA. He’d promised her he’d be here today to give her feedback, but no one had seen or heard from him all morning.
Maybe he was ignoring her because he was going to let her go into that board meeting and fall on her face. Had she been a fool for thinking that the way he’d been with her mother and aunts meant something? That it would somehow change the fact that he was still hoping she failed? Her phone buzzed and her heart practically came up her throat, but it was just her meditation app reminding her to breathe. She took the excellent advice and focused on letting air in and out of her lungs, and tried to stay grounded in facts, not feelings. She was good at her job, she knew the market, she knew the industry.She knew she was on to something.
“I don’t need Rodrigo to do this,” she told herself for the hundredth time since she’d gotten in at 8:00 a.m. “I got this,” she said now, feeling stronger.
“Do you got this?Because it looks to me like your nerves are getting the best of you.” Esmeralda snapped her head up from the slides she’d been reviewing...again, to find Onyx standing in front of her. He looked just as mean as he had at the reception.
“Why are you here?” She didn’t even try to hide her animosity.
