Page 27 of One Week To Claim It All
“No, you don’t,” Rodrigo corrected her as he pulled out the papers from his briefcase. “This morning Perla sold me her shares, and thus her vote, for the sum of two hundred million dollars.” Liquidating practically everything he owned, calling in every favor he’d garnered over the past sixteen years, was worth getting to see the realization dawn on Carmelina’s face that he’d beaten her at her own game. “You don’t have the votes to sell anything to Global Networks,” he told her, eliciting a scream of absolute fury.
“You can’t do this! You’re nobody, you’re a paid employee. This company belongs to my children!” She looked at Deringer, who was already standing up and packing up his stuff as if he was about to walk out of the room.
Rodrigo held up a hand to stop her lies. “You’re selling the company because you’re broke. Your father’s investments in the last ten years have completely depleted your family’s fortune, and you’ve been funneling all of Patricio’s money to keep him afloat. And now you’re going to sell what’s left to keep sinking money into a bottomless pit.”
The door burst open again and Esmeralda walked in with Octavio Nuñez, both of them looking like they were walking into battle. And even if her arrival would only make Carmelina even more vicious, he was glad to see her.
“You, this is all your fault.” Carmelina lunged for Esme as Deringer and his people stood up, clearly done with the Sambrano drama. “I won’t let you take what belongs to me. I won’t let you have it! I’d rather sell the studio for parts than let you win. Patricio was only too happy to believe that gold digger when she told him she was pregnant with his brat. I can prove you’re not Patricio’s child,” she screamed frantically, rifling through papers, and he was ready for this, too.
“Stop lying, Carmelina. It’s over!” Rodrigo roared as he got between Carmelina and Esmeralda. “Here.” He handed the other piece of paper he’d brought with him to one of Deringer’s attorneys. “This is an affidavit signed by Patricio Sambrano confirming that he is in fact Esmeralda’s father.”
He felt Esmeralda’s legs give out, but he held her up, as he tried to end this farce with Carmelina once and for all.
“I got you,” he told her, but she seemed too shocked to react. He looked over at his mentor’s widow, who was now frozen in place, her eyes darting between Rodrigo and Deringer. “You’re done, Carmelina.”
Seventeen
“What are you doing here?” Rodrigo asked Esmeralda as they made their way out of the room, with Carmelina’s shrieks trailing behind them.
“I’m here because this also concerns me, Rodrigo.” Esme looked heartbroken, like all of this was beyond what she could bear. “I had a right to know Carmelina was working behind the board’s back to sell the company from under me. From under all of us.”
He wanted to reach out to her, but he didn’t know how she’d react to that. She looked furious and hurt. Octavio came up to them, his expression bleak. “I wish you would’ve let us know what was happening, Rodrigo, but we’re grateful that you put a stop to this. My cousin has always been like this, selfish enough to destroy everything to get what she wants.” He shook his head, and it seemed like overnight Octavio had aged a decade. “We’re calling an emergency meeting for the day after tomorrow.” Octavio turned to Esmeralda then. “I’m sorry to do this, but we’ll have to cut your preparation time. You will have to present then.” Her face fell, but soon she was nodding.
“I can do that. I’ll be ready.” His chest swelled with love for her in that moment. His Joya. So strong, always ready to fight, never giving up on her dreams.
“Thank you for understanding and thank you for alerting me to what was going on.” Octavio looked at Rodrigo as he spoke. He could see the man was not happy to have been kept in the dark, but Rodrigo had no regrets. If he hadn’t talked Perla into selling him the shares without giving Carmelina warning that he was working against her, she would’ve pulled rank with her younger daughter. At this very moment Carmelina would have been destroying the company.
“Needless to say the board has a lot to consider right now given what has happened.” Octavio’s gaze was fixed on the door to the conference room where presumably Carmelina was still in a rage. But after a moment the man grinned at Rodrigo, clearly curious. “How did you manage to get Perla to sell you the shares?”
Rodrigo lifted a shoulder and glanced at Esme, who seemed to be waiting for Octavio to be done with him, so she could give him a piece of her mind. It seemed like the initial shock of walking in on Carmelina’s fiasco had worn off and she did not seem happy with him at all.
Octavio cleared his throat, still waiting for an answer from Rodrigo, and he did his best to focus. “Perla doesn’t trust her mother as much as people thought. A few years ago I helped her hire a financial advisor who was independent from the family. When he told her Carmelina had been trying to gain access to her trust fund, Perla had finally had enough of the scheming. She wanted out.” This he directed at Esme. “She’s never been keen on the games her mother plays. She’s not like Onyx.”
“Good for Perla and for you,” Octavio said, and with a quick goodbye headed toward the exit of the hotel.
That only left him and Esmeralda.
“I hope you’re happy,” she said, her arms crossed over her chest. And once again his body reacted in about fifteen conflicting ways to Esmeralda’s presence. His heart pounded and his body pulsed with the need to have her against the nearest flat surface, and then take her somewhere he could keep her safe and far away from the likes of Carmelina Sambrano.
“Why are you mad at me? I thought you’d be glad to hear that Carmelina no longer has control of the company.” I thought you’d be glad I was able to help you, he almost said. She had to know he’d saved her chance at becoming CEO.
Without saying a word she turned on her heels and walked toward a small room beyond the larger one they’d just exited. He followed her in silence, certain that whatever he was walking into, it would not be pleasant. Once they were inside the room, she turned to face him. Her eyes were furious.
“Why could you let me think forten yearsthat you chose my father over me? How could you, Rodrigo?” He stumbled as what she said sank in.She knew.
“Ivelisse was not supposed to say anything.” He exclaimed, his mind and body in absolute turmoil. “You were never supposed to know. I was trying to keep you safe. To protect you from all these filthy lies and schemes.” He looked up at her and he could tell she saw the brokenness in his eyes, but he didn’t have the energy to hide it anymore.
“You really let me believe all this time that when I needed you most you chosehim? That I wasn’t worth anything to you?” She shook her head as tears streamed down her face. God, he had made such a mess of everything.
“I had no choice, Esmeralda,” he spat out, now his own anger and resentment coming to the surface. “I’m always the one to fall on the sword. The one to do what needs to be done and then get scorned for making the hard choices. Like everyone else you chose to believe that I’m a cold, selfish bastard.”
She flinched at his words, but she regrouped quickly and soon she was on him again. “Maybe we all assume that because you give us nothing, Rodrigo. You love to be the martyr. Acting like no one cares about you. Like it’s Rodrigo Almanzar against the world. Maybe people judge you because none of us reallyknow you. Because you keep everything so tightly locked inside we can’t get close enough. Because you never let anyone in.”
“I letyouin,” he said in a voice he could barely recognize.
A sob escaped Esmeralda’s throat at his words and when he reached for her she came to him. He pressed his mouth to hers in a frantic kiss. He felt like he was grasping at the last chance he’d ever have to touch her. She opened for him, like she needed him as desperately as he did her. Teeth scraping, hands grabbing, nails scratching. As if they were snatching the last bits of each other they’d get before they lost it forever. But after another moment she pushed him away.
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve been doing this all week. Letting my feelings make me forget how hard it was to lose you. How much it hurt to know my love for you wasn’t enough. That it won’t ever be enough.”
