Page 152 of The Scandal You Started
Victor slammed his hands down on the table. “Ninety percent isn’t feasible even in the best-case scenario. You’re purposely setting an unreachable target!”
“Eighty percent is feasible, though,” Sheun said with a lift of her pointed chin.
“Not in a week.”
“Ten days then,” Jim countered. “With an eighty percent reduction. That’s as generous as I’m willing to be.” He edgedforward, hardening his tone. “And mark my words,whenyou fail to find a solution, you will return without complaint, without a single memory of the past four months, never to see each other again, Lord Norland. And we will decide the fate of your job on that very same day, Miss Faez, which the likelihood of you keeping is very,verylow. Is that clear?”
“As long as you understand that when wefinda solution, you will never threaten anyone’s job or interfere with our relationship ever again,” Dominic said.
“And you’ll give up your position as CEO of Two Worlds,” Rayna added with a snarl. “Without complaint.”
“Deal,” the man said with a quiet, mocking huff. So damn sure he was going to win.
Chapter 44
Rayna
“Why didn’t you ever tell us the truth?” George asked, sitting next to Rayna around the Griffins’ dining room table at the back of their farmhouse.
She, Victor, Dominic, George, and River had arrived straight there from the lab after Victor had insisted Monty and Ash go home. It all seemed according to some pre-discussed plan because Winnie and Declan had been expecting them. Rayna’sdad was on the phone too, though it was still the early hours of the morning where he lived in Jahandar.
“NDAs only last a maximum of twelve years before they have to be renewed,” Rayna said, almost in frustration. “Which means if you all signed them, they would’ve expired last year. And if you didn’t re-sign them, then you had all year to tell us. So why didn’t you?”
She frowned between Victor, Declan, and Winnie sitting opposite her, Dominic, and George, with River in the end seat, then down to Declan’s phone in front of her, where her dad, Carlos, was on speaker.
“Rayna,” her dad said with a raspy sigh. “Your mum and your parents, George, were only really lucid for a few hours after the accident. But they made it very clear to me and Victor, to your mum’s parents, George, that they didn’t want you two to know what had actually happened unless it was absolutely necessary. Even without the NDAs, we’d agreed to never tell you, but…circumstances have changed. If Dominic and you have any chance of finding a way, then you need to know the truth.”
“How long have you known about me and Dominic?” she asked quietly.
Dominic had spoken to her dad a few times in passing when they’d video-called or rang each other, but she hadn’t told her father the nature of their relationship. He seemed to know anyway.
“Since that first video call nearly two months ago. It terrified me at first. I had a go at Victor for allowing it to happen. But…” Her dad paused. “Gosh, am I still terrified of losing you. A part of me still wants to convince you not to do this, but I don’t want you to think of me as the dad who doesn’t want his daughter to be happy. I’ve only ever wanted your happiness, Rayna.”
Her dad had done a lot to make sure she was happy. Even going as far as giving her up to the man who’d been engaged tohis ex-wife just so she could stay and live her life exactly as she’d always dreamed of doing. It couldn’t have been easy back then, and she understood why he was scared even now.
“I won’t allow anything to happen to Rayna, Mr Faez. I vow that to you,” Dominic said firmly.
“Don’t make promises you don’t yet know you can keep, Dominic,” her dad muttered, but Rayna could hear the smile in his calm voice.
He was right. They didn’t know what they were in for yet. And Rayna could see in the tight lines of Dominic’s face that it frustrated him. He wanted to argue, but realistically, he couldn’t. She still placed her hand over his, silently telling him she appreciated the sentiment. A lot.
She didn’t need his protection, but she knew he’d rearrange the planets in the solar system to ensure she was safe and taken care of. She was quickly realising she’d do the same for him too.
“So,” George then said, a frown weighing heavily on his freckled face. “Whatisthe truth? What actually happened that day? What’s a Rupture? And shouldn’t we be at the lab instead of here if we’re going to overcome Dominic’s one?”
Victor exchanged a look with Declan. “We’re here because you need to understand what happened before we start figuring out how Dominic can stay, and I can’t explain it all without Declan and Winnie’s help,” Victor said. “They worked with Yasmin, Frank, and Samara on their research on Ruptures for some time, since they’d already overcome one themselves before.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” George asked, sounding as befuddled as Rayna felt.
Victor glanced at Declan, Uncle Declan to his wife, and Winnie’s lips lifted in a secret smile.
Rayna narrowed her eyes as the cogs of her mind smoked from how fast they were trying to solve the riddle of that look. When they jammed on the answer, her jaw came apart.
“Aunt Win,” she uttered. “Are you…are you from the past?”
Before she’d completed the question, she already knew the answer.
Looking at her aunt, it was obvious, actually. Glaringly so. Winnie’s mannerisms, her way of speaking, her style,her. Everything hinted at a life not originally started in the present. And now that she thought about it, Rayna couldn’t remember ever seeing any pictures of Winnie from before her marriage to Declan. Why had she never questioned that before?
