Page 63 of Billionaire Corruption

“What do you mean?”

“You see?” she said. “Here is you buying time, trying to make excuses, I don’t like this, I don’t want this in my life.”

“Tell me what you need,” I said, quickly. I was still in fixer mode,I wanted to make this work. I had to make it work.

“I need to be by myself for a bit,” she said. She was crying now, I could hear it.

“I need space, Paul, just… give me some time.”

Then she hung up.

I took a deep breath.

I was stuck in traffic, and it seemed like the minutes were crawling by. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to distract myself from the endless line of cars in front of me. A million thoughts started racing through my mind. I had to convince Grace to give us another shot, I needed to show her somehow how much she meant to me. I couldn’t let her get away. In all of this, she was the one light that had shone true, she was the person I wanted to be with.

But I also had to focus on work, and on finding a way out, for both of us. The best way for me to help Grace, was to work on some kind of exit strategy.

I thought about what she had said about me lying to her and I didn’t know how to respond to that. The one thing that I did know, was that if I really wanted to have a shot with her, I’d have to be honest with her.

Could I do that?

I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the present moment. I knew that if I let my mind wander too far, I would only get more and more overwhelmed. So, I turned on some calming music and tried to think about the meeting I had set up with Brock this morning.

I needed to get my thoughts in order.

As the traffic finally started to ease up, I found myself feeling more and more focused. I had a plan in place, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. And Grace was always in my mind, I used her as motivation and inspiration.

She was the prize.

She was what I was fighting for here.

I had no doubt that I would win her back.

Somehow.

Chapter 25

Grace

I was in Packham with my mother, looking after the twins while she attended a jewelry making workshop. She and Tyler both left in the mornings, him to go to the auto works, and her to go to some designer’s studio, leaving me alone with the two boys all days. They were very cute, but incredibly demanding. At two-and-a-half, they seem to require constant diaper changings, feedings and entertaining. I had barely finished cleaning up after one meal when I had to start thinking about the next one. My mother’s small house was a mess of laundry and discarded toys that I barely got round to cleaning.

But it distracted me from thinking about Paul and Ladden and all the stuff that had been going on in the city before I left. My mother didn’t ask me why I wanted to visit her, her response had been one of relief and joy. “Oh, that would be wonderful darling! I could really use the help!”

By the time one of them got back from their days in the late afternoon, I was usually on the couch watching TV with the twins, some animation nonsense holding them in rapt attention, while I fought to keep my eyes open.

They were so grateful though, both of them. I could see they needed the break.

“I don’t know how we would’ve coped without you,” Tyler told me one evening when my mom was late in coming back. “I would have had to take time off at the shop, which I can’t really do. Don’t have anyone to fill in for me. Just that kid Phil, and I mean…he’s always stoned.”

We were at the kitchen table, drinking beers while the twins finished their chicken nuggets, getting more ketchup on their faces and table than in their mouths.

“Gwen’s a trooper, I mean, not like she’s complainin’… but the boys, they’re a handful!”

“That they are!” I agreed with him.

“Some days, we’ve got a girl helping out, to watch them and so on, so Dee can just go to the shop or have her hair done.”

“It’ll get better,” I said, and he nodded, not entirely convinced. There was a brief lull before one of the twins started crying and I announced it was probably bath time.

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