CHAPTER 3

Present day

Carter’s p.o.v

The day I’ve been waiting for has finally come. I get to see Valerie today. I have planned everything and waited patiently till this day. I’m nothing if not efficient, which is exactly why I threw in the idea of us handling the funding of the collaboration.

Nobody refuses free money not even the wealthy ones. I go through my morning routine as usual and I go to the kitchen to get my breakfast. On my way down, I stop by the office to get my phone and as soon as I open it, so many messages flock in, so much so that one would think that I was a child on his first day of school.

This is why I don’t like family members being involved in my affairs, all they do is nag and try to make your business their own. Being the head of this family does get tiring.

Since I found Valerie, I’ve had to field calls from everybody including my own parents, somehow they found out about her and since then it has been an onslaught of various things.

The most annoying ones are from my mum, why would she call me to give me ideas on how to apologize, talking about take her to somewhere romantic. I am not trying to date Valerie, I am only trying to right my wrongs.

Sighing, I head into the kitchen and I meet Martha pouring my coffee into my travel mug. “Good morning Martha”.

“Good morning sir”, “your breakfast is ready” and then she hands me a card, “Mrs Cole sent this in this morning. It arrived with the flowers in the dining room”.

“Thank you Martha, I have a meeting and I will get breakfast there, feel free to serve the meal to the staff downstairs”.

I head downstairs to my car and my driver is already waiting for me. “Good morning sir”. “Good morning Stuart”, “how is your wife, is it time for your paternity leave yet”? “No sir, I still have about three months left” oh good, we are not going into the office yet, I have a meeting in the east village area. “Oh okay sir”.

On our way to the office, my phone rings and it’s my secretary calling. She does not call unless it’s important so I pick up the phone. “Hello Cole speaking”,

“Good morning Mr Cole”, “I am sorry to disrupt your meeting, but the investors from China are here and since the other Mr Cole is not in the office, I didn’t know what to do hence the call”.

“There’s no problem, you have done well, send them to the conference room”. “I’ll be in shortly”. I end the call and text Arabella. “Something came up, start without me I’ll be there soon”. I tell my driver to drive me to the office first and I lean back and rest my head on the seat.

As soon as I get to the office, I head to the conference room and as I get to the door, my phone pings with a notification and I open it to see that Arabella has replied to my text, she’s asking me if I’m fine and if I want to reschedule. I quickly reply her and head into the conference room.

When I step into the room, the men stand up and we shake hands “Good morning Mr Yu”, “Good morning Mr Black”. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting for long”.

“Let’s get to the business of the day, I was supposed to meet you tomorrow, what’s with the change and why wasn’t I informed”?

“It’s nothing strange Mr Cole we just wanted to finalize the deal today so I can travel back to China this evening, my wife was rushed to the hospital and I need to be there”.

“Your wife was rushed to the hospital, hope no bad news”. “What’s the problem”? “Relax my friend, it is not bad news, I am going to be a father”.

“Ahh congratulations my friend, that is such good news. You should have left, I will come to you”.

“Don’t worry about it, I have finished reviewing the work with my team”. “I approve of the deal but I need you to promise me that you will use organic materials”. “In my absence, Mr Black here will act in my stead for now”. “However, you can always reach me and we can talk things out whenever”.

“Thank you very much Mr Yu, I will take note of all your conditions and I will meet them to the best of my ability”. “Take time to enjoy being a new father”. “We will talk soon”. “Let me walk you out”.

We walk past my secretary and I tell her to clear my schedule for the day. Outside the building, I say goodbye to my investors and I signal for my car. I get in and Stuart drives towards the scheduled meeting place. Anticipation builds in my vein as we get closer to the venue. On arrival, I immediately text Arabella that I am outside and she comes out to meet me.

Arabella’s p.o.v

I check my phone for the umpteenth time. I don’t want to jinx this meeting, but I need Carter to show up. Valerie is such an amazing person and all our previous meetings have only proved what I observed about her, I really hope my brother fixes his relationship with her, she will definitely be a good friend to have and we can talk fashion for hours.

As I am deliberating on how to further stall this meeting, my phone pings and it’s a message from Carter. I open and it and it reads “I’m here”. I smile to myself and excuse myself from the meeting. I don’t know what her reaction to seeing him will be, especially because of how much he hurt her,

I didn’t witness the event but I definitely heard what happened. It was the talk of the whole school especially after she left town that weekend.

I like to think that it affected Carter quite a bit and after what happened to me, he has been adamant to find her and apologize for his wrongdoing.

I really hope she forgives him, so he can at least forgive himself and be free. Some part of me wishes that they get together again because my brother was a different type of happy with her and he deserves to be happy.

As I go into the main room, I sight my brother’s tall frame and I wave him over. He looks at me and walks over to me. Carter likes to keep a strong front but I know that he’s a bit nervous so I reach for his hands and give it a gentle squeeze.

He looks at me with a question in his eyes and I shake my head and smile at him. He does not smile but he squeezes back and we walk to the office together. When we get to the office, his phone rings so I go in ahead of him, when I enter the room, Valerie opens her mouth to say something, probably to ask me where my brother is, that’s when Carter enters the room and her face turns pale and the only thing I can think is oh shit!, this is going to be a problem.

Carter’s p.o.v

When Arabella comes out to meet me, I am a little nervous so I appreciate her attempts to calm my nerves.

I don’t know what reaction I will get from seeing her again. Will she be willing to move past the past or at least give me a chance to rectify my mistake. We get to the door and my phone rings, I gesture for Bella to go in front and I check my phone, and it’s Luciano so I answer it

“Hello Luc, how is it going”?

“Hello Carter, I don’t know if you have already met Valerie but I wanted to call you and wish you luck”.

“Wish me luck? I’m not going into battle”.

“Might as well be, and you do not have any bargaining tools, don’t beat yourself up too much though, be rational about this”.

“Thank you Luc, I’ll handle it well”

“I know you will, let’s get drinks soon”. He ends the call and I walk in after Arabella. The moment I lift my head and meet Valerie’s eyes, all hell breaks loose.