Chapter 58 A Female Harrington?!
Sarah told herself that she had to be done with the madness associated with the Harringtons. Or so she thought.
Alex now owned her home and she was still getting used to that.
Sarah did not even have to look up from her desk to know that a Harrington had entered her office, because the air in the room suddenly felt heavy and cold like it always did when that family was near. She looked up and saw a woman who looked exactly like a female version of Richard, she had the same sharp nose and the same icy blue eyes that seemed to see right through everything, and she was wearing a grey suit
standing there with her hands folded in front of her as she looked at the small, cluttered office with a look of pure disgust.
"I am Helena Harrington, Alex’s older sister, and I have just flown in from London because my father is tired of watching his son burn the family reputation to the ground over a woman who clearly does not belong in our world," the woman said, and her voice was smooth and British, and she did not wait to be invited before she sat down in the chair across from Sarah, looking at her like she was a bug under a glass.
"I didn't know Alex had a sister, he never mentioned you once in all the time we have been together," Sarah said, her voice sounding tired and thin, and she leaned back in her chair and tried to keep her hands from shaking because she was already drained from the hearing and the news about her house.
"Alex is a child who only thinks about what he wants in the moment, so it does not surprise me that he forgot to mention the sister who actually does the hard work while he plays at being a rebel," Helena said, and she reached into her leather bag and pulled out a thin silver case, taking out a cigarette but not lighting it, she just turned it over in her fingers. "I am the stabilizing influence, Sarah, I am here to make sure the firm survives my brother’s mid-life crisis, and I am here to offer you a way out of this mess before it kills you both."
"I am not a crisis, Helena, and I am not looking for a way out that does not involve Alex, so you can tell your father that his new plan is not going to work," Sarah told her, but Helena just laughed, and it was a short, dry sound that had no joy in it at all.
"Look at him, Sarah, he is currently at the Vane estate trying to move money that my father has already frozen, he thinks he is launching a hostile takeover but he is actually walking into a trap that will leave him with nothing but a pile of debt and a ruined name," Helena said, leaning forward so her face was close to Sarah’s, and her eyes were hard and fixed. "My father anticipated his 'Full Vane' move months ago, he let Alex think he was winning so that he would move all his assets into one place where they could be grabbed, and by tomorrow morning, Alex will be a pauper unless I step in to stop the bleeding."
Sarah felt her heart drop into her stomach, and she thought about Alex’s bloodshot eyes and the way he had been working twenty-hour days just to save her, and she realized that his love was becoming a rope that was strangling him.
"What do you want?" Sarah asked, her voice a whisper.
"I want my brother back in the office, focused and sharp, and I want this scandal to vanish so I can take my rightful place as the heir without the press asking about his older lover every five minutes," Helena said, and she set a check on the desk, face down. "I will give you enough money to pay off every debt, I will buy back your house from the trust, and I will set you up in a new city with a new name where no one will ever find you, but the price is that you leave tonight and you never speak to Alex again."
"You want me to disappear so you can have the company?" Sarah asked, and she looked at the check and then at the cold woman sitting in front of her.
"I want to stop the war, Sarah, because Alex is going to destroy himself trying to protect you, he is going to go to prison for financial crimes or he is going to end up in a hospital from exhaustion, and you know I am right, you can see the toll it is taking on him," Helena told her, and for the first time, her voice sounded almost human, but it was still a threat. "Do you love him enough to save him from himself, or are you going to stay here and watch him drown just so you can say he is yours?"
Sarah looked out the window at the grey sky, and she thought about the boy who used to laugh in the library and the man who now growled at his lawyers, and she felt a deep, terrible temptation to just take the deal and end the pain.
"I need time to think," Sarah said.
"You have until midnight, the car will be waiting at your house if you decide to be the hero he needs," Helena said, and she stood up and smoothed her suit, looking down at Sarah with a look that was almost like pity. "Don't be a fool, Sarah, a Harrington always gets what they want, and right now, I want my brother back."
Helena walked out of the office and did not look back, her heels clicking on the floor until the sound faded away, and she stepped into the elevator and pulled her phone out of her bag.
She hit a speed dial number and waited for the person on the other end to pick up, and she watched her reflection in the gold doors of the elevator, looking like a queen who had just won a territory.
"It’s me," Helena said into the phone as the elevator started to move down toward the lobby. "The guilt is doing exactly what I thought it would do, so you need to move in now and give her the final push before she changes her mind."
There was a pause as the person on the other end spoke, and Helena’s lips curled into a small, mean smile.
"I don't care how you do it, Joseph, just make sure she feels like she has no other choice but to run, and then I will handle the rest of the fallout with my brother," Helena said, and she hung up the phone just as the doors opened to a swarm of reporters waiting in the lobby.