Chapter 17 A TUG OF WAR.
17.
~RAFAEL~
By the time I arrive at the boardroom where Baxter is, my breathing pattern is back to normal and my coordination is quite manageable,I still feel stuffy, but I can get on with it.
"Wow, this place has improved a lot." Baxter claps in a way that doesn't define him.
I mean, he's always moody around me so why the hell is he suddenly commending the improvements about my company. Watching him for a moment, I realize how much we don't look alike, while he's on the tall and lanky side with a heap of beards hanging on his face and ridiculously long hair, I'm tall but muscled in the right places with short hair and trimmed beards.
"It's good to see you, Bro." I mumble under my tone, ignoring his comments. The word 'bro' leaves my mouth bitter and I hate it.
Fuck, I just hate the level of unfamiliarity between us.
"Rowan tried sending me off without letting me see you." He huffs out a mocking laugh before taking his seat and I sigh gruffly."People would have thought I'm just an opportunist."
"Well, aren't you?" I say inwardly, I want to say it out loud to him but I want him as soon as possible too.
"Why are you here, Baxter? The only tie between us has been severed."
"Oh, well you're damn wrong if we're talking about that today, Rafael because we still have the company."
A scoff slips out of my throat, I stare at him gobsmacked as if he's grown two horns because Baxter was there when the family lawyer mentioned Dad's debt.
"You're talking about the company that's sinking in debt?" I chuckle, placing my hands on my waist as I glare down at him."wait, scratch that, the company has already sunk in debt."
"The debt you put them through, you manipulated their stocks making Dad has no choice than to borrow money from your fucking shell Company!" Baxter yell at him, throwing some documents straight to my face.
My stomach unfurls in shock and dread. Shit, Baxter knows about what I did.
I shut my eyes close for a moment, regretting not covering my trails from Baxter who's a finance guru.
"I'm not doing this with you" i mumble, picking my phone on the table, not ready to have another conversation with him.
"Too bad because I'm doing this with you, Rafael. You're going to undo that shit you did and stop the take over deal with Rita Williams." Baxter throws back at me in an authoritative tone, flanking up in his seat.
Wait, is he actually ordering me around?
"You must be out of your fucking mind if you think you can waltz in here and order me to do things in my own company."
"I'm your brother, Rafael,I...."
"You were never there!" I roar at him angrily, angling towards him, fury blur my vision and I fucking hope it's not some damned tears because there's no way I'm going to shed a fucking drop of my tears for this dickhead.
His face morphs into something that looks regretful but he quickly mask it with a blank expression.
"You were never there when I needed you the most, or when Mom was drowning, I sent you numerous texts, Baxter, I fucking begged you to come back home, I was too young to take care of our depressed mother, even when I...I...shit."
My throat bobs painfully as I try forming another word but nothing comes out.
"So, don't come here to be the morale police about my life because the privilege you had to call me to my shit? You fucking lost it years ago."
I snap the tie I'd arranged earlier off my neck, seems like it's not working for me today.
God, everything is so fucking choking today, I must be cursed with bad luck for today to be such a disaster, I hope it ends already because I would never have imagined fighting and bickering words with Baxter.
There are plenty of things to say, I want to curse him out and yell at him for not standing up for Mom but words evades me and it's fucking annoying.
"See yourself out and never show your face around me."
"I'm suing you to court for what you did to Dad's company." Baxter says with a final tone.
I chuckle hard at him, because it's fucking ridiculous but I will never back down, for Mom. The company needs to go for her to finally sleep well in the grave.
"I hope you're ready for this tug of war because I will milk you out dry you son of a dick."
With that, I walk out of the boardroom back to my office, anxiety errods my guts, leaving me with gruelling weakness that almost want me to buckle to my knees.
Getting to the office, I sink to the large chair, heat seeps out of every pore of my body, my teeth clashes against each other horridly.
Fuck, am I dying?
My eyes suddenly feel too heavy to open, I grind my jaw until they start to crack.
"Rafael, are you....fuck!" I hear and feel Rowan enter the office, running towards me.
He starts pulling through the lockers to find my drugs, thankfully, I haven't disposed them because I thought I was fine, he pour four doses which is way past my normal dose but normal doesn't cut what I'm feeling right now.
Rowan grabs my mouth with his arm and force me to open my mouth, after making sure the drugs are down my throat, he dig my head into the table.
Suddenly, my insides starts unknotting and everything begins to feel normal.
I bit my lips back in what seems like anger, because I still hate how much power drugs have on me, how they're able to calm my chaos and pull me back from the gnashing teeth of death.
"You feeling okay?" Rowan prods, his hand never leaving my back.
Slowly, I nod and I hear him release a long sigh of relief.
"What the hell happened? I thought he's..."
"Book the appointment." I manage to speak out the words but his crumpled expression depicts his inability to assimilate my words. "The therapy, I will go back to it."
I'm not going to write about the typical cold and enigmatic billionaire that's what you guys read everyday, I won't be promoting patriarchy with my book, I grew up in a similar system and there's no way I'm continuing that tradition through my stories so this isn't like the normal male lead, this one is ready to face his issues and own up to it and that doesn't make my story less interesting.
So, thank you for reading. Love y'all.