Chapter 51 Confrontation (I)
Calhoun's POV
It's Monday, exactly a day after the whole incident at the funeral and I'm currently having a meeting with some of my staff at the conference hall.
Still, it's sort of complicated to concentrate on what's happening in front of me when my mind keeps drifting back to the girl I marked to be my mate for the second time.
Kristen.
She's been on my mind throughout, I can't even think about anything else but her. The night at the hotel, I wanted to kiss her so badly, yet I refrained myself from it because I felt she still needed some time to recollect herself after what happened.
When I wanted to leave, she was reluctant to let me go, so I stayed back and filled my head with all sorts of terrible and disgusting images because I didn't want to get a boner and end up losing self-control around her. It was tortured and a bit fucked up that she had not the slightest clue of the great effect she had on me.
I don't even regret telling everyone she's my mate, instead, I've been feeling better than I've always been. Because the truth is finally out and everyone knows.
So I'm a bit grateful to Natalie for telling everyone what I did with Kristen. I had no idea she knew this entire time and acted like she didn't. Chose to distance herself away from me and tried to get back at me by cheating with the butler whom she helped escape.
We're now strangers to each other, almost as if there was never love between us. And I meant it when I told Kristen I would divorce her.
I wish I never went with the marriage in the first place, I was confused, torn between mother and daughter, and too afraid of hurting Natalie's feelings.
But even after rejecting Kristen, it felt like she took a part of me with her. I didn't feel whole anymore until I saw her on the yacht that day.
And then I knew, I could never get over her.
So I marked her to be mine again, even though it was selfish of me.
"Alpha Calhoun?" I am disrupted from my thoughts when someone calls my name. And when I look to see who it is, it was Alpha Sandler, one of the managing directors in my company.
"Just curious as to why you smiled when I talked about our stocks dropping due to the miscalculation of things."
"And you said I smiled?" I could barely believe this.
Everyone else at the table nods, which signifies that it's true.
"To be honest, it made me afraid. Almost like you want to have all our asses kicked out of here," Bruce adds, with a smirk on his face, "we've never seen you smile like this in a meeting. Not even when we stayed at top 1 for seven months."
And then it hits me hard that I smiled because I thought about Kristen way too much.
Can it be that I am getting obsessed?
"Shall we close early today?" I ask.
While they just look at me, confused.
"We haven't even exhausted half of our meeting time, Alpha Calhoun," someone else points out.
But I don't want to stay here anymore.
"Have a rethink over everything and look for ways to make our stocks go up," I say, referring to all fifteen of them as I rise to my feet.
And they copy me.
"This meeting is over," I tell them, and then make my way out of the conference hall without wasting even a second.
Bruce and two of my men are right behind me, walking as fast as they can to catch up with me
My Beta hasn't talked about what happened at the funeral. I'm wondering if he's waiting for the perfect time to speak about it or if he'll just let it slide. But knowing Bruce, he doesn't let things like that go off so easily. He'll look for one way or the other to bring it up.
We hop into my private elevator and Bruce pops the button to take us up to the floor of my office.
"You seem strange today, Alpha Calhoun. Is there something I need to know?" Bruce asks as the elevator takes us up.
I choose to stay silent because I don't even know what he means by that. Does something seem off about me? Is it showing on my face? I can't help but wonder what he's sensed from me.
"Or is it Kristen?" Bruce finally calls her name, and it gives out that he's been wanting to talk about her, but waited until he noticed I was in a good mood before bringing it up. Why is he always this nosy?
"I don't know what you're talking about," I reply.
"You're trying to change the topic, Alpha Calhoun," he smirks at me and then puts his hands behind him.
The elevator makes a sound, indicating we've reached the floor.
I alight from it and the three of them follow suit, with Bruce closer to my side than the remaining two men.
"Did you mark Kristen to be your mate for the second time?" Bruce shoots me a curious look.
"Why are you talking about Kristen?" I ask, getting slightly upset that he won't let this go.
"Because I saw a mark on her neck before the whole fight thing happened," Bruce explains.
His eyes are sharp enough to notice a mate mark when he sees one.
"I never expected you to stand up for her like that, it just shows how much you care for her. You took all the blame when they lay accusations and insults on her." Bruce stops talking and smiles at me.
"Nor have I seen you act this way with anyone before. You're starting to change for her sake." He adds.
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this right now, Bruce," I say as I walk right into my office and send the remaining two men to their offices.
And Bruce stays back.
"You made everyone know you cared for Kristen, right in front of Natalie. I could see the hurt in her face, it seemed as though you shattered her world by telling all of the truth." Bruce slides into the chair opposite mine and shoots me with a serious look.
"Can't you say anything else aside Kristen? You're taking things too far," I grit out, completely uncomfortable because he's still going on with the talk and doesn't look like he'll back out of it anytime soon. This is one of the things I find very tiring about him.
"Will you truly let go of Natalie, upon knowing she started acting up because she knew you cheated on her with her daughter? Don't you feel any form of guilt or remorse toward her? You were helplessly in love with her before Kristen came into the picture." Bruce continues, pissing me off even more.
"If you care about her too much, why don't you marry her yourself? So you can treat her better than I ever did?" I raise a brow at him.
And a dark cloud falls over his face when he hears this from me.
"You don't mean that, do you?" He asks in utter shock and disbelief.
"Who knows if you have this undying love for her, you defend her all the time even if she's in the wrong," I accuse him.
"How could you ever say that? As your Beta, I'm only looking out for you." Bruce defends himself.
"Marry Natalie if you care about her too much."
"Does this mean you don't love her anymore?"
"That's none of your business."
"Oh, I see. You're already wrapped up in Kristen's skinny little fingers."
Knowing this requires no response, I take a seat in my rotating chair.
"So you'll divorce the mother and marry the daughter, that's what you want, Calhoun?" Bruce asks after letting a slice of silence pass between us.
And I just roll my eyes in their sockets because I don't need to tell him everything.
Who knows if Natalie sent him here to get answers from me?
"People keep talking about what you did at the funeral," Bruce says.
"They're free to talk however they want, it's none of my business," I jam my hand through my hair and heave deeply.
Bruce puts his hand on his chin as he stares at me thoughtfully. I don't even care what he's thinking about me right now, as long
as he doesn't mention Kristen again, then I'm fine. Or he should shut his flap up for good.
"It's fine if you don't care, you're starting up with a new attitude because Kristen is all that matters to you."
Scoffing, I pick up my tab to scroll through it.
But a knock on my door stops me.
The door gets pushed open before I can give permission to the person.
And it reveals no other person than a fuming Natalie.