Chapter 38

NOAH

The relief I felt when the meeting finally ended was immeasurable. It had only lasted for an hour but I had been attending all kinds of meetings everyday since the beginning of this week. It was Thursday now. Dad’s reason for making me attend them was so I could start getting used to them and so the employees, board of directors, partners and others could get used to me.

From the remarks and attitude of most of them though, it was quite obvious that they wanted Shane to take over the company instead. Only a couple of those people knew what caused the rift between him and I, but they didn’t care about what he did, and they all sided with him because they felt he would do a better job as CEO than I could.

…They were probably right. Shane had spent a lot of time here, working by my father’s side, so he knew more about these people and this place than I did. I had told Dad that when he let me know I would be the one to take over, but he didn’t see things that way and his mind was already set.

I got to my feet just as Javier finally answered my call. “Javier -”

“No, I’m not interested in buying an extension of my car’s warranty,” he said, sounding bored, before the corner of my mouth turned up.

“You don’t even have a car.”

“Uh. Yes, I do, you asshole… I just don’t know how to drive it… or have it right now,” he replied and I snorted, leaning against the table. “Whose number is this?”

“Mine.” I tipped my head to the side when I glanced at the glass walls of the boardroom to see Taylor standing in front of one and fogging it up by breathing on it. She then drew a heart shape on the fog before flashing me a smile and I frowned.

“Finally,” he muttered, referring to me changing my number, while I mouthed ‘Weirdo’ at Taylor and she responded by drawing another heart on the glass. I sneered, giving her a once-over as I tried to figure out what she wanted, while Javier cleared his throat. “About the apartment I’m helping you search for… I found one,” he said and my brows shot up.

I had asked him to find a new place for me last week because I had been getting unwanted visitors lately - Allison and her mother. I didn’t speak to them when they came and I also didn’t want to call the cops on them, so I just decided to move. Besides, that house was way too big for one person and I had planned to get a smaller place when I moved into it.

That didn’t change the fact that the situation was problematic though, seeing as they were also the reason I changed my number, and it seemed like she thought I’d take her back because I hadn’t told my parents that I wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.

“Oh, really? Where?” I asked and he muttered something in a rush. “I didn’t get that,” I said and he remained quiet for several moments before muttering in a rush again. “Dude.”

“I said next door!” he finally stated clearly and my brows snapped together.

“Oh, wow. No.”

“Come on, man. It’s going to be like when we were in uni.”

“Exactly. No.” We were basically out of control when we were in university, and knowing Javier, we would most likely revert to living that way a couple of days a week.

“It-”

“No,” I repeated and he let out an exasperated sigh while I glanced at the elevator just as its doors opened. Mum’s eyes lit up when she saw me after walking out of the elevator and I pressed my lips together while she began to head towards the boardroom.

“You know what? Fuck you.”

“Fuck you too.”

“Bet you’d like it if I swung that way,” he replied and I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a laugh. Living next to him wouldn’t be bad though.

“Let’s talk about this later,” I said after mum walked into the boardroom and he muttered a disgruntled ‘okay’ before hanging up. I then stood upright and smiled at the approaching woman. “Hey mum.”

“Shadow.” She wrapped her arms around me and I hugged her back while giving Taylor, who was still standing in front of the glass wall, a questioning look. “But you’ve been more of a ghost lately,” she said, pulling away from me, with a small frown on her face.

“Huh?”

“I haven’t seen you in a long time. Are you still mad at me for dropping by when she was around?” she asked and I shook my head.

“No, mum. I’ve just been busy. Besides, I came over last Wednesday.”

“You didn’t come over on Sunday.”

“... I was busy.”

Shane hadn’t come to a Sunday family get together ever since we started doing them again and I knew mum didn’t like him not being there, so I had texted him to go to the last one. Mum had assumed that I would be coming too and that I was ready to make up with him, so she had sounded quite excited when she called me but the excitement disappeared after I told her I wouldn’t be coming.

“On Sunday?”

“People can’t be busy on Sundays?” I replied, raising a brow, and she heaved a sigh, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Let’s have brunch tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” she muttered halfheartedly and I grabbed my laptop bag from the seat next to me before her expression lit up a bit. “Oh, I talked to Julie onThursday.”

I had gone to her and dad's place on Wednesday last week to talk to dad and I heard her and her friend talking about Julie Vance getting diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her friend then mentioned it was the same doctor who misdiagnosed dad with cancer months ago that diagnosed her and that got my attention, so I told her to tell the woman to get a second opinion. She had acted like I told her to jump off a cliff at first because they weren’t friends, they were only acquaintances, but after dad joined the conversation, she reluctantly agreed.

I could have told Dalia about it instead but I didn’t want her to be sad if the result turned out to be the same or worse, after the woman got a second opinion.

I already knew it was a misdiagnosis though because Dalia told me over a video call on Saturday and seeing her so happy had made my day.

“I don’t know if she took my advice though… and she looked at me like I was weird.”

“Aren’t you though?” I asked and she sneered at me before I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Thank you, mum,” I muttered before trying to move past her, but she grabbed my hand and glanced at Taylor.

“Oh, uh, Taylor wants you to be her date to a film festival next week,” she said and I frowned, immediately withdrawing my hand from hers. “She finally broke up with that weird boy and she doesn’t want to go to the festival alone.”

“That’s very sad… Anyway, I have to go now.”

“You’ll go with her?”

“No. Tell her to ask Shane,” I said and her brows shot up at the mention of Shane, like I just told her I was going to have a drink with him. “Goodbye, mum.”

The sound of the elevator doors opening drew my attention away from the picture Dalia just sent to me of herself and my smile slipped off the moment I looked up to see Shane. He was like a deer caught in the headlights as he stared at me and my mouth set in a hard line before I glanced past him to see Mrs Ballard standing several feet away, looking at me like she thought I was going to hit him. If I did hit him, it would cause a problem for me because she was on the board of directors… same as Shane. Dad had told me when he joined the board and I was glad he did because I would have hated getting caught off guard by Shane’s presence at the meeting today.

He glanced over his shoulder and he and the woman waved at each other before he stepped into the elevator. I cleared my throat and we both moved to the either ends of the elevator while the doors closed. Silence settled over the elevator and I kept my eyes fixed on the digital display as we descended.

My phone suddenly rang, breaking the silence, and I glanced at it to see it was a call from Dalia, but instead of answering it, I silenced it. I wanted to hear her voice but I didn’t want to answer her call because Shane was here. It oddly felt like he would taint what I had with her.

“I, uh-”

“No,” I stated firmly as I tightened my hold on my phone, staring straight ahead.

“... You don’t know what I wanted to say.”

“I don’t want to,” I bit out but he only remained silent for a couple of seconds.

“Thank you… For not telling them about…” he trailed off as the elevator got to the ground floor, and I gritted my teeth.

“Do you plan to tell them anytime soon?” I asked when the doors slid open, and he couldn’t answer. “Idiot,” I muttered before walking out.