A Heart For Business draft 2 (8 page)

Tears and joy and happiness sprang to Vanessa’s eyes. “Yes!” she cried out. “Yes, Carter Davis I will marry you!”

Carter slipped the ring onto her trembling hand and took her into his arms, hugging her so tightly to his chest they could feel each other’s heartbeats. When at last they pulled apart, she saw he had tears on his cheeks too.

“You’d better wipe your face. If a hardened businessman like yourself leaves my office after a prolonged meeting with tears in his eyes, I’m going to get a reputation as being the meanest bitch in all of Gainscorp.

“Trust me, no one could ever mistake you for a bitch.  You’ve got the warmest heart of anyone I know.  It’s why I love you so much.” Carter complimented and Vanessa felt herself blush. 

That night, she and Carter went out to a romantic dinner at one of Manhattans most premier restaurants to celebrate their engagement and spent a long and lazy weekend making love. 

By Monday morning, word had spread around the office of their happy news and they arrived to work to find their offices filled with balloons and a banner that said “Congratulations on your Engagement!” across it in bold letters.

“Thank you everybody, thank you very much. This is still a place of business, though, so everybody get back to work now.” Vanessa said, feeling her face becoming flush from all the attention.

Her secretary notified her multiple times of reporters that wanted to do a piece on their engagement for the society papers, and eventually she had to put a ban on all deliveries, so she could get some work done.

“Ugh, what a day!” she said with a tone of happy exhaustion, not frustration when at last she and Carter returned home that Monday night. “I don’t know how everyone found out so quickly, but I never expected our engagement would be such a big deal.”

“I know!” Carter said, feeling equally tired yet elated. “I may have told a few people, like my mother and father, but I had no idea it would explode like this. I just wanted us to have a quiet wedding, with a small ceremony. How about you?”

“The quieter the better as far as I’m concerned.  I have no family to speak of, so the only ones that really need to be there are your parents, and maybe dear sweet Norman Fields.  After all, I consider him to be the one responsible for bringing us together.”

“Okay, just my parents, Norman, and the few thousand people my mother is sure to invite.” Carter said with a chuckle, and Vanessa hoped he was joking. She was just about to ask when the phone to their private line rang.

“I’ll get it.” she said, and reached over to pick up the phone, while Carter went to the kitchen bar to pour them each a well-deserved drink.

“Congratulations.  I hear you’re engaged” said a deep and ominous voice over the phone that Vanessa didn’t quite recognize.

“Who is this?”

“You don’t remember me? How quickly we forget. I figured you’d forgotten our arrangement when I saw your engagement in the society column of the paper today.”

“I didn’t do that! Our arrangement hasn’t been broken!” Vanessa insisted in a desperate tone. “How did you get this number?”

“I’ve always known how to find you. I’m not like that bumbling moron Trevor Mills who took a month to track you down, although I was pleased at how quickly you and your fiancé were able to dispatch him.”

“You’ve been watching me this whole time?”

“I always keep an eye on my investments. Don’t break our deal or I won’t be able to uphold my end of the arrangement either and I know you don’t want your dirty little secret to come out. Would your fiancé be quite so smitten with you if he knew the truth?”

“Our deal hasn’t been broken. I promise.” Vanessa said, near panic.

“Good.  Make sure it stays that way.” The line went dead but Vanessa continued to clutch the phone to her ear, white knuckled with fear.  She concentrated on taking deep breaths to calm herself, and then slowly hung up the phone, trying to look casual.

“Who was that?” Carter asked with curiosity as he handed her a vodka soda.

“Just an old business associate. He wanted to make sure our contracts were still in effect since I left Chicago. Nothing to worry about.”  She tried to sound nonchalant, and concentrated on her drink so he couldn’t’ see the fear in her eyes.

“Are you sure? You’re trembling.” Carter said.

“I’m just a little cold.  The winters here are even harsher than they were back home.  Everything’s fine.” Vanessa lied.  She’d never told Carter anything deliberately untrue before, and she didn’t like doing it now, but what choice did she have?  The caller had been right, if her secret came out, she would lose everything.  That was the one bad thing about finally getting everything she ever wanted; she had too much to lose and she had to protect it, whatever it cost.

“I love you.” Carter said, and kissed her softly on the lips before covering her with a blanket. “And nothing on earth can ever change that.”

“I love you too.” Vanessa said, wondering if she could really trust him with her secret. As she looked at his handsome, adoring face she decided the risk was too great. She would keep her secret as long as possible, unfortunately that was a lot shorter than she knew.

END OF PART ONE

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“HR, Janet speaking. How may I he-”

“Janet? Trent. I need you to send up a replacement for Pam. Her daughter was injured in an accident, and she just left to go take care of the children and such. I’ve no idea how long she will be gone, so send me someone that you weren’t planning on firing at the end of the week.” Trent said matter-of-factly. He didn’t really care if she fired twenty people each week; if they couldn’t do the job they could find somewhere else to work.

Janet Marshall worked as the head of HR for Coldwell Enterprises. She was not only a friend, she was the toughest woman Trent had working for him. She was also his second cousin and married to his best friend from college. While Janet didn’t have to work another day in her life, she enjoyed managing people and understood Trent in a way others didn’t. He was as alpha as they came, she’d never met a more dominating, arrogant man until Trent had come along.

“Oh dear! Which one of Pam’s daughters was hurt?” Janet asked with obvious concern in her voice. Pam had worked for the company for as long as she could remember, first as Trent’s father’s personal assistant, and now for Trent. She was one of the nicest women Janet had ever worked with and she only hoped that her daughter wasn’t too badly hurt.

“Susan,” Trent replied, thinly hiding his impatience.

The timing couldn’t be worse as Trent was in the process of acquiring a large production company in Europe and the contracts that had been drawn up by his European office were in chaos. He had been in the process of finalizing his corrections when Pam had announced that she must leave immediately. He needed these contracts fixed today!

“Oh, no. And she just delivered twins a few months back. That poor woman,” Janet commiserated over the phone. “Don’t worry about it; I have just the girl in mind. She’s only been working here for about six months, but her reviews are excellent.”

Janet was thinking of the young woman she had hired a little over six months back. Janet had interviewed her and been surprised at how mature she seemed for someone only twenty-four years old. Smiling to herself, she tried to envision how Trent would react to the young woman who wore her hair like a fifty year old, clothing that didn’t fit her body, or compliment her natural coloring, and honestly had no idea of just how attractive she could be. On top of all that, she was the most capable woman Janet had hired in months.

“Whatever - just send her up after lunch. I’m right in the middle of negotiations for that buyout in Germany, and Pam didn’t have time to make the corrections on the contract yet. I need them by 3 o’clock - if not sooner.”

“Not to worry. I’ll go tell her now and then send her to lunch. I assume that I can offer her the same benefits and salary that Pam was drawing?”

“Of course.” Trent started to hang up the phone when he heard Janet call him back. Sighing, he put the phone back to his ear and answered, “What?” Damn it, he had work to do. He didn’t have time to chitchat with Janet; that’s what her husband was for. He’d mention just that fact to Shawn next time he saw him.

Janet took a breath and thought about keeping this information to herself, but then she decided that Trent would want to know. “Shawn and I went to that symphony fundraiser last night.”

Trent waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, he impatiently replied, “And? I assume it was a smashing success and all that.”

“It was, but that wasn’t my point.”

“Well, get to it. I have work to do and so do you.”

“I saw Marco Bresi there.” Janet said in a rush, holding her breath for the explosion she assumed was coming. When nothing happened, she paused, letting Trent digest what she had just told him. Marco Bresi was a very wealthy, and very influential businessman in Europe. He and Trent had a past marked with tragedy and Marco had stayed in Europe for the last three years because of it. Janet had been shocked to see him back in the States, especially in Denver.

Trent was silent as he let Janet’s words sink in. Serena’s father was back in the states. Trent immediately tamped down on the emotion that threatened to sideline his focus. He hadn’t thought of Serena for several months now, and wanted to keep it that way.

Serena Bresi had taken the fashion world by storm at the age of sixteen. Three years after that, she had met Trent at a fundraiser in New York City and they had fallen madly in love. At least, Trent thought she had been in love with him as much as he had been with her.

Their love affair had been the subject of all the social magazines and the paparazzi had hounded them mercilessly. When Trent had taken over Coldwell Enterprises from his father, he had immediately used his many contacts in Europe to expand the company overseas.

Everything had been going smoothly, or so he thought. Serena had signed a contract with a large fashion house in Milan and had temporarily moved to Italy. Trent had missed her, but had so many things on his plate in the states, that the time had just seemed to slip away.

Four months later, he had flown to Milan to surprise Serena for the weekend. He had gone straight to her flat, flowers in hand, surprised to find her home in the middle of the afternoon.  The surprise had been on him, however, as she had answered the door with the arms of her current lover wrapped intimately around her.

Trent had been so furious, he had immediately left and returned to the airport. His private jet had been airborne several hours later. Serena had called him repeatedly, but he had ignored her calls. Trent valued honesty and loyalty above all else, and her betrayal had hurt him deeply. He had let it be known to the media, that they had decided to break things off, but were still friends. He’d had no wish to tarnish her reputation in the publics’ eyes.

When she had called him three weeks later during the middle of the night, he had reached for the phone, unaware that she was on the other end of the line. Having been caught off-guard, he had listened as she tearfully apologized and begged for his help. It seemed that she had just found out she was pregnant and expected Trent to come to her rescue. Trent knew there was no possible way the baby was his since he hadn’t touched Serena for over five months.

Trent had been repulsed and hung up the phone without replying. Two days later, he received news that Serena had driven her car off a bridge. Her suicide note made it seem that Trent had refused to do the right thing and marry her, and that she couldn’t bear to shame her family by having a child out of wedlock.

Marco Bresi, Serena’s heartbroken father, had managed to keep the suicide note out of the media, but had vowed to get revenge for Serena’s death. He blamed Trent for causing her death. Trent had thought of telling Marco the truth, but didn’t think that her grief-stricken father was in any position to listen at the time so had kept silent.

True to his word, Marco had started to go after Trent, keeping their feud to the business world, thus far, but Trent knew that it was only a matter of time before Marco started trying to attack him in his personal life as well. Now that Marco had personally come to Denver, it seemed that time had arrived.

“Did you speak with him?” Trent asked.

“He didn’t give us a choice. He made a point of cornering us during the intermission. Trent, there was such hatred in his eyes when he asked about you. I know you and Serena broke up before her death…”

“Janet, let it go. I told you then, and I’ll tell you the same thing now. What happened between Serena and myself was between us. I will not discuss it and as she’s dead, there really is no point. Marco believes some things that are not true. I’ve tried to correct his thinking, but he doesn’t want to hear it. That is on him.” Trent took a breath and then continued, “Now, we both have work to do. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”

Janet wondered if she should just let it go like Trent had commanded, but then pushed forward anyway, “Trent, he asked me to deliver a message to you.”

Trent clenched his jaw and then looked to the ceiling before asking Janet to continue. Whatever the message was, he assumed it was more threat than anything and part of him felt bad that Janet and her husband had been put in the middle of his and Marco’s feud.