Savannah Black’s screeching cuts through the atmosphere in the foyer.
“How could you be so stupid?!” She grabbed Zachary by the collar, scrunching up his jacket and shaking him as if to snap him back to reality.
“Do you have any idea what you almost did? Your foolishness almost cost the family!”
“Mum, you’re overreacting!” Zachary pulls out of her hold.
“I’m overreacting?” Savannah asked, her eyes sharp.
“You were caught recording a woman in a restroom and nearly got yourself beaten to death! And for what? Because some girl wouldn’t sleep with you?”
“She humiliated me, Mum! What was I supposed to do? Just walk away?”
“Yes!” Savannah said, throwing her hands up.
“Yes, Zachary, that’s exactly what you were supposed to do. You’re supposed to move on, not endanger your family’s reputation! That’s what people with a brain do.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot!” Zachary narrowed his eyes.
“Then stop acting like one!” Savannah stepped closer, her voice going low and dangerous.
“Do you have any idea what your father would have done if that footage had gotten out? He would have torn us apart. The shares we have aren’t even substantial enough anyways. So this would have been the final straw. He would have kicked both you and me out.”
“But it didn’t get out. Cassian handled it.”
“Cassian,” Savannah said the name like it was poison.
“He didn’t do it for you. He only did it to protect the company and himself. When will you finally realise that you are nothing but a liability to him, and you just handed him another reason to cut us out entirely?”
Zachary’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not true. Cassian may be a cold piece of shit, but he’s still my brother.”
“Is he? He’s been running the company for the past ten years while you’ve been out drinking and chasing women and making a fool of yourself, proving to him and your father that you’re not fit to inherit anything.” She jabbed a finger at Zachary’s chest.
“You’re one more mistake away from losing everything, Zachary. Everything. And I will not let you drag me down with you.”
He stared at her finger poking into his chest.
His still-bruised face merged with shock, then anger.
“That’s all you care about, Mum. Money, not me.”
“I care about your future, Zachary. Everything I do is for you.”
“No, it’s not,” he says, stepping away from her towards the door.
“You don’t really care if I’m truly okay. All you care about is money, inheritance and power!”
“Because that’s what’s left!” Savannah yelled, “There is no love left in this family, Zachary. And every single thing that you do keeps costing me. One day you’re going to realise that nobody—not your father, not Cassian, not even me—is going to keep cleaning up your messes forever.”
Zachary slowly shook his head before he turned and walked out, leaving Savannah alone in the foyer with her hands shaking.
She had raised a fool, she realised, and fools didn’t survive in the Black family.
Back at Black Corp, Cassian stood before his large office window, his hands firmly folded behind him as he stared back at his reflection in the glass.
The door is pushed open, and Jaxson enters with a folder in his hand.
He looked uneasy as he paused, glancing at Cassian’s back.
“The paperwork is ready. But I need to say something first. ” Cassian didn’t turn around; he simply grunted to indicate that Jaxson should continue.
“I think the blacklist against Aurora Bennett is ridiculous,” Jaxson said.
“You shouldn’t do it.”
“It’s already done,” Cassian said, without turning around.
“It’s not done until I make the calls, and I’m telling you that this decision is a mistake.” Jaxson stepped closer.
“I mean, what did she even do to deserve this?”
“Are you brain dead, Jaxson? Or were you sleepwalking while you were with me for the past week?”
“All she did was defend herself. She slapped you—fine. But her brother also got arrested. Doesn’t that make you even?”
“Not even in the slightest,” Cassian greeted out.
“This is childish, Cassian. Destroying a woman’s career because she hurt your pride is just laughable. That’s not who you are.”
“I didn’t ask for your feedback. Are you going to do it or not?”
“Cassian, this is ridiculous,” Jaxson said, stepping forward.
“She has a younger brother in school and a sick grandmother. This is not only going to affect her, but her entire family.”
“She should have thought about that before she—”
“Before she what? Told you the bitter truth? All you are doing right now is proving her right.”
The words cut through Cassian’s ears, and his expression morphed into stone.
“Why do you care so much, Jaxson? Don’t tell me—”
He paused, a cruel smirk lifting on his lips.
“that you like her.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“You’re trying to play hero for her.
So what do you expect me to think?
“Cassian, if you have a basic conscience, then you will understand that this is plainly wrong.”
“She made her choice. So let her live with the consequences.”
“Cassian—”
“Make the call, Jax,” Cassian said as he walked back to his desk and sat down.
I want her blacklisted from every single dealership in the city.
Not only that, but all the high-end retail positions as well.
I want her begging for minimum wage by the end of the week.
“I won’t,” Jax said unmovingly.
“Then I will find someone who will,” Cassian said, his voice flat.
“You’re dismissed.”
Jaxson sighed, frustrated that he couldn’t convince Cassian to drop his decision.
He turned around and walked out without another word.
The silence was deafening after Jax left.
Cassian stared into the air, his hands balled into fists on the desk.
He told himself that he didn’t care how affected her family gets from his decision and that she deserved it.
But something deep down was screaming at him.
the image of her face seared into his mind.
Her anger and her hurt.
The way she looked at him like he was beneath her.
“What is this place? Is that a bagpipe?” Amber asked, looking around the store, where Aurora now worked.
“It’s fake,” Aurora said following her friend’s line of gaze.
“It’s a fake bagpipe.”
“Okay…so you went from selling $800,000 cars to selling fake bagpipes?”
Aurora raised a brow, picking up a scarf from the shelf.
“What do you want me to do, Amber? After I got fired from the dealership, no one else is even letting me in, talkless of even checking my portfolio.”
Aurora folded the garment bitterly.
“If fake bagpipes are what’s going to pay my rent, I have no choice but to do it.”
Amber’s expression softened.
“I’m not judging, Rory. I’m just worried. When is Cassian Black going to leave you alone?”
“I already expected this from him,” Aurora scoffed.
“I won his black mail, so he’s using his connections to bring me down. He probably expects me to go begging him again.”
Amber’s jaw clenched.
“What if we file a case?” she suggested after a moment.
“We can sue him for blacklisting you if we can prove that he used his influence.”
“With what money, Amber?”
Aurora said, setting down the scarf she was folding.
“I can’t afford a lawyer, and I’m not going to drag you into my problems. I just want to save up some money that will get us by for the meantime before I come up with a plan.”
Amber studied her for a long moment before she nodded.
“Okay. But if you need me, you know where to find me.”
Aurora gave her a small smile and excused her hand before her before Amber turned and left.
She finished folding the clothes onto the shelf just as the bell rang again.
Someone had walked in.
She rounded the corner to the desk to find a man standing.
He appeared to be in his 40s with slicked-back hair and dressed in an expensive suit.
Recognition dawned in his eyes when he spotted her, like he was here for her—because he didn’t look like the type of people that shopped at this store, Miss Bennett.
She walked closer till she was behind the desk.
She eyed him warily.
“Can I help you?”
“My name is Rhett. I’m Silas Black’s personal assistant.”
Aurora crossed her arms, taking a defensive stance.
“I’m not interested in whatever you have to say. Please leave.”
“You haven’t even heard the offer yet, Miss Bennett.”
“I don’t need to. That last name has already told me enough.”
Rhett didn’t back off.
Instead, he pulled a business card from his pocket and placed it on the counter.
“Mr Black would like to offer you a position as his secretary. Full-time.”
He paused, gauging her expression.
“You can check the salary and benefits right here.” He said, placing another folder on the desk.
Aurora just stared at the card and the folder before she looked up at him.
Her eyes were blank before they filled with anger.
“Am I a joke to you?” or “Am I a ball that the Black family can keep playing?”
“You seem to misunderstand—”
“I did not misunderstand anything. His son blacklisted me. His stepson nearly got my brother to rot in prison. And now he wants to hire me?”
“Mr Black believes that you’re intelligent and capable of the position. And he knows that his sons have treated both you and your family poorly,” Rhett said smoothly.
“Which is why he’s offering you this position as an apology for all the inconvenience the Black family has caused you.”
Aurora paused for a second, thinking it through.
“I don’t need his apology. Just tell him to keep his sons in check and stay the hell away from me and my family.”
Rhett paused at her response.
“Think about it, Miss Bennett. The offer will stand for a week.”
He didn’t waste another second before he turned and walked out, leaving Aurora to stare at his back until he disappeared from her view.
She looked down back at the card and the folder.
Her hand moved before she could control it, opening the folder, which had a document that listed her salary: $20,000 a month with benefits included.
Aurora’s hands shook together with the paper.