The Love Of Money - S01 E210

Story 4 weeks ago

The Love Of Money - S01 E210

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 210

I turned away from the few onlookers and trudged a few feet down the hallway toward the dungeon room. "You go ahead and make a scene," I said, trying to keep my voice as low as possible while trying to maintain a certain level of calm authority. My stomach was in knots as I decided to go toe-to-toe with Roger VanCamp.

"Let's see what happens when they find out you're letting me fuck your wife"

"Most of the company knows that," Roger snapped, and he didn't sound particularly troubled by my threat.

I took a deep breath to steel myself for what was about to say next. "Do they know she doesn't want to stop? Bet you'd love for them to talk about that around the water cooler? Poor Roger getting cucked by their newest client. Thought he could use his wife to hook the big whale, only to have it blow up in his face."

The silence lasted a second longer than expected, and I took that as a good sign. The man was jealous and prideful, and the last thing he wanted was for it to become common knowledge that he no longer exercised complete control of his precious trophy wife. I could tell how much it bothered him in our exchange earlier.

I had him on the ropes, so I decided to press things a little further. "Or how about we dig into where you've been for the last week. Were you really in the UAE or Saudi or wherever... or were you in Vegas?"

Roger snorted on the other end and said, "Boy, you have no idea what you're talking about." If there was any wariness or doubt on his end, I couldn't hear it. "How about we make this deal - you tell your little guard dog to stand down and let me collect my daughter. We leave. No one has to know about the war profiteering you're part of or how you own the majority of a company that is doing illegal experimentation on disadvantaged people for pharmaceutical research and development. I'll also keep my mouth shut on whatever is happening between you and Barbara Nanford.

Barbara? Who the fuck was....

My eyes grew wide, and I felt my stomach try to drop out of my ass. Bobbi.

What the fuck did Roger know? How did he know?

Wait... war profiteering? Illegal experimentation? What the fuck was he talking about? Was I Involved in all that? Chandler did say my grandpa had his hand in some pretty dark stuff, but things like that? What was next? Human trafficking?

I wanted to tell him he was bluffing. I might have if it hadn't been for the threat he'd just made about Bobbi.

What the fuck did you tell him, Helen!?

"Marcus?" Roger said.

"Get the fuck out of my house, Roger," I said.

"And Ashlee?"

"If she wants to go, take her with you." That sentence tasted like rancid garbage in my mouth. Fuck Carla and Kwan. I wanted to fling Roger out of a window. No... I wanted to shove him into a wood chipper. Death by defenestration was too good for this guy.

"Thank you," Roger said, and I could hear the sneer in his voice.

God dammit! My answers! I wanted my fucking answers!

Never in my life had I felt this much rage, and I did something I would have never done a month ago. With the call still going. I flung the phone down the hallway at an angle and watched as It smashed squarely into the side of a door frame, spun several times in mid-air, and clattered to the floor.

I turned and stalked back into the study, shutting the door only moderately hard behind me. Whatever Chandler was saying to the speakerphone immediately died as he and Hiro looked at me.

"Hiro, I can't give you twenty-five percent of my holdings. It's insane that you'd ask for that much. I also can't give you the CEO position. Chandler's done a great job and knows more about VistaVision than anyone else. Here's what I can do, though. I'll give you five more percent of the company and any executive role you choose."

Tanaka peered at me through his spectacles for a solid ten seconds and said, "My son gets a position in the company of my choosing, and deal."

"Not CEO," clarified.

"Not CEO," he repeated.