High stakes - part 3

ACT 2 - two.

They were dragging me from one boring unnecessary meeting to another.

I knew what they were doing, they were trying to bully me out. They were trying to show me how boring it was to be co-owner.

But I knew it normally wasn't like this and besides, who did they think I was?
I was the head of Hilton, I sat through a lot of boring meetings there as well.

"Thank you for your time" Zak said as he dismissed everyone.

I didn't get up, I just looked at him and titled my face. "What are you trying to do?"

"What do you mean?"

I closed my laptop and got up calmly. "I would highly suggest you to stop this or I'll take my money and go somewhere else"

He gave me an understanding nod, but didn't say anything else.

He didn't need to, he wasn't gonna scare me off.

I went back to my office, where Juliette was still babysitting Jace.

"Wow finally" she chuckled and before I even could explain what happened, Lando walked in, as if he belonged here.

I looked at him and I hated to admit it, but I still was attracted to that little fucker.

"I-uh will go grab a cup of coffee" Juliette said as she walked out of the office, leaving us alone.

"I just wanted to ask if I could spend some time with Jace" Lando said as he looked down at Jace, not even looking at me at all.

"Of course, you can always spend time with Jace" I said.

"Thanks" he walked up to the crib but he didn't take Jace out of it yet. "How are you?"

"I am trying, you know" I said. I didn't even know what I meant. Trying to do what? Be happy? Forget about what happened? Trying to make him suffer?

"I would love to talk to you, in private, just the two of us" he said.

Weren't we talking right now?

"About what?"

"About us, I want to explain things" he said softly.

Explain things. Explain why he cheated on me. Explain why he felt the need to betray me like that.

I don't know if I was ready for that. I don't know if I wanted to hear why he did what he did.

But on the other hand, I really needed to know why he did that. Did I do something wrong?

Maybe we shouldn't talk. Maybe we should remove each other from each other's life completely.

Maybe he will use me another 3 times, giving me more false hope.

Maybe he will lie, just to make me forgive him.

"Fine, I'm free tomorrow evening" I said before handing him Jace's bag with all his stuff. "I don't want her to be near him"

I didn't need to explain who I meant by that. I didn't want her negative energy around him. It was hard enough that I had to let her stay in my hotel.

I wanted to walk away but he quickly grabbed my arm. "Why did you become co-owner? What is your plan?"

He finally had the balls to ask the question that was on everyone's mind.

Zak offered me the position because he couldn't afford to lose another sponsor, because he couldn't pay for the hotels, because he was in serious problems.

Something he would never tell his drivers because he didn't want them to leave, especially Lando.

So I took the position, because, how weird it may sound, I wanted to see Mclaren succeed.

This wasn't just about Lando and Violet. There were a lot of people working for Mclaren. A lot of people who were relying on them for their paychecks.

I didn't want to see Mclaren burn to the ground. I wanted to put out the fire that was destroying them, so I could take Hilton away without having thousands of people losing their jobs.

I needed to make Mclaren so healthy again, that I could take my sponsorship away and finally be free from Lando.

"Pure cash" I lied, before walking out.

He didn't need to know about this fire. He needed to concentrate on driving, because in order to fix Mclaren, he needed to be on the podium, even win races.

I needed him to do well. Extremely well.