Page 81 of Scandalous Contract

“You sound like a man in love, Julian Cattaneo. I’ll look into Scott Clark for you. Talk to you later. Be careful of Patrick. He doesn’t value family bonds the way you do. And he doesn’t love his sons at all.”

Trust me, I know.My cousin, Bryceson, was proof of that. Wait, did he saysons... plural? Did Patrick have an outside child? He wouldn’t be the first Cattaneo to step outside his vows. I ended the call, wondering what exactly Patrick was up to that had even my PI shook. Whatever it was, I wanted no part of it.

Unlike my father, I had no intention of blindly following any of Patrick's or even the current don’s orders. One day, my cousin Raz would be the don. His orders I would follow. He may be brutal when he had to, but he truly put family first.

I knew Raz would allow me to steer Cattaneo Concrete Solutions in the direction my father always hoped it would go. We did cover up jobs for a select few, a few with whom the don had contracts.

But my father hated that deal. He didn’t mind us covering up our family’s problems. However, he thought it was too risky for us to do the same for others. What happened this time was a perfect example of what could go wrong, and this was with someone I trusted.Aiden.

My father didn’t trust the men our don trusted. Neither did I. Everyone in the family was beginning to notice the tension between Patrick and the don. Not everyone was on board with the way the don had been handling things lately.

Change was coming. And I was ready for it. I was ready for the next generation to step into power. Soon, I’d be able to make the changes I wanted to my business. I was confident I could steer our company in a legitimate direction in time.

Just as I was confident that I could protect Stefanie and her daughter. First, I needed to get rid of this Clark problem. As soon as I got the information I needed, I was going to put an end to this. There was no point in waiting to see what the police did.

By the time the police were done investigating, Scott would be buried and rotting. I relaxed against my seat again and closed my eyes, taking a moment to clear my head of all the chaos. All day, I’d resisted going online to look at Stefanie’s social media accounts.

I’d done good so far. I think I deserved a treat. When I opened my eyes, I pulled up Stefanie’s social media. I smiled when I saw her new post. It was a picture of the flowers I’d given her.

They were on the center of her table, and I knew it was her table because she’d posted pictures of her kitchen online before. The caption read:My favorite flowers!Those three words made me smile even harder.

They were her favorite flowers. I’d gotten her favorite flowers. I stood up, excitement coursing through me as I stared down at the picture. I double-clicked on the picture to love it. I wanted her to know I’d seen the post and that it had made me happy.

My phone rang. The work phone. It was time to get to work. I sat back down. What the hell had I stood up for anyway? I answered the call because our secretary, my little cousin, was a no-show today, just like yesterday. Her excuse was that there was a two-day sale at her favorite store.

Even as I worked, thoughts of Stefanie weren’t far from my mind. It was around closing time when I came up with an idea for what I wanted to send her next. It was simple yet thoughtful.

I hoped she liked it just as much as she liked my flowers. And I hope it made her smile. Because she’d already made me smile today. Her post had brightened up my gloomy day. That was part of the reason I was convinced she was meant to be mine.

Because even when we were apart, knowing she was happy made me happy.

***

STEFANIE

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TODAY, I LEARNED ANimportant life lesson. These jobs don’t give a damn about you! Even if I was reluctant about leaving before, sort of nervous, slightly going crazy wondering if I’d made the right decision, I wasn’t any longer.

My boss was treating me differently now and it was all because some of the companies I was a brand ambassador for were ending their contracts with the station now that I was leaving. Because of that, he’d asked me to continue working until the end of the year.

My answer was no, thank you. He’d offered me a pay raise. I declined. And now his attitude and subtle shade were getting on my damn nerves.One month.That was all I had left. I’d planned to stay two months, just to be nice because I loved this place.

Not anymore. I quickly wrote up a new letter letting him know that my plans had changed and I would be leaving in one month. I also let him know that my replacement was almost fully trained.

Call it unprofessional or petty if you want. I called it protecting my mental health and keeping myself out of jail. I could make it one month. Thinking that way was what helped me get through my day.

However, it wasn’t only my boss who was driving me crazy. There was also Hudson. Every time he saw me, he said something to me. And I could’ve sworn I’d told that bastard not to say shit to me.

They were pushing all of my buttons and I feared I’d soon end up acting out of character. And when a black woman did that, she got labeled as anangryblack woman. And then we got treated as if we were hostile or hard to work with.

But they never mentioned what led to us getting angry and becoming hostile. That anger and hostility had an origin point. However, it would be too much like right for them to actually delve deeper into why we sometimes acted out of character.

Before my father passed away a few years ago, he’d told me that his biggest regret was working his entire life and not having anything to show for it. I’d told him that he had something to show for it.

He had a family, a nice house and he’d left mom financially stable. But he’d told me those things were great, but that wasn’t what he’d meant. He told me his regret was that he hadn’t taken my mom on that dream vacation she’d always talked about.

He’d wanted to. Had tried a couple of times to put in the vacation hours he’d earned, yet his job had always insisted that they couldn’t give him that kind of time off at the moment. Or they’d say the company was too busy, and they needed him right now.