Page 16

So far, Kellen has been good about not answering Selene’s calls since he got to Velden. He even smashed his own phone against the wall to stop the calls and told his secretary not to send them to him. He had too much on his mind like Lena coming back into his life and driving him crazy day and night.
“I think, Mr. Arthur,” Kellen said slowly, “there’s a big misunderstanding here.” There is no tie between your daughter and me. I am friends with Selene, but that’s all.
Isaac Arthur’s smile didn’t go away, and it was deliciously curled. “The blunt and, in some cases, insulting articles in the tabloids say the opposite.”
Kellen moved around in his chair, and all of a sudden, his bad sentiments about this were much worse. “You know how they always like to gossip.”
Isaac Arthur raised his head and leaned back in his chair, giving Kellen a pointed look. “Gossips always start with at least a flicker of truth, Hart, no matter how small it may be.”  “You’re not going to use and throw away my daughter whenever you feel like it,” he said, his eyes shining. “She’s my daughter, not your ex-wife.”
Kellen jerked. “Excuse me!” He yelled,”
What right did he have to say anything like that when he didn’t know what had really happened? Arthur was trying to get him worked up, and he did a damn good job of it.
Arthur only laughed at Kellen’s scream. “I don’t keep my daughter from getting what she wants, boy; she wants you more than anything else.”
“You can’t make me do anything,” Kellen said, getting angrier by the second.
“Then I can surely tear apart more than half of your family businesses,” Arthur said calmly, his face still serene. “You already know that, don’t you?”
Kellen swallowed the snarl in his throat and said, “You had a deal with my father. I still have a year.”
Arthur continued, “But the debt is big, and there are loops, according to my lawyers. You know I can ruin you.”
Kellen longed to wake up his dead father, take his place, and die right then and there. It was only fair for the person who had caused the problem to deal with it personally, not the generations that would come after him.
It was a bad day for Arthur’s father when he had to take on this huge debt after his firm lost a lot of money.
It also didn’t help that half of Hart’s enterprises were about to go out of business. People said that when his wife left, Kellen became more of an alcoholic Romeo than a good businessman.
“I can also do the opposite. My daughter is the good luck charm you need. Then, the sky will be the limit. “Think about it, Hart.”
Arthur moved quickly out of Kellen’s office, and Kellen sneered at his back as he did so. The old man had an aura of confidence and evil about him.
He took a minute to calm himself, but the stress was still boiling beneath his skin since he knew he was so close to losing most of his family enterprises.
He took a huge breath and clenched and unclenched his hands a few times before picking up the phone and telling his secretary to send in Damien, who had been waiting outside for a while.
But when he looked up, his schoolboy face instantly fell away. It was just his luck that Lena, who looked as calm as a cucumber, had to be the one to stroll in.
Lena scanned through the magazines on the tea table in front of her without thinking.
Lola complained next to her, and Lena observed Lola’s face immediately turn a pale shade of green.
“Hey,” Lena inquired with worry. “Are you okay?” “
“I think I ate way too many cookies,” another groan emerged from Lola’s tummy. Suddenly, Lola dropped the phone on top of the magazines Lena had been looking at.
Lena and Kellen’s secretary, who was sitting opposite her desk, were shocked as they observed Lola dash across the room to the bathroom.
Lena prayed this didn’t turn out to be a very bad stomachache. They had to leave the Hart dynasty at some time, after all.
A man in his late fifties strolled out of the office with a sneer on his face. He stopped in front of Lena and seemed surprised before his eyes glinted with anger. The elderly man stormed out, leaving Lena confused.
Who the heck is that, and what the hell is his problem with her?
But when she saw the cover of one of the business magazines, she completely forgot about the incident. Kellen’s face caught her eye. Lola’s phone was right next to his face on the cover, hiding the topic underneath. Lena’s hand reached out on its own and took the phone away, revealing a woman’s photo next to Kellen’s.
Her heart hurt, and she jumped.
Lena thought she knew that woman. As she read further, she discovered it was Selene, one of Kellen’s former college flings who is now a supermodel.
So, they’re back together now.
The opening few sentences of the article claimed precisely that, with spicy comments about the pair.
So, he’s gone on.
Lena may have sunk into a huge hole of numbness. There was no one else there save Kellen and Selene, and their being together made her pale face look even worse.
The secretary had called for her then. Lena looked up and saw the anxiety on the secretary’s face. That woke up the black hole inside her again, the mass of horror that sucked in all of her feelings.
She walked the distance to the mahogany door of his office. When she got there, Kellen’s hard, staring visage confronted her.
So, the man who says she cheated on him has actually cheated on her instead.
It made her want to laugh, and it made her want to laugh so badly.
The meeting was short and awkward. Lena’s nerves were on edge as she sat across the desk, catching Kellen scowling at her too many times. She thought it was probably the blank look on her face that was making him mad. She knew him so well that she could tell he hated not knowing what she was thinking.
Lena also saw that his hair was messy; he had a week’s worth of beard on his face, heavy bags under his eyes, and creases on his forehead. But shouldn’t he be happy now that he’s with his beautiful former fling?
But it shouldn’t matter to her.
Lena grumbled to herself and stopped asking herself questions right there.
They dealt with problems with their following orders in the most professional way possible.