The Billionaire's Wife (A Steamy BWWM Marriage of Convenience Romance Novel) (18 page)

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Chapter 29

Kiona

While I stood in the rooftop garden,
leaning against the concrete lip, I swirled my glass and took a deep, relaxing
breath. I could hear the dampened voices from inside, and I knew that all of
this build-up was finally here. As the sound of the glass door hit my eardrums,
I put on my war face and prepared to face the man who had spurred all of this
into motion.

It’s show time.

He was a
stocky, elderly black man, with a youthful vigor in his eyes. This vigor, in a
glance, is what convinced me to take the enthusiastic approach.

“Greetings,
Mr. Megami!” I smiled, eagerly but warmly throwing my arms around our guest.
“It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. Cole has told me so much.”

“Please, call
me Alphonse,” he replied, a little caught off-guard by my enthusiasm. “The
pleasure is mine.” He turned to my tired Cole, who had followed him outside and
closed the door behind them. “I hope your husband has painted me in a somewhat flattering
light…”

“Oh, not
really,” I laughed with a wicked smile. “Cole tells me that you’re a total
monster.”

Alphonse
blinked a few times, glancing between Cole and me. My billionaire looked mildly
horrified, but our guest merely smiled graciously. “You’ve married a little
firecracker
, Mister Andrews,” he
chuckled. “Such a spirit in this one.”

“Speaking of
spirits, can I get you something to drink?” I asked politely, swishing my
glass. “Wine, or perhaps champagne? I was thinking of topping off a few minutes
ago, actually…”

Alphonse
side-eyed me. “I’ll take some water, thank you. Tell me, do you quite enjoy
alcohol, Miss Kiona? I daresay I haven’t met a champagne quite as bubbly as
yourself in these few moments I’ve encountered you...”

“Oh, this?” I
asked, gazing at my upheld glass. “This is just orange juice. My father was an
alcoholic, so I started off adverse to the stuff…” I smoothed over the
down-note with a cheerful smile, aimed back at Cole. “I know you told me to let
loose and enjoy myself…but I’m fine. Really. I can manage without it.”

“Of course,”
he replied, immediately playing along. “Whatever makes you happy, sweetheart.”

“Honeymoon
phase,” I rolled my eyes at Alphonse. “It’s all
sweetheart
and
honey
now,
but give it a few years…”

The mask
slipped for a moment as I realized that
a
few years
wasn’t going to happen. Briefly zoning out, I focused on a window
in my line of sight, willing myself back into cheerfulness. I wanted to scream.
Just buy the goddamn company, you stupid
fool! Why do we have to put on this song and dance for you?

“Excuse me
for a moment, gentlemen,” I hastily added as I snapped back. “Water, was it?”

“Yes, water
will be fine,” Alphonse agreed, his eyebrow curiously rising as he observed me.

 
I nodded with a sad grin, breaking away
to slip back inside. Biting my lip as I poured him a glass of purified,
ice-cold water, I fought back the welling tears.

Keep it together, Key,
I told
myself.

Tonight is everything.

I almost
walked back outside without tending to my own glass. Alphonse seemed overly
perceptive – I’d already announced that I was refilling mine too. I
quickly topped it off, realizing that he’d consider me absentminded and overly
contemplative if I overlooked the detail.

As I walked
back outside, they were standing side by side, talking discreetly with their
eyes over the city. I handed Alphonse his glass, and his eyes immediately
slipped to mine – verifying for me that he was carefully observing the
details.

Oh, I have GOT to stay on my toes with you.

“Thank you,
Miss Kiona,” Alphonse gratefully accepted the glass. He took a deep drink,
releasing an exhalation of satisfaction. “This tastes like one of mine. What’s
the brand?”

“Keystone,”
Cole remarked. “You can tell the difference?”

“Life is
about observing the details. One must pay attention and always be grateful for
the minutiae, I find. It limits the boastfulness of the bloated ego to always
be looking outward, focused on otherwise insignificant things, wouldn’t you
agree?”

The message
was loud and clear to me:
I am watching
both of you. I will see what you really are.

“Of course,”
Cole answered.

Something
snapped in my head. I don’t know if it was the pressure of how perfect this
night was, or if I was seeing all the details of this climactic meeting as if
for the first time.

I knew that I
should play along. I knew that I should simply nod, steer the topic away.
Perhaps I could discuss our beautiful marriage, or how much I enjoyed New
Orleans. But, try as I might, I couldn’t.

This man was
seriously pissing me off.

“I’m not
convinced,” I replied.

Both of them
turned to me. Cole was wide-eyed, but Alphonse was merely curious, a vague hint
of surprise on his face. He probably didn’t encounter people who disagreed with
him to his very face all that often.

Fine. We go the “challenge” route, then.

“What makes
you say that, Miss Kiona?”

“Sure, people
don’t stop to appreciate the details. That’s a common flaw with everyone these
days. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of self-absorption, instead of
reflecting on the world and its intricacies…or however you’d rather put it. But
the thing is, to get where I am now, I’ve had to live in the
here and now
. If I stopped to
contemplate every little detail that came my way, I wouldn’t have gotten
anywhere.”

“And where is
that?”

“Right here,
speaking to you, married to this man!” I threw my arm around Cole’s shoulder
and planted a big kiss on his cheek. “My darling idiot.”

Alphonse
chuckled, but I could tell that Cole was horror-stricken. He was cold and stiff
as I pulled my face away to smile warmly at our guest, eager to see where my
impulsiveness was taking us now.

“And what
makes you think he is an idiot?” Alphonse asked politely. “This man is
self-made – he commands more wealth than mostly any other individual on
the planet, saving an exceptional few.”

I could have
changed course, but I couldn’t.

No…I
wouldn’t
.

“Because he
wants this night to go perfectly,” I replied calmly. “He wants
you
to buy his company, and he wants
me
to be the delightful trophy wife,
convincing you that we’re really soul mates and all that crap. You know the
spiel.”

Alphonse’s
face fell. “Would you care to try that again?” Before I could answer, he turned
to my husband. “Are you sure you didn’t slip some alcohol into her drink?”

“Look,” I
said, disentangling myself from Cole. “You came all this way to see if he and I
really loved each other, right? I mean, that’s the impression I got. How do you
plan on quantifying that?”

“I don’t…”

“Exactly.
What, you just
know?
” I continued on,
watching Megami’s face as I verbally advanced upon him.
“No, that’s not a valid measurement…you see, I like to think that
love is based on a certain, healthy trust. Love is something you work on,
something you build upon mutual respect. It isn’t some bubbly, fairy tale
infatuation. Love is
respect
. Love is
commitment
. He and I don’t have the
time to build a fire-forged relationship, a textbook example of the perfect,
fairy-tale romance. We can’t focus on every tiny detail. Time isn’t on our
side.”

“I am aware,”
the businessman growled. It was clear that I was getting to him, but if the
idea in my head was going to work…

“But that’s
just it – he told me that he’s dying, but I only found out
after
we’d married. He didn’t want me to
get close…he didn’t want to hurt me. That’s how he showed me that he really cared.
Cole wanted to keep this emotionless, just a business arrangement – like
the two of you. He also cares so much about all of his employees that he’ll
bend over
backwards
for you, even if
it makes him look like an idiot.”

“Honey,” Cole
began, “I think that’s quiet enough–”

“So, how do
you quantify love? This isn’t rhetorical. I want to know. You’re the
billionaire love doctor? Surely you have a metric, something tangible.”

“I…think I’ve
heard quite enough,” Alphonse remarked, his face stony and detached.

“No, you
haven’t,” I pressed him. “This night has to go
perfectly
for you to buy his company. But you made up your mind
before you ever stepped foot in New York. Why is that? That’s what I want to
know. All of us know that my husband is dying. You wanted to put him through
that extra pain – forcing him to magically find love in his dying days…
And I can see it on your face as clear as day. You came here to refuse Cole’s
offer. You wanted to look him in the eyes when you did it… Didn’t you Megami?”

I smiled even
as he showed cracks in his formerly calm appearance.

“But here’s
the thing –
I’m
not dying.
There’s something innately cruel about all of this. I love this man. I will
stand
by
this man. He’s changed my
life. He’s shown me things…he’s shown me what it’s like to live without fear.
And now I have to watch this man die before we can share almost any of our
lives together, and one of the last nights I have with him…I have to spend on
this stupid little song and dance with you?”

My tears were
starting to stream now, but I couldn’t fight it anymore. “Why?
Why in God’s name
would you do that to
me? To
him?
Why put us through that
anguish? If we threw some sham marriage together to appease you, you’d see
right through it. And yeah, that was the desperate and stupid plan right from
the get-go. I bet you know all about the Swiss bank account, don’t you Mr.
Magami? None of that mattered anymore when I found out he was dying. We’re
spend these last days bearing our
souls
to
each other. We know things about each other no one else either
has
or
will
ever know. But now, thanks to your little games, Cole has to
die knowing that he’s leaving me behind, and I have to carry on knowing that you
are the man responsible for that.”

The two men
were speechless.

Cole turned
away, pressing his hands down to the concrete wall and gazing hopelessly out to
the city. Alphonse, on the other hand, was wide-eyed as he swallowed something
in his throat, his eyes flicking from him to me.

“I am an old
man,” he replied, “and I have lived a life without love or happiness. My entire
life has been focused on my work, with no time for building a life with someone
else…something built on love. I understand the hole it has placed in my heart,
and my beliefs bind me to expect a certain…
standard
in the men that I do business with. I am a traditional man, after all.

“When Cole
tried to appease me, he told me he was a dying man. It only solidified my
direction – I needed him to experience love, true love, before he passed
away.”

My eyes grew
wild. “And in your
great wisdom
, Mister
Megami, you have only hurt him further,” I told him under no uncertain terms.
“And you have hurt
me.
We passed your
test – we fell in love. And now I have to go the rest of my life knowing
that I will never, ever meet a man as loving, as capable, as
passionate
as the broken man you see
before you. Everyone else will be lesser.”

“Do you not
think,” he asked quietly, “that it is better to have loved and lost?”

I looked at
this foolish, elderly man, forcing his worldview onto the last gasps of his
desperate, dying partner – someone who
only wanted to leave the people dependent on him better.
My blood
began to boil in my veins.