14. Candice

CHAPTER 14

CANDICE

I have to admit, that meeting left me with a cold, hollow pit in my stomach. Not great.

Eddie and Pablo are hard at work, putting together a showcase of all the best bits of our company. If we can attract even one investor, then that would be brilliant. We need a small win. That's all. Big wins are easier after a few small ones.

Really, I should be working too, but I'm trapped in an endless stream of cat videos. They're cheering me up, at least. Five more minutes. I let the cute tabby crash-landing down the stairs loop a few times, smiling at the look on the poor thing's face.

Then the phone rings.

I'm not expecting anyone, but that means nothing. I get an equal handful of spam, scammers, and genuine enquiries. I don't think I have the patience for the first two right now.

With a sigh, I put my cellphone down and pick up the work phone. "Mettie Marketplace, this is Candice. How can I help today?"

"Hello, Candice. It's Aiden. Fletcher."

An ice-cold bucket of water might as well have been thrown over me. Every inch of my skin freezes over, and if he says something else, the rush of blood pounding between my ears blocks it out. I'm glad no one else is here because my mouth has dropped wide, wide open.

I wish I could say that I haven't spent a single second thinking about Aiden since that night, eight years ago, but that's not true at all. I've spent way too much of my life cursing him for ruining my heart. I swore off romance because of him. I turned down a different position at Fletcher Tech because of him. I've had a ball of rage tucked inside my rib cage all this time because of him.

"Is this a good time? Can we talk?"

I wish I had another door I could slam in his face.

I should hang up. I don't need or want anything from him. But a spark of curiosity keeps me on the line, silence crackling between us as the years fall away to a memory of that night when I experienced the biggest betrayal I ever have. Surely he knows I hate him, still? What could he possibly want that would make him choose to call me?

"Candice? Are you there?"

"Yes," I croak. "What do you want?"

He takes an unsteady breath that crackles through the phone. "I have a business proposal for you. Please hear me out."

It's almost funny. I can still picture his square jaw, his strong nose, the little dimple on his forehead as he frowns, like he'll be doing now. "Okay," I manage.

This conversation could have been worse. He could have tried to catch up. Which is the last thing I want. I'll talk business, but that's as far as it goes.

I grip the side of my chair, my knuckles sheet-white from the pressure.

"We've been looking at smaller companies lately, with an eye to investing. What I'd be offering you is an acquisition: Fletcher Tech would own Mettie Marketplace, but you would still have total autonomy to run it however you want. We'd handle the accounts and make sure everything was balanced fairly, so really nothing would change except some of the legality."

"Why?" I choke out. I really have to try more than monosyllables. I shut my eyes tight, and add, "Why us? What benefit would that have for either of us?"

The truth is, I can see the benefit incredibly clearly — for us , anyway. The financial strength of that kind of company behind us? It's almost dizzying how much stability that would bring. I'd be able to give everyone the pay raise they deserve; we'd be able to put more into advertising, into development, into everything. And that's not even taking into account the interest external investors would have in us as part of Fletcher Tech.

The disadvantage, though, of course, is we'd have to be part of Fletcher Tech.

Aiden is clearly finding this difficult too. He sighs. "We feel it would be… prudent to expand our horizons a little, given the turbulent nature of the economic climate."

"And again, without the bullshit?"

"We want to help foster new talent and help growing businesses, like yours."

I glare at the wall so hard I almost expect a hole to burn into it. "Do you? Do you really?"

He audibly swallows. "I do. I know we have some history, but I'm willing — I'm wanting to put all that behind us, to let it go as water under the bridge. We can forge something great, going forward, if we do it together."

"You're so full of shit!" I snap.

In the background, I hear a murmur of other people — he must be in some kind of conference. I hope he has me on speaker. I want everyone in that room to know what a traitor he can be. No amount of smooth talking can fix any of what he did to me.

Aiden continues like I've said nothing at all. "I've had an accountant look at your company and value it for me. You've done an impressive amount with it."

"Thank you," I say tersely, refusing to be flattered. "Give me the figure. I know what I'm worth."

Softly, he chuckles. "I know you do."

The numbers he quotes at me aren't bad, and I think for anyone else I might have caved, but I want him to fight for me. If he really wants Mettie's, he's going to have to try really, really hard.

"Of course, I would have to talk to my own accountant first," I say, "but off the cuff, I think you're lowballing me. And anyway, if you plan to acquire us, how can you guarantee the safety of my position as CEO, and the jobs of my employees? I thought it was usual for the company being acquired to give up all their assets."

There are some sputters of disbelief in the room and I grin to myself. If any of them thought I was going to be easy, they're about to realize how wrong they were.

"I'm happy to negotiate into something more resembling a merger. This is the first conversation of, I hope, many. Of course, our accountants can thrash it all out until we're happy, but I'm willing to compromise. You would have to give up the company to us, legally, if we bought you outright, but I have no interest in shutting Mettie's Marketplace down. I would need you to keep it going."

I want to call him a liar so badly, but I resist. The more I roll it around in my mind, the more sense it makes.

"So, let me get this straight. We agree on how much my company is worth, you give me the money so you can own it, but then you still let me work for it as if it were still my own, presumably after some sort of Fletcher Tech rebranding?"

"Yes," he says with the utter confidence of someone who always gets what he wants.

But, intriguingly, someone pipes up from the back of the room to say, "Well, actually… don't… liquid funds available… merger won't work unless…"

"What was that?" I ask. I'm not letting him fuck me over.

Aiden groans. It's not unreasonable to assume that someone's getting fired today. "I have been reliably informed," he says, taking a deep breath, "that we, in fact, would not be able to buy Mettie's Marketplace for what it's worth, so we would have to come to a deal."

"Oh, so you want me to hand over years of my life to you so your goons can come in and ruin it? You want me to sell for less than I'm worth to make yourself feel good? You really think I'm going to let you ruin my life, again?"

If I wasn't so angry, I'd be reveling in the shocked snippets of conversation I'm picking up. But this is like being back at Aiden's house, eight years ago, all over again.

And he's not getting his own way this time.

"Candice, listen, I promise it's not like that."

I scoff hard, jumping to my feet to yell at him more effectively. "Really? Go on, then. You have thirty seconds to explain to me how this benefits me and how it isn't just your company monopolizing on everything, as usual. Go on!"

There's a sickening silence as he realizes that he has absolutely nothing to give to me.

"Look, it's beneficial because we both need investors," he says, rallying. "We both need to grow. I have the name, you have the innovation. It's a partnership that could really work, if you'd only try it."

"I've heard all this before, Aiden Fletcher. That name is all you are."

It's a cruel thing to say, but the sharp breath of hurt is more vindicating than any hurt I've imagined giving him over the years. And it's true. He'd be nothing without his inheritance.

"Don't call me again unless you have something good to say. Goodbye."

I slam the phone back into its cradle before he can say another word, then slam my fist against the desk. A shockwave of pain travels all the way up my arm, and I yell out in fury and agony and for everything that just happened.

The truth is this: I hate Aiden Fletcher for what he did to me.

The truth is also this: I need the kind of power Fletcher Tech is offering me in order to make it.

As the adrenaline ebbs, I sink down in my chair and put my head on the desk. I've made it a point not to cry at work, so I don't. But I can't do anything else right now. I stare at the wall, letting each word of the conversation circle my mind, trying to see a way through the tangling paths of the future that are opening up in front of me.