Resisting the Billionaire Collection (20 page)

"So what is this meeting all about exactly?
Did Alex have to describe what base he got to with the lowly flight
attendant? First base is okay, but second base is trouble and a
home run means he becomes a pauper overnight? Is that the
protocol?"

"It's really not like that, Melanie. Mr.
Drummond is a very reasonable man. What he wants to know is how
deep Alex Junior's feelings for you are. If he, uh... if he loves
you." He smiled a little as he said the words.

"Oh, and that would be so ridiculous, right?
The great Alex Drummond Junior, falling for a flight
attendant."

"You don’t understand at all. Mr. Drummond
has nothing but the greatest respect for all of his employees. He
loves this company but you broke the golden rule. His sons are the
most important thing in the world to him, so he wants to give Alex
a chance to think this over before he does something he might
regret for the rest of his life."

"Like choosing me over his wealth and
power?"

"Look, Melanie, I don't mind telling you
that you are a very beautiful woman. Any man would be lucky to have
you, but let me ask you this: if you really feel for him, would you
let him throw away all that money, the business he has dedicated
his young life to, and his whole family, just to be with you? Would
you do that to him? Could you do that to someone you truly
loved?"

Melanie had no answer.

"Either way, you're out of the picture. Your
career with Drummond is gone. The question is, do you want to take
Alex Drummond down with you or not?"

Larry held her gaze in the rear view mirror
until she broke away and looked to the floor. Tears began to well
up in her eyes. He was right. She couldn’t do it. Not to Alex, not
even to Sebastian, as confused and devious as he was.

"Melanie, look at me." Larry said. "I'm
going to ask you a question and I want you to answer for me
quickly, without thinking for a second. Can you do that for
me?"

Melanie nodded, rubbing the tears out of her
eyes. Larry held her gaze.

"Do you love him?" He said.

Tears flowed from her eyes. "God yes, of
course I do." She sobbed.

Larry said nothing. He just nodded his head
and then passed a linen handkerchief to her. When she took it from
him, the black divider slid back up and they rode the rest of the
journey in silence.

Chapter
Nineteen

Alex sat in the back of the luxury limo and waited
for his brother to climb in the other side before tapping the glass
to let their driver know they were ready. It would be a long drive
through the morning traffic.

They rode wordless for some time before Alex
broke the silence.

"So what are we going to say to Dad?" He
said.

"What are 'we' going to say?" He said
sarcastically. You're the one who came up with this crazy ‘let's
share her’ plan and you're the one Larry caught in the act with a
Drummond employee."

Alex ground his jaws together. "The plan is
not to share her. Why do you keep saying that?"

Sebastian didn’t answer, but a sardonic
smile played around his lips.

"Jesus Christ,” Alex whispered, "is that it?
Is that what you actually want?"

"Are you kidding? That’s the last thing I
want. Melanie, when I finally get her, will be all mine and don’t
you forget it."

"When you finally get her?"

Sebastian grinned as the cold truth began to
dawn on his brother.

“Okay, I think I’m getting it now. For the
moment at least, this is it." Alex said. "You get the money and I
get the girl, right?"

"Didn't you want it that way?"

"You know that's not what I wanted. It’s not
what we discussed and not what we agreed on."

"Oh yes, I remember now. You wanted to
sacrifice everything for her, give her to me along with your share
of the Drummond Empire. You’re such a sport big bro, such a good
egg."

"That really was it Sebastian. You know that
if I said it, then I meant it."

"Except you knew that would never happen and
you just couldn’t stop yourself. The one thing that belonged to me,
the only thing I was ever good at, and you have to beat me at that
too. Thanks big bro, now I know for sure that I'm just the weaker,
slower, inferior version of you, and we have Melanie here to prove
it."

The bitterness and spite were painful to
Alex’s ears. He loved his little brother to death and would never
have done anything to upset him. Now he could hear all the years of
resentment coming out. It was like his brother was a different
person.

"You never felt anything for her at all, did
you? She's just another skirt to you, another pretty face you had
to score before I did. This has never been about Melanie, it’s
always been about getting to me, getting even, getting ahead
somehow."

"You give yourself too much importance, big
brother. And you credit me with too little intelligence and way too
little heart and soul. I love Melanie, alright. I loved her the
moment I set eyes on her, which was before you."

"This isn't a game of finders keepers,
Sebastian. She didn't wash up on the beach like salvage. She's a
woman; a flesh and blood woman with feelings."

"I know that. I know that better than you
because she made love to me first, before you did. She came for me
first and my God, it was spectacular."

Alex bunched his fists. He knew his brother
was lying in order to provoke him and it was working. He was
furious. However, he didn’t intend to show up in his father’s
office having assaulted his brother on the way there.

Sebastian continued.

"The difference between me and you big
brother, is that I’m not stupid enough to expect her to love me in
poverty the way you do. You can do your Romeo stuff with Dad, lose
everything you are entitled to, and then see how long Melanie stays
with you when you’re delivering pizzas to make ends meet and while
she’s applying for food stamps. Won’t that be romantic?"

"Fuck you! Can’t you just accept that she
chose me over you and then move on with your life?"

"I am moving on, Alex. And eventually
Melanie will move on with me. When she gets tired of struggling
from check to tiny paycheck, I'll be there; rich, strong, well-fed,
and waiting. She has strong feelings for me, just as she does for
you, but when I'm still a billionaire and you can't scrape together
enough money for a romantic meal out, then who do you think she'll
choose?"

Alex looked at his brother for a long time
as the engine hummed in thick midtown traffic.

"God, I can't believe you're even my
brother. What the hell happened to you? What did I do to make you
so angry?"

"I'm not angry goddamn it! I just don't want
Melanie to be poor. You can do whatever the hell you like. Tell Dad
you never touched her; tell him that Larry is a liar and that you
don't love her. Then we'll see which one of us she turns to."

"She won't turn to either of us because it's
the same endgame either way."

"Oh, she will. Melanie is an angel, she's
perfect -- but she's also a flesh and blood woman, just like you
said. She has needs and those needs deserve to be fulfilled. You
can't do that without money in your wallet and prospects for your
future. Outside of the Drummond family circle, you can say goodbye
to both of those, and Melanie won’t be far behind."

"You’re wrong bro, just way off the mark.
You must know that Melanie isn’t the kind of girl to go sneaking
around having affairs in the dark. She won’t accept being afraid to
be seen with the person she loves."

"For a billion dollars she might change her
mind about that."

The brothers lapsed into silence. There was
nothing more to be said.

When they arrived at Drummond Tower, they
made their way to the top floor to meet with their father. After a
brief wait, they entered his office.

Even after all these years, it was still an
intimidating experience to be called before the old man. Mr.
Drummond had been an authoritarian father and after the departure
of their mother, the boys had been raised at a distance from their
single parent. The most expensive foreign boarding schools, then
Ivy League colleges, and finally, the most elite MBA courses in the
world. The boys had finally gotten to know their father better when
they were at last deemed ready to serve the Drummond Corporation in
a business capacity.

"Alex, Sebastian." He said. "Please
sit."

The two men sat before him in the teak,
mahogany, and leather-bound surroundings of the owner and CEO's
office. The old man looked like he had been carved out of a single
piece of rain forest wood himself. At 101 years old, he showed no
sign whatsoever of giving up full control of his empire. To his
advanced age, his two young sons, barely in their 30s, still looked
like children in short pants. Occasionally he had moments of
despair when he thought of them and the future of the Drummond
Empire. The thought of all those billions amassed over decades
going into decline was unbearable to him.

When his personal assistant Larry had
informed him of his son's indiscretion, he had been shaken to the
core. Alex was the favored one. If disaster was to strike, he had
always presumed it would be his more wayward son Sebastian, the
'younger' one. His third son Joshua, although in his mid-twenties
now, was so young to his mind that he rarely gave him any serious
consideration.

He looked at his boys now with heavy gloom
and disappointment.

It was a look that both Alex and Sebastian
were used to, but today they could sense something worse. Something
big was about to occur.

The men sat in silence and waited for their
father to speak, just as they always did, just as they had been
educated.

After ten infinitely long, tense, and almost
unbearable minutes, he finally spoke.

"Well?" A fit of coughing overtook him.

"Father..." Sebastian rose to help but he
waved his son back until the fit was over and then turned his gaze
to his older son.

"Alex. Is it true, boy?"

Only one person in the world could make the
wealthy and powerful playboy Alex Drummond, Junior feel like a
scared little schoolboy again, and he was sitting in right there
front of him.

Sebastian barely concealed his satisfied
grin. Alex stared down at his shoes.

"Speak to me boy and look me in the eye like
a man. Is it true?"

Alex lifted his head and stared defiantly
back.

"Yes." He whispered.

"What? I can't hear you, speak up boy."

"Yes, it's true. I was with her."

The old man grunted his disapproval and
glared at his favorite son with anger and withering
disappointment

"This is bad, Alex. Very bad. But it's
finished with now. She will be given full severance pay and you
will never see her again."

Sebastian’s smirk froze and then
crumbled.

"Father, a rule is a rule--"

"Shut up, boy. Did I address myself to
you?"

Sebastian dropped his head again. His heart
was beating faster. This wasn’t part of his plan at all.

"Don’t worry, Sebastian," Alex said, "I'm
going with her. The money is yours."

"What?" The old man nearly choked on the
question.

"I said I'm going with her."

"Don't talk nonsense, boy. Do you know what
that means?"

"I don't care what it means. You've
controlled my life since the day I was born, like a puppet with
strings. It’s over now. Take your money, take your job, take your
empire and keep it. I'll be free of you at last. No more control.
My life will be mine for the first time ever."

"Damn it boy, what kind of fool are you?
Don't you know a chance when you see it? I'm giving you a way out.
Just forget this girl, this… this nobody, and continue on with your
life. She's nothing; a mistake to learn from, a girl you fucked in
the heat of the moment while trapped on a desert island. Even I
can't blame you for that. What were you supposed to do for a whole
month? It's a damn long time for a young man to go without. I may
be too old for it now, but do you think I don't remember?"

Alex stared at his father with a hatred that
seared the air. He stood up and took an envelope out of his pocket,
placed it down on the old man’s desk.

"It's my resignation." He said. "I love
Melanie and I'd rather be poor with her than become a pathetic,
lonely old man like you."

He turned to go.

"Wait." His father said. "I still need you.
If you're determined to throw your life away, I can't stop you. But
you have a duty to this corporation and to your brothers even if
you have in some misguided, irrational way contrived to vilify me
in your own mind."

Alex nodded his head and sat down again. He
was still a responsible businessman and captain of industry. He
would carry out his duties to the letter. Tie up all loose
ends.

"Of course Mr. Drummond. This is between you
and me. I owe it to everyone I've worked with at Drummond
Corporation to make it a smooth transition. I never intended
anything different."

"Good." The old man muttered. "It's your
legal contractual duty as well, so don't you forget that, boy." He
turned to his other son who quickly erased the satisfied smirk from
his face.

"Now you -- tell me, what's this girl to
you?"

"She has a name, father." Alex said.

“Okay." His father sighed irritably.
"Sebastian, this girl -- Melanie -- what is she to you?"

"Nothing." He said instantly. Alex couldn't
believe his ears. His brother was a consummate liar. One month ago,
he would never have thought it possible as he swore love to Melanie
on the beach. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Did you fuck her as well?" His father
asked.

"Certainly not. She's an employee. Nothing
would induce me to break corporate rules father, to say nothing of
your personal wishes, and certainly not with some little flight
attendant. My God, the very thought is ridiculous. Do you think I
would risk the girl losing her job just to satisfy a temporary need
on a desert island?"