Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (81 page)

“You didn’t,” I said, starting to feel
guilty. “You were not the one who got us into this big pile of mess, mom. And I
don’t think you’re stupid. In my defense…you weren’t supposed to see the limo,”
I finished lamely.

“Why don’t you answer this time,” she said
looking away from me and smiling at Zayden. “What exactly do you do for a
living, Zayden?”

He finished chewing and swallowed, as I
felt my heart thump faster and faster across my chest.

“I am the CEO of South National Bank,” he
said simply.

I did not dare look at my mother. Or him.
Or anybody. I simply continued to stuff mashed potatoes into my mouth, hoping
that nobody expected me to speak for a long time, unable to quite think of
anything rational to say.

“I see,” my mom said in a voice that did
not sound entirely like her own. “So you’re her boss, then? You’re everybody’s
boss?”

“In a manner of speaking. It’s really not
a big deal, though,” he added hastily. “I have and always will, consider Aria
an equal. Your daughter is brilliant, Molly. Especially for her age.”

“I know she is,” I heard my mom say
mechanically. I was still glaring at the table in front of me. “But when you
say ‘for her age’ I do wonder, are you much older, then?”

“I will turn thirty-three in February.”

“Wow, I am surprised you aren’t married
then. A handsome young man like yourself. Surely somebody rather suitable must
have grabbed your interest before our little Aria did?”

“I was married once, but she wasn’t the
right woman for me,” he said, beginning to sound increasingly more
uncomfortable. “And I am glad it didn’t work out or I would have never met
Aria. She lacked your daughter’s intelligence. Most women do, Molly.”

“How about children? Did you father any
with this unintelligent woman you speak of?”

“None that I know of,” he said in an
attempt at humor, but it had obviously been the wrong move because I chose that
moment to look up at mom’s face and it was glowing red hot.

“I’m sorry, Zayden – Mr. Zayden Sinclair,
I mean – would you mind excusing us for just a little bit? I need to have a
word with Aria. Family matters to discuss, you know? Why don’t you help
yourself to more of that pie and ice cream in the meanwhile?”

Say no, Zayden, say no, say no, say no. I
looked at him and nodded, hoping he would understand but he remained completely
clueless. “Sure, go ahead. I don’t mind at all.”

Shit. As my mom lead me towards her
bedroom, my heart started thumping even louder than before. What was she going
to do? I wish I hadn’t lied to her! The thing was, there was no way she could
exactly back off the deal now, so she had to learn to be okay with whatever was
happening. If only I hadn’t lied to her to begin with, perhaps this whole thing
wouldn’t have turned into the scary ordeal that it had become.

When we entered the room and my mom closed
the door behind her, I crossed my fingers, even though I wasn’t sure what that
would accomplish.

“Your boss?” my mom asked, not in an angry
but disappointed tone. “Your boss, Aria? Of all the people in the whole world,
you decided that you were going to sleep with the owner and CEO of South
National Bank!”

“What does the bank have anything to do
with it?” I asked, confused by where her focus was geared.

“Shhhh,” she hissed immediately. “Let’s
keep our voices down, shall we?”

“Okay,” I whispered. “But mom, seriously,
this is not what it must look like.”

“I love you Aria and I really appreciate
all the things you have done in order to help me out. It’s just…I feel like I
let you stoop too low for my sake and right now I can’t help feel like I’ve
done an altogether terrible job of being a mother by letting you do this for
me. Your boss has been paying my medical bills! I can’t imagine the kind of
requests he must have in return. He is so much older than you too and you’re so
young and naïve.”

“I’m not stupid,” I snapped, starting to
get annoyed. “Yes, I am younger than him but I am not an idiot, mom. And I will
admit that yes, this whole thing kind of started in a manner that might seem
less than classy. He made me sign a contract that said he would make monthly
payments to your bills for as long as I dated him. That was it though, just
dating! There was nothing crude on there. I can show you the contract!”

She sighed. “I believe you, sweetheart.
But obviously it seems that this has gone beyond the contract now, has it?”

“I love him, mom,” I said earnestly,
hoping she would understand. “It started out as all games and tricks, but we
just grew to really care for one another. Everything you have seen tonight
between me and Zayden, it was all real. He is my boyfriend. Yes he is older and
he is also my boss, but I have honestly never felt this way about anybody in my
life before and that’s not something you ought to be ashamed of!”

I was quite surprised with the eloquence I
had just employed in a situation where I was almost too afraid to function. My
mom’s reaction, however, wasn’t quite what I expected. She looked neither mad
nor happy nor please. She looked horrified.

“What’s wrong, mom?”

“Oh Aria, I am sorry,” she said covering
her face in both her hands.

“What are you sorry about? You have
nothing to apologize for!” The atmosphere in the room had suddenly gotten
bizarre as though I had walked in the middle of a very dramatic scene in a soap
opera. “What’s going on, mom? Why are you so upset?” She was crying, trying
hard to hush her sniffs - so that Zayden wouldn’t hear, I presumed - leaving me
completely perplexed. I walked over to her uncertainly and placed a hand on her
right shoulder. “Mom, talk to me, is everything okay? Is it the house? You know
you can always come live with me.”

“No, Aria,” she said, finally looking up.
Her face was red and blotchy, her eyes swollen to almost twice their size. “Are
you sure you love this guy?” she asked in even softer tones than before.

“Yes,” I said without even considering it
for a second.

“Then I really do owe you an apology. You
know when your dad filed for bankruptcy?”

“How could I ever forget?” I shrugged.

“Well before he filed that, he was
obviously in a lot of debt. He owed huge sums of money to a lot of different
people, but most of all, he owed five hundred thousand dollars to a particular
bank.”

My heart started shaking again as I was
beginning to understand where my mom was going with this. It couldn’t be. It
couldn’t possibly be that my father—

“The bank was South National Bank,” my mom
finished.

I threw my body on to her bed in shock.

“So you’re telling me,” I said very slowly
so that there would be absolutely no confusion on this matter. “That this man
is paying sixty thousand dollars to help out our family, after our family
robbed his company of eight times that amount already?”

“Don’t put it like that, sweetheart!” my
mom gasped. “You couldn’t have known now, could you? When you first took a job
there, I felt a little uncomfortable given our shaky history with the company,
but I didn’t want to say anything because it was just a job. What could go
wrong? As I learned in the span of the past hour, apparently a whole lot.”

I covered my whole face with a pillow and
tried to let this sink in. I had to think straight here. There was no way
Zayden would ever find out about this connection, was there? Unless I told him,
of course. And while a voice in my head was egging at me to do so, I did feel
that it was not necessary for him to know everything about my family history.

However, I knew what the right thing to do
was and it was to tell him. If he ever found out any other way and knew that I
had known all along, it would be much harder for him to forgive me.

Would he really take it so badly? After
all, I had no idea my dad was responsible for such a big loss to him and if I
came clean and told him as much, he was bound to believe me. What my dad did
was not my fault and I knew Zayden, he was better than to hold it against me.
After everything we had been through together, he wasn’t going to use a fact
from a distant past as a weapon against a relationship we had worked so hard to
build.

“Honey, are you okay?” my mom asked,
sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry. Perhaps tonight wasn’t the best
time to tell you about this. I was just so shocked when you told me who he
really was. At first I was just mad that you were selling yourself to your
boss, but then when you told me how you felt, I just could not bear the guilt.”

“It’s okay, mom,” I said sitting up. “It’s
all okay. I am glad you told me because I am going to go out there and tell him
all of this myself. That’s the only way to have a healthy relationship.”

My mom’s eyes were still teary, but she
extended the palm of her hands to my face and rubbed my cheek. “You’ll do the
right thing, Aria,” she said endearingly. “You always do.”

Chapter
5

Zayden

At first I wasn’t too concerned by what
they were talking about. Some mother-daughter quips about dating the boss, I
supposed, which seemed like a legitimate thing for a mother to worry about.
Especially considering the fact that she knew I was making a financial
investment in this relationship, it was only natural for her to feel concerned
for her daughter. Therefore, I did not press too hard in my attempts to listen
in on the talks.

But as their voices started getting
louder, something caught my attention. They were speaking of South National
Bank – which could very well mean they were discussing Aria’s job – but then I
heard something about five hundred thousand dollars and that piqued my
curiosity, so I leaned closer to the door of the room.

When I finally heard what was going on, a
rush of annoyance spread through my whole body as I remembered the very case
they were now discussing. A couple of years ago a man named Mike Roberts –
Roberts, of course! Why hadn’t I tried to make the connection sooner? It was a
fairly common last name, so I couldn’t exactly blame myself here.

He had owed the bank a lot of money when
he declared bankruptcy, resulting in a huge loss for us! At the time the bank
was not doing as splendidly as it was now and those five hundred thousand
dollars that he owed us had caused us considerable difficulties in making some
investments. We got out of that tight spot easy enough and now in the grand
scheme of things that amount seemed rather too small to worry about.

But I could not shake off the feeling that
I was currently spending tens of thousands of dollars to help out the very same
family that had already cost me quite a lot. I didn’t want to be irked by it,
but when Aria and her mother reappeared from the room I felt another flash of
annoyance and decided that before I did something I would regret I needed to
get out of there.

“I’m sorry for taking so much of Aria’s
time.” Molly smiled at me politely. “But dinner can resume now. Would you like
another glass of—”

“Actually,” I said, looking at my watch as
though it would indicate some sort of honesty in my story. “I have to get
going. Unfortunately, something has come up at the bank and I need to rush
right away.”

“But Zayden,” Aria started protesting,
looking rather disappointed. “What could have possibly come up at this hour?
Surely you could postpone it until the morning without any consequences?”

“And lose more money? No thank you, I think
I better get ahead,” I snapped and regretted immediately as I watched Aria’s
face fall.

“Did you hear us talking?” Aria asked
beginning to tear up.

“I really have to go, Aria,” I said,
trying to sound slightly kinder. “Ned will come pick you up after he drops me
off at the bank. It won’t be very long.”

“That’s not necessary,” she said, still
looking sad. “I can manage on my own.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Aria.” I frowned.
“It’s too late at night for you to be…whatever… Ned will be here and he will
take you home safely and I really, really have to go. Thanks a lot for dinner,
Molly,” I said, trying to be polite despite the circumstances. “See you, Aria.”

I turned around and walked out without
thinking twice. Had I not gotten out of there, I would have suffocated with the
knowledge. To Aria’s defense, it did sound like she planned on telling me
everything, so she had no poor intention. Yet, it hardly changed the facts.
Whether or not Aria had been directly involved in the situation, what had
happened had happened.

---

The next day, I sat in my office playing
with my stress ball, still unable to shake off the feelings of betrayal from
everything I had heard the past day. No matter what way I looked at it, I
couldn’t help but feel like this family had scammed me. I knew that Aria didn’t
know of her dad’s connection to the bank and how he had caused me such a loss
before signing the contract. However, the fact remained that the Roberts owed
me a lot and instead of me getting paid back, I was spending even more on their
behalf. Did intentions even matter in situations such as these? I thought not,
as I bitterly thought back yet again to the conversation I had overheard.