Love, Lies and Billionaires

Mr Harding kept his eyes on her, even at the information he’d just heard. His face was expressionless and didn’t look like he was going to exit the room soon.

He took a step closer, making Maren take one back, keeping her eyes on him like she didn’t dare look away. He suddenly leaned forward, leaving only a breath of space between them.

“Fix your face, we’re going to meet the crowd and the press” he turned to the door and left.

‘Weirdo’, Maren thought. How the hell does she keep getting herself into shit like these? She asked herself. She really didn’t want to hate this one because if she did, it might affect her teaming up with him.

And what the hell was he trying to do? Intimidate her? She scoffed. Deep down, though, age knew that if it had lasted, her leg would be shaken by now.

She took a deep breath but regretted it as the air which went up her nostrils was mixed with the sickly smell of blood which the room smelt of. She just braced herself and steadily made her way out the door.

When she got out of the room, she was not really surprised but thrilled to see the large number of people who showed up. She just completely left that area and sat beside the stage where she could be barely seen.

There was clapping and cheers coming from the crowd as Mr Harding mounted the stage after being introduced by a bald head man.

“Thank you all for being here tonight,” he began after the cheering subsided. “Now I know most of you are wondering what the essence of this gathering is.” He said and paused, letting the crowd murmur like it was a question-and-answer session.

Maren rolled her eyes where she sat. ‘Just cut to the chase already,’ she thought, suddenly remembering that she also didn’t know why she was there.

A server walked up to her and offered her a glass of wine, which she knew she was going to need, so she gladly accepted it.

“Alright, it’s obvious that almost all of you must have a question or two about why I got caught on camera in a compromising state with Miss Sharppe, whose status was recently published in the paper, given my status as a man of influence.”

Maren took a gulp of her drink, keeping her eyes on him. She really couldn’t predict where he was going with this.

“By status, I mean her divorce with a really famous figure like myself.” Maren almost choked on her drink at those words. Fuck teaming. The man was disgusting, she told herself.

“But one thing each and everyone of us failed to see in this young woman was the strong-willed, ambitious lady who somehow got entangled with someone like-” he stared straight at the main camera which stood in front of him. “Alexander Blackwood”

‘Okay, this man was definitely up to something,’ Maren told herself, suddenly losing interest in the liquid in her hand.

“In fact, I also didn’t see that till I met this very lady in person.” The crowd was thrown into a storm of murmuring as he paused to let them assume what he was going to say next.

Multiple cameras flashed almost at the same time as each one of them tried to get Mr Harding’s good side.

The thought suddenly hit her again. “What the fuck did he mean by I know nothing about him?”

Maren used that opportunity to scan the crowd and sighted Louise standing at the corner. Her eyes filled with admiration as she undisturbedly stared at Mr. Harding.

She took out her phone and gave Louise’s phone a buzz. As soon as the call went through, Louise snapped out of it and looked down at the caller ID before turning toward her boss.

She hurried over to her, hugging her phone to her chest. “I’m so sorry ma’am, I got carried away,” she apologised as soon as she got to where Maren sat.

“Isn’t everyone?” She remarked dismissively and stood from where she was seated. “I need you to conduct a thorough research on this celebrity,” she said, gesturing to Mr Harding.

“Everything about him. His childhood, his parents, where he’s from, everything!” She kept her voice low to avoid drawing attention.

“Well, Mr Harding is from this state, born and bred. Left home at the age of twenty with no reason stated. He’s said to have started his career right after he left home and cut off his parents who were-”

Louise suddenly looked up from her phone, which she had been reading from all this while, to see the annoyed look on Maren’s face.

“So you knew all this?”

“I’m a secretary ma’am, that’s basically my job. I take my paperwork very seriously,” Louise answered triumphantly.

“And you didn’t bother to tell me?”

“Respectfully, ma’am, you never asked. You were all too excited about the entire thing that I didn’t want to bother you with irrelevant details about such a famous figure.”

Maren just stared at her, realising that she actually hadn’t put in extra thoughts to this partnership and had just jumped at it like Mr Harding had said. But Louise had done some research, regardless.

As much as she knew how competent this yellow-haired secretary of hers was, she could swear she had done the research because she had a huge crush on Mr Harding.

“Now, to avoid wasting more of my time, I’d like to clear the biggest, possibly the only question embedded in most of you individual’s mind” the hall suddenly fell silent as they waited for his next words.

Damn, he really knew how to create an annoying suspense.

“The only reason I’m back in this city after so many years is because I wanted an official partnership with Novagen. Not every man is after every sexy pussy he comes across”

‘Did he just call me sexy?’ Maren’s head rang.

“Now, join me as I bring to the stage the CEO of my partner company Maren Sharppe!” He announced, but his deep voice didn’t make it seem much like an announcement.

The entire hall erupted into loud clapping and cheering. He turned in her direction and flashed her a brief smile.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Keeping her eyes on him, Maren asked Louise. “What country did Mr Harding reside in when he left home?”

“Russia”