Chapter 127: Bruised Ego

"Okay.... Are the boys coming over today?" Naomi asked.

Dorian shook his head. "No. I have errands to run. I need to prep for the Blackstone forum, as do you." His gaze travelled over her. "Whatever you need."

Naomi smiled slightly and rubbed her palm down his shoulder. "I’ll see you later."

"I’ll be here." He gave her a small smile.

Once both women were gone, silence finally returned to the kitchen.

He finished his breakfast before heading upstairs to his home office. He pulled the Blackstone event poster on his laptop. He hadnt exactly taken the thing seriously. He just thought he and Naomi needed to make a statement to the public, that was why he accepted. He skimmed quickly at first before his eyes stopped on one name.

Lillian Harcourt Heathcliffe.

Leadership co-speaker.

He was going to attend the Blackstone Leadership Forum with Naomi.

His fourth wife.

Camille would be there too.

His third wife.

And now Lillian.

His first wife.

Son of a bitch!

*****

"So, I hear Whitmore was handed his ass and then some," Victor said over dinner that night.

Callum barely looked up from his plate. "Hmmm." he eventually shrugged. "Heathcliffe fucked him up."

"Richard is going to be in a dark mood once he gets back on his feet." He lifted his glass. "Are you making any progress with the girl?"

"Not yet."

Callum leaned back in his chair, irritation flashing across his face. "The idiot fell for the arrogant bastard’s charm. I offered her a million dollars. She promised to get back to me, and she didn’t." He scoffed. "One would think for a woman used to scraping from the bottom of pots, she would jump at the idea."

He had been annoyed ever since Naomi failed to respond to his offer.

Victor set his glass down. "I don’t like that Whitmore has us in a chokehold."

Callum snorted. "Speak for yourself. He has me in nothing. I want the girl simply to show what’s-his-face that I’m not one of those men he can look down his nose at."

There were several things wrong with that sentence. Possibly all of it.

"Nice to know you have strong motivation," Victor drawled sarcastically.

"What could she possibly find interesting in a man who cannot keep a woman?"

"Is that why you got Blackstone to have him as a speaker for the leadership forum? Along with his wives?"

"How do you know about that?"

Victor smiled. "I make it a point to know everything about my idiot son."

"You spy on me now?"

"I am staying informed. Why bring the wives into it?" Victor asked.

Callum gave him a smug look. "Entertainment."

"Things are already complicated enough Callum."

"The man thinks he’s better than everyone."

"And naturally, your response is to prove how mature you are by arranging an event around his failed marriages. Since when do you do things like these without informing me?"

"Because you are afraid of him!" Callum pointed out. "Why is that? He is just a man."

"I pick my battles wisely, son. You should learn to do the same. He may not lay you flat on your back like he did Whitmore, but believe me when I say he will lay you flat on your back if he feels attacked."

"How do you know him so well? You don’t even have any business with him."

There was respect in Victor’s voice whenever he spoke about Dorian that Callum absolutely hated.

Callum could not stand it. His father rarely spoke about anyone that way, and hearing that tone used for Dorian Heathcliffe made irritation crawl under his skin.

"Remember Leonard Graves?"

"Yeah? I remember dating his daughter. Pretty girl."

Victor closed his eyes briefly.

Of course that was what his son remembered.

Victor set down his fork. "I watched in real time as Dorian took that man apart piece by piece until the Graves name practically sank into the ground. Dorian didn’t even know Leonard Graves existed until the man threatened him because of a case that could directly affect his company. Graves thought he was intimidating a lawyer. He assumed Dorian would understand the warning."

"I’m guessing he didn’t."

"He did the opposite." Victor remembered the entire thing clearly because everyone in their circles had watched it happen.

Dorian gave Leonard a lesson.

"Dorian dug into everything," Victor continued. "He knew exactly where to apply pressure and exactly how much pressure each part could take. He sank the man and his company into the dirt then offered free services to whoever wanted to sue the man. Dorian won every single case. He made sure Leonard suffered losses significantly higher than what he would have suffered if he had simply left the matter alone."

"Just to make a point. You do not invite that kind of man into your orbit. Now imagine for one second, Dorian turns his sights on us, the Sterlings."

"Get rid of him. You’ve done it before, you can do it again," Callum said.

"You’re so stupid."

"Look, Dad, I have always believed you can do anything. This situation with Heathcliffe has you rattled, and I don’t like it." Callum leaned forward, irritation sharpening his voice. "I expected you to have solved this problem long ago."

Victor ignored the whining.

Dorian was a complication Victor preferred not to poke.

"What’s your plan for this leadership forum?" Victor asked instead.

"I want the girl to see that I’m better than Heathcliffe. She sees that, I swoop in and save her from him. Classic knight-in-shining-armor story."

"Childish, if you ask me."

"The forum couldn’t get his second wife to attend, though. She refused." He picked up his glass. "You think you can look into that?"

Victor’s face hardened. "I’m not touching this. All I owe Richard is the girl. Once that is done, I’m wiping my hands of this nonsense."

Callum grunted his disapproval but let the topic drop.

Besides, Callum already had enough pieces in motion. Monday would come soon enough. And he couldn’t wait.

*****

When Naomi had suggested to Ginny that the wedding meals should be sampled and approved before they finalized everything, she had imagined something small.

A tasting. A few plates. Maybe Ginny and her fiancee. That had been the idea. Then Ginny told Eleanor.

Eleanor heard food tasting and translated it into family gathering requiring half the bloodline.

Suddenly, the immediate Heathcliffe and Moreau family had been invited.

Naomi had stopped asking questions after that.

At least it gave everyone a chance to taste what she was planning for the wedding reception before she committed to the menu.

She had arranged smaller portions of several options, enough variety to test without turning the entire event into a full banquet.

There were sliders, seafood bites, vegetables, rice dishes, along with a few richer options she wanted opinions on before deciding whether they were worth keeping.

Dorian knew absolutely nothing about the expanding guest list. He had spent most of Sunday afternoon shut inside his home office, working through case files and preparing for Blackstone while the rest of the house quietly transformed around him. He had stayed out of Naomi’s way for most of the morning for two very good reasons.

The first was practical. She was busy putting together the menu for Ginny’s wedding tasting. The second reason was considerably less practical.

He was still rattled by the little bomb Ginny had casually dropped into his lap the day before.

Lillian would be at the Blackstone Leadership Forum.

Even after all these years, Dorian was still bitter about her.

He didn’t particularly enjoy admitting that, even to himself. He had moved on. Married twice after her, three times if Naomi would be counted. He had built an entirely different life.

Yet Lillian remained the one wound that had healed ugly. So Dorian had buried himself in work all morning and left Naomi to hers.

Eventually, however, the noise became impossible to ignore.

Dorian stepped out of his office just in time to see his nephews racing past. He frowned.

Where the hell had they come from?

He followed the boys upstairs toward the entertainment floor, and the second he walked in, he stopped dead. "What the hell?!"