The Still CEO: Forged Succession

Chapter 3 - Anxiety

............

Chase

............

"Why are you all disheveled?" I ask Liv as she walks inside, but she doesn't reply and quickly rushes to the bathroom, making me worried. After a moment, she comes out, and I get up and walk up to her.

"I'm sorry, I just... I had a really big scare," she says, and I ask her what happened, pulling her seat out for her to sit down, seeing how sick she looks.

"There was a sprinkler system malfunction in one of the offices downstairs, and I... I had some water in my hair, and I... I used the hand dryer to, uh, dry myself," she says, and I ask her if she's okay, and she says she is. She explains that she got a big scare when it happened, adding she thought it was something else. I pull her into a hug, telling her I can see she's really shaken by it. We share a kiss when we pull back from the hug, and I tell her I brought lunch, and she thanks me and sits down.

"You're not eating?" she asks.

"I ate already, sorry. I kind of skipped breakfast this morning and when I got here, and you weren't in. I went ahead," I explain before telling her the other food is for Tyson, but I didn't know Laurel was here.

"Laurel is here?" she asks, and I tell her yes and that I'm glad she and my brother are in a good place.

"What makes you say that?"

"What?"

"That they are in a good place?" she asks, and I tell her what I heard when I went to my brother's office to check if she wasn't there, but I don't get to finish as she chokes on her food. I get up and grab a bottle of water from the fridge and give it to her, asking if she's okay, and she apologizes, saying she is.

I go back to what I was saying about my brother and his wife after making sure she's okay. Things haven't been good between him and his wife for the past few months, and none of them have been willing to open up to anyone. I'm glad to see that they're good again. Liv agrees, saying she's happy for them too. I have our special evening to organize, so I don't stay long.

"Thank you for the lunch," she says as we pull back from the hug, and I connect our lips in a passionate kiss. I don't know when Tyson is going to finish with what he's doing, so I ask her to please go give him his lunch and apologize to Laurel for me if she's still there. Laurel used to work in this building too, but she now works at our other building across the street. She requested to be moved when this thing that was happening between her and my brother started.

"I love you."

"I love you."

.

.

.........

Kyra

.........

"Thank you," I say to my mother as she hands me coffee and sits down next to me. We have just finished packing our things, and we are now sitting on the balcony, watching the beautiful city below. She asks if I'm alright, and I tell her I am. Ever since she mentioned Kay's father, her words have stayed with me. They always do, and I always wonder if I'm doing the right thing.

I feel my mother's hand on mine, and I can tell she isn't buying that I'm okay. I ask if Kay finally went down, and she says he did. There's silence for a moment after that before I turn to her and speak again.

"Do you think I'm doing the right thing?" I ask, and she asks me to clarify what I mean. "You think that I should reach out to Kay's father, that I should let him know about him, but what if I'm setting myself up for heartache, disappointment, Mom, or even worse, danger?

I wasn't supposed to keep him, and I wasn't supposed to fall pregnant in the first place. It was the first rule, and I broke it. What if he's married? I can handle him wanting nothing to do with us, and sending us away. But what if it doesn't end there?

What if he comes after us? Or Vincent does? I want Kay to meet his father. It's my biggest wish that my son meet his family, but there are all these questions, and they scare me. I'm a nobody and rich people don't want to have kids with nobodies." I confess to my mother, and she tightens her hand on mine with a sad smile on her face. I know she doesn't have answers. Nobody does.

It's time to cook supper, so I head inside to get started. Mom wants to help me, but I tell her to rest. We did a bit today.

.

.

..................................

Kingsley Residence

...................................

..................................................

Donna Kingsley (Chase's Mom)

...................................................

"Are you alright?" My husband asks, and I tell him I am, even though I'm not. What is bothering me is something I cannot share with him. "Thank you, darling," he says as I finish his haircut, and I peck him on the lips, telling him he's welcome.

I head out of the room toward the kitchen to make him something to eat. But just as I'm about to enter, I hear the doorbell. I call Clarissa, the help, to get it, and she heads to it while I proceed to where I was going. However, just as I open the fridge, I hear footsteps running toward the kitchen, and I turn around to see Laurel, distraught.

"What's wrong?" I ask, walking up to her, but she just throws herself into my arms and cries. I hold her while asking what happened, and after a while, she calms down and pulls back, wiping her tears.

"I'm sorry," she says, and I pull a chair out for her and ask her again what happened.

"He's cheating on me," she says, and my heart ceases in my chest. I ask her what makes her say that, my heartbeat now accelerating, and she says she just knows. She says she stopped by his office for some paperwork he needed to go through for their new house, and when she walked in, she just knew that he had done something.

"Eight months ago, I saw a stain of lipstick that wasn't mine on his shirt after I couldn't get hold of him for hours. I was so shocked that I couldn't even bring myself to ask him. I made excuses, telling myself that it couldn't be what I thought it was. But then again, five months after that, he came home with another stain, and this time he was even reeking of this woman's perfume.

He was drunk and had been to the club, so again I told myself that he must have let some stripper get too close to him or something. But from there, it just became more obvious that he was cheating on me, Momma. In the last six months, his behavior has changed drastically. He would come home, and he would sit in the car for hours, and one evening, when I peeked through the window, I saw that he was on his phone.

Three months ago, I found a woman’s earring in his office, and that’s the reason I asked to be moved. To know that he had brought this person to his office... it... it... I wasn't coping. I didn't know who he was seeing or if they worked for the company, and I started getting paranoid.

Every time I saw people looking at me, I felt like they knew. Whenever I saw him interact with female co-workers, I wondered if it was them. And today... today when I walked into his office, I just knew someone had been there," she says and starts crying again. I tell her I'm sorry, rubbing soothing circles on her back, feeling like the worst person.

"Do you think I'm paranoid? Do you think it’s the medication I’m taking that’s making me think like this?" she adds, and my heart breaks some more hearing her say that. I ask her if she wants me to talk to Tyson, feeling something rise in my chest as I ask the question.

I warned Tyson about this. I spoke to him, and he promised me he would stop it. He and Laurel are trying to have a child. How is he going to go around sleeping with other women?

She says no, adding that she will confront him about it. She says she's been trying to do it for some time now but she's scared.

"He’s the only one I’ve ever been with, and I feel like I’m losing him. I’m scared," she adds, and I pull her into another hug, guilt rocking me to my core as I realize that my silence didn't help but escalate the situation. But what could I have done? How does a mother do that to her children?

Two years ago, Tyson went to attend an event in San Francisco. Laurel and I were there too, and I was supposed to leave in the evening and fly back to LA, but something happened, and I couldn’t fly out that night.

My pilot took me back to the house. We have an apartment in San Francisco, and that’s where we decided to stay. When I got back to the house, it was around 11 p.m., and I knew the code, so I let myself in.

I went straight to Tyson’s room to tell him that we couldn't fly out and that I would leave in the morning. His bedroom door was open, so I let myself in, but I wished I hadn’t. He wasn't inside, but the sliding door leading out to the jacuzzi was open. So, I figured he was there, and I was right, but what I walked into, shocked me.

He was with Liv, and they were having intercourse. They didn't see me standing there, and I couldn't even speak or let myself be seen. I went back inside, devastated for Laurel and Chase. Chase had just introduced Liv to the family a year ago as his girlfriend, and not only that, she and Laurel are cousins. Laurel introduced her to Chase. I confronted them the following morning, and they cried and said it was a mistake, they were drunk. They promised it would never happen again.

Tyson begged me not to tell Chase, and I told him I wouldn't. Chase was head over heels in love, and I didn't want to break his heart and make him resent his brother. I also didn't want to destroy my son's marriage.

I had Liv transferred to one of our other branches when they got back. Everything seemed fine, and I never saw anything that suggested that they continued after that night.

Eight months ago, our marketing director died in an accident, and Liv was the marketing manager. We needed someone who knew the company, so we put out an internal post. She applied, and she was the best candidate for the position.

I had moved on from what she and Tyson did, but I never liked her again. Every day I prayed that something would happen between her and Chase and that they would break up. So, even though she was the best candidate for the job, I hesitated to hire her. My husband was the one who convinced me after Tyson spoke to him. He said I was letting personal matters get in the way of business and I didn't want to stress him on top of everything he was already going through. I didn't want him to think I was incapable of making business decisions, especially since we were busy convincing him to take time off, so I agreed.

Eight months ago, Liv came back, and that's also when Laurel began to see changes in Tyson. It can't be a coincidence.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Laurel as she gets to her feet, saying she has to go. I suggest getting the driver to take her home since she still looks upset, but she reassures me she's fine.

I can't even bring myself to tell her that it's probably a misunderstanding. My anxiety levels have gone up. So, I assure her that Tyson loves her, even though it's clear he doesn't, because if he did, he wouldn't put her through this.

She leaves after we share one more hug, and I call Clarissa to finish what I was about to do. Tyson has a late board meeting today, and I want to catch him before he goes home. I head to the bedroom and tell my husband that I have to leave the house quickly, but I won't be long. I tell Clarissa the same thing before walking to the front, but the door opens before I can touch it, and I look up to lock eyes with the cause of my anxiety.

"Tell me it’s not Liv. Tell me it's not your brother's girlfriend, Tyson!"