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Victoria stared at him. What was he doing? This was a terrible idea.
Luke leaned down to whisper in her ear. “This isn’t working, Victoria. You need to try a different angle. Appeal to her human side. You know her. Maybe you can use that.”
His words left Victoria feeling dirty. She didn’t want to manipulate Alexa. To her surprise, Alexa’s lawyer also stood up. “That’s an excellent idea. Let’s give them some space.”
Alexa looked just as taken aback as Victoria felt as their respective teams filed out of the room.
For a few moments, they refused to look at each other.
Victoria closed her eyes, remembering the tender times with Alexa, the laughs they had and the comfort they had both brought to each other.
“Alexa… please, look at me.”
Alexa sighed and brought her beautiful green eyes up to meet Victoria’s. “What?” she murmured, her voice far less hostile than it had been before.
“Please, just listen to me.” What she was about to do wasn’t standard business model. Most CEOs would turn into sharks the moment they saw weakness, but this wasn’t most situations. She had to believe that Alexa still cared for her in some form. What they had had been too powerful for it to be otherwise.
“I need this patent,” Victoria admitted. “I’m not just being bullheaded when I refuse to sell it. I literally can’t. We could go under without it.”
Alexa’s eyes widened. “I thought… I thought it was just one of many for you.”
“It is, but we’ve poured so much into investing in this endeavor… maybe we overextended ourselves. I don’t know. It’s too late to go back now, regardless. But I can’t sell it. There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t.” Alexa’s voice shook slightly. “You think I’m just being cruel, Victoria? I need this patent too. My company also hinges on the outcome of this case.”
Victoria hadn’t imagined this. She had thought that Alexa was simply looking for more profit to add to her already successful business. She hadn’t realized that Alexa may need this just as much as she did.
“What happened? I thought you were doing well. Certainly, the rest of the business world thinks you are.”
Alexa hesitated.
“Alexa, it’s me, Victoria. I’m not going to rat you out to the press.”
“I… Well, it didn’t start off like that. At first, it was just an opportunity, but then… well, Skybound Industries made a move on us.”
Skybound Industries was the third biggest company in their field. Unlike Alexa and Victoria, their CEO didn’t play fair. “What did that bastard do this time?”
“He had something on one of my employees. I don’t even know what—she wouldn’t tell me. But he coerced her into siphoning millions of company funds into an offshore account. It never should have been able to happen, but she was smart. She hired outside help to assist her. With her on the inside and a team of professional criminals on the outside… Well, our accounts had no chance.
“When did you find out about this?” Victoria demanded, horrified.
“The day I found out who you were. I overheard a phone conversation… I went to work the next day ready to tell them to drop the case against you. That’s when my accountant told me.”
Victoria was stunned into silence. She wrestled with her words for a minute before her lips finally cooperated. “You… you were going to drop the case against me?”
Alexa nodded miserably. “I didn’t want some stupid business fight to break us up. I was sure we could work it out… but Ican’t, now. This isn’t just about extra profit anymore. My entire business that my family depends on could go down.”
“So you choose your business over me.”
“Just like you did.”
The atmosphere in the room had suddenly gone cold. “I need that patent.”
Alexa met Victoria’s unwavering gaze. “So do I.”
“Then share it with me.”
“Not going to work. You think I didn’t think of that? I’ve already gone over detailed scenarios with my accountants. If we’re going to recover from what Skybound Industries did, we need the entire patent. It’s the only way the numbers add up.”
