Alpha Billionaire Series

MANDY

Amonth later...

“Holy crap, did your mom save all of Michael's?” Vivica held up a wadded piece of paper. “This is a receipt for McDonalds.”

“I don’t think Mom dealt with Michael's death at all," I said.

We sorted through stacks of boxes. When Mom sold the house, instead of packing and moving in a logical process, she threu everything into boxes and shoved them into the nearest storage unit and ran away to the lake. This entire process would have been so much easier if she had kept the house. Instead, I was now spending every spare minute sorting through boxes looking for anything I could sell for a spare buck.

We ran away from the lake as quickly as we had run to it. I was tired of running away from my problems, maybe because I kept dragging MiMa Play with me. I couldn't run away from the company.

“Okay, so it wasn't just me who thought they got over it really fast, only to later find out they never spoke of him, never even acknowledged that he had died?” Vivica said.

“I honestly don’t know how many people have thought it was weird. I'm just shocked Mom is willing to let me clean out his things after all this time. She still misses him. I do too.”

“Of course, you do. That's normal. Pretending that you never had a son, not letting your daughter talk about having an older brother, that's messed up." Vivica stood and dusted her hands off on the thighs of her jeans. “Have you considered therapy? “Me? Why?"

“Because your parents didn't deal with loss very well, and it impacted you. And if you go to grief counseling, maybe your “mom will too. Mandy, she just sold the house because your dad died.”

I sighed. “She up and sold the house because we are up to our eyeballs in debt. We really didn't have much of an option.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “You could have sold off some of Michael's things earlier. His bike is worth a pretty penny, even being all scratched up.’

Michael's entire life was in here, packed away in cardboard. He had been a little bit older than I was now when he died. Without a significant other, packing away his life and sorting through his belongings had fallen on my parents. They didn't d anything more than box his memories up and shove them into the corner of our garage.

My grandmother's belongings were also in here. Apparently, boxes of vintage china and sterling flatware sets that haven't seen the light of day since my grandmother passed years ago were in the depths of this storage unit. Everything that my parents had collected and hoarded had been boxed up and was in front of me. It was an insurmountable amount of stuff that my mother refused to deal with. I was hoping that I could find the secret to saving MiMa Play and my sanity hiding in a box somewhere in here.

“Well, that’s what we're here for now. Figuring out what can be sold, what is just trash, and what should be donated. I don't know how to get the bike to the house for a garage sale”

Ilooked at the motorcycle that had sat in our garage for the past seven years. The Moving company rolled it up their ramp into their truck before delivering it here. “I guess I could hire a moving company, or a tow truck,” I thought aloud.

“Why not sell it from here? Take a few pictures and post it on the internet. It doesn't run, so whoever buys it will need to have it towed or transported somewhere. Why not do it from here?”

Itwas a good idea, but I had no clue where to start.

“0h my God, Mandy, you look like you are about to freak out. Sit down. This is too much, and your mom dumped it on you. This is why I mentioned therapy. You are taking way too much on all by yourself”

She guided me to a box and made me sit. I watched her dash out of the open storage unit and lean into the car. She returne with a bottle of water and the emergency granola bar I kept in the glove box.

“Eat. You can't keep taking everything on, not in your condition. You are allowed to wallow in pregnant bliss and make people wait on you."

“Oh, please. No one knows I'm pregnant. It's going to be a while before I start showing” Even though I wasn't showing, I still ran my hand over my extra belly curves as if the baby inside could tell.

Vivica sat on a box across from me and watched me eat. “I can't believe you've been back for almost a month, and this is the first time we get to hang out, and we have to spend it cleaning out the storage unit."

Well," I sighed, “we really can't afford to keep it for the long-term. But yeah, I know what you mean. You look happy, the job suits you.”

She rolled her eyes with a happy expression. “I love it”

“0h, no you didn't I was pointing at her, she had that look, the “I've met someone’ look.

“What?” She did her best to bat her lashes at me.

“There's someone at work, isn't there?”

She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. “We talk about me all the time. It's your turn. How did your mom take it when you told her you were pregnant?”Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

I hated it when Vivica turned the tables on me. Yes, we had spent the past few weeks mostly talking about her new job, but that's because Grant's betrayal hurt too much, and I was having issues processing all of it.

I'stared at her as my clue-fairy visited me a bit late. “You want me to go to therapy because of Grant!"

“And here I thought I was being subtle,” she smirked. “Mandy, you're having his baby, and you have decided he is your arch nemesis when you didn't even know who he was. You won't tell me anything, and I'm your best friend. If you won't talk to ms about it, then maybe talking to a therapist isn't such a bad idea.”

She had a point. I hated it when she was right. “I'll think about it I pouted for a minute before getting back to my feet and dragging a box out to the car. It was full of papers. I would sort through this one at home.

She watched me the entire time. When I walked back, her eyebrows were lifted. She was waiting.

“Mom took finding out about the baby the same way she dealt with Michael. She's ignoring it. I've only had one doctor's appointment, and she wasn't interested in coming with me. She acts like I'm not pregnant, handing me glasses of wine after dinner” I shrugged.

“And you have to ask me why I think you need a therapist to talk to? Mandy, nothing about this is healthy."

“I know. But what am I supposed to do? I can't change my mom. She needs me to take care of her. She seems a whole lot happier now that we're back in Chicago. I think being so far away from her doctors was giving her anxiety.”

“But that lake house was so wonderful" Vivica swooned as she remembered our few weeks at the lake.

“I don’t know if it's been easier being here for MiMa Play though. I had to let our brand manager go. I'm afraid that MiMa isn’ going to make it. I mean, If I can get another chunk of money from selling all of this, maybe that will help.’

“Have you talked to Grant?” Vivica asked. “I never fully understood why you had to leave him."

“Talk to him about what? Cancelling the loan? God, no. He would think that I seduced him just to get out from having to pay him back. And I sure as hell can't tell him about the baby.” I took a deep sigh and stared at the low ceiling of the storage uni I didn’t want to cry.

“Grant owns the company that is holding the loan against MiMa Play. Agon Athletics is nothing but a front for a predatory shark who goes for the jugular when you're at your weakest. I've been such a fool. I can't believe I got played so completely. No, I can't go talk to Grant.”

“Wait, back up. Did you just say Grant owns Agon Athletics?”

“Yes. Keep up Vivica. Grant is the asshole who took advantage of my dad when mom was in the hospital. He gave my dad a lump of cash, not even the value of MiMa Play, and if I can't pay him back, he's going to take and dismantle my company. I can't let him destroy my father's and brother's dreams. MiMa is all we have left of them.”

I wiped away tears as they dripped down my face.

Vivica reached out to hug me. I twisted away from her offered comfort. I didn't deserve comfort, or pity. I had brought all of this on myself.

“I didn’t know. You didn't tell me. Oh, Mandy, I'm so sorry. But are you sure Grant owns Agon? Dylan, my cousin with all the connections, works at Agon. He's friends with the owner. There is no way he knows Grant. Dylan can be a jerk, but he isn't th kind of asshole to rip the rug out from under someone's feet.”

She pulled out her phone and began typing something on the screen.

She looked at her phone for a moment. “Well, f**k."

I sniffed. “What?”

Vivica held her phone out to me, displaying the text exchange with her cousin.

Vivica: Hey cuz what's your boss's name?

Dylan: Why?

Vivica: Who is Grant Carpenter?

Dylan: Why ask who my boss is if you already know?

Vivica: thanks bye.

“I can't believe my cousin has been working for Grant this whole time and I'm just now learning who he is."

I snorted. “It's one of those “it's a small world’ moments, only this one isn't very happy, is it?"