Page 136 of Mr. Aster
“She is not chasing the man, Ines,” my mom countered. “She needs closure and answers.”
“Even a call or text over the holidays would’ve given me something,” I said, thankful that Ines had taken a zero-tolerance policy on Sebastian, something I wished more people would do, not just me.
“Absolutely rude,” Ines said.
“Yes, that was awful of him, but what if he thinks the same thing about Darcy?”
“Darcy is an independent woman,” Ines said, arching an eyebrow at my mom. “She isnotrequired to chase after a man for answers to his confusing behavior and, more importantly, his rudeness and disrespect for leaving without an explanation. The man is in business, no?” she questioned, looking at me.
“Yes. Last he told me, his family would be lost if he didn’t take over for them.”
“This is why I say you are not to chase after him. Business deals do not chase the businessman. He chases them. He doeseverything in his power towork hardto secure that deal. This is the same for relationships. If a strong businessman like Señor Aster were to walk away from all his business ventures, he would be poor. If he wereafraidto find out and afraid to question why a business deal was falling through, he would lose it. Same as your daughter. He has not invested any energy into discovering why this has fallen apart. He shows no interest or care; therefore, it falls through, and the deal is lost.”
I chuckled and sipped my freshly made margarita. “Ines knows a thing or two,” I looked at Mom and shrugged.
“I just don’t see it that way,” my mom answered. “I know that boy loves my daughter. I think his trauma got in the way.”
“A fearful lover is a dangerous person to be in possession of your heart,” she said, flattening the dough and looking at me. “If the boy is too afraid to pick up the phone and check on you, you don’t want him. This is not a difficult decision.”
“Dear God, Ines,” Mom said in frustration. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too hard on Sebastian?”
“I think you’re being a little too soft,” she eyed my mother with the determination of all her matriarchal ancestors. “If this man deserves your daughter, he will work for her, just like he works for his money.”
“Andthat’swhat I know to be true,” I said, raising my glass to Ines.
She smirked. “And you listen to me, Señorita,” she said, focusing her ancient wisdom onto me now. “Youwilluse this time to move forward with your life. No man is worth the sabotage you bring yourself with this hurt and pain. I know it is not easy because I have gone through it myself. There was a time when someone had to smack Antonio upside the head, and because of that, I have three beautiful children now and a blessed place to call home. However, I never once lowered my expectations of what I deserved while he was off being anidiot,” she looked at me with reproach. “You need to take care of yourself, and all the good things you want in life will come to you.”
“Finally,” my mom said with some exasperation in her voice, “we can agree on something tonight, Ines.”
“You’re merely too soft, Martina,” she teased my mom. “You must never advise your daughter to chase a man who shows no interest. The way that Sebastian has grown silent in all this makes him hardly a man at all. He’s a bebé, and that’s putting it nicely.”
I may have been brokenhearted that Sebastian and I ended the way we did, but I was starting to be grateful for everything I had gained and lost because of the man. Until I found myself in a relationship with him, I hadn’t seen that I was going nowhere in life. When I think about it, I was thrilled to write an article about Sebastian Aster, as if it was the pinnacle of success and the best thing I could achieve. It took our breakup for me to look at the work I did, writing gossip and nonsense about other people’s lives and accomplishments, and realize I wasn’t living a life of my own.
Fortunately, by picking myself up and off the floor in all this mess, I learned that I’d been as stuck as Sebastian was in his grief. It took heartbreak to get my blood flowing again and for me to make a plan for my future. For that, I would always be thankful to Sebastian.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Sebastian
Iwalked out of the conference room, my head buzzing with a nagging headache, desperately needing a stiff drink. If the Lathrops could make us beg them for this deal, it still probably wouldn’t have been enough to land it.
Lathrop Castle was one of the oldest estates in Scotland, and they had run it into the ground. It needed major renovations to get the place up to code—all its plumbing needed to be updated, replacing every last pipe, and the shoddy electricity in the main castle and its surrounding outbuildings was downright hazardous. The Lathrop family had acquired the castle in the seventeenth century and, in my estimation, hadn’t done much to keep it updated. I was surprised they had electricity at all, regardless of how dodgy it was.
They’d been upside down in the estate for decades and finally concluded that they needed to act. Since it wasn’t a wise financial decision to employ the army necessary to restore andmaintain the house for private use, the Lathrops chose to turn it into an exclusive hotel.
Many owners of estates in disrepair sold their castles to the government for tourism, but this family was hellbent onnotdoing that; luckily, we had an option that allowed them to avoid that scenario. We planned to come in with our capital and renovate the place, giving it the facelift needed to bring it back to its original glory (with all the modern amenities, of course). Obviously, we needed to see profits from that in short order, and that’s what our creative publicity team would handle by marketing it to wealthy tourists.
“Well, you sold everything but your balls to seal that deal, and yet?—”
“They would rather cut them off, fry them, and eat them,” I chuckled, nodding to the waitress who set my freshly poured bourbon before me. “God, sometimes, I don’t understand people.”
“It’s an emotional investment,” Titus Hawk said as he sipped his scotch. “I get it.”
“Oh, you get it?” I eyed him. “You haven’t had to deal with anyone coming to take over your father’s hotel chain yet, tough guy.”
“True,” he smirked. “But I know how I’d react if that day came, and that’s why I understand their viewpoint.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Quite honestly, you didn’t need to be here to watch my ass get handed to me today either.”
