Intrigued and a little surprised he looked to see the old man growing larger than life by the minute. Alex reassured himself it was only his imagination for the cruel villain was nothing but a cold-hearted prideful snake.
"What kind of proposal?"
"Hmm, you're curious? Well, I'll tell you. For the past few years, my company hasn't been doing as well as...people believe. There have been some management errors and uncontrollable events that have...weakened my company. The sharks are circling, now that they smell blood in the water. I have seen how you aced that risk strategy project and know about your inherent ability to devise patterns and find suitable paths while minimizing risks. I want you to take over and rebuild my company. Make sure that no one else ever thinks of getting it. A Knight will always be at the helm of Knight Inc. or be ground to dust."
Being pretty good at reading between the lines, Alex had the sense that he wasn't being told the whole story. So until he got all the information he would work with what he got.
"You want me to take over? Why would I help you? You never even gave my mother the chance to explain herself. You never even bothered to visit us or send me a lousy Christmas or birthday card. Why on earth would you ask me?"
"Because there's no one else. Do you think I'd be here if there was? But you're all that's left of my family...my blood," He almost spat out the words.
"I built this company after my great-grandfather left it to me from the ground up. It's my only achievement, my prized legacy and I will die before someone else gets their hands on it."
"It's all very touching, I'm sure," He drawled in an insouciant tone and leaned back in his chair. "But why should I care?"
"Because your mother would have wanted it. She would have wanted us to be a family. Even though I made mistakes with her, I want to try and make up for it now."
Alex looked up sharply at that. He knew his grandfather was trying to manipulate him. But he thought of the truth behind Sebastian Knight's words. His mother had always regretted disappointing her father. Even when they were living in the hells of poverty after Alex's father left them, she'd never once complained. She'd always said that she felt sad and guilty for betraying her father by going against his wishes. But even as Alex's will shook, he tried to fight it.
"I don't care. I don't want anything from you, not your company, not your family, not your pity. I'm done."
He got up to go, he really did. But before he could, a rack of coughs assailed the old man. He rushed and was kneeling beside his grandfather even before a man in a dark suit entered the room. Alex quickly grabbed a glass of water and tilted it toward the old man's lips who swallowed the liquid weakly. Handing the glass back to Alex, his grandfather waved the man who'd entered away.
"I'm fine, Jason," Sebastian Knight rasped.
Then he turned to look at Alex with such heartbreaking plea, without any of his previous pride and contempt, that Alex felt the suffocating bonds of those twisty ropes of DNA snapping into place.
"I'm not... well, Alex. I don't have time left to play games or to try and convince you. If you don't take your place as my rightful heir, I'll be forced to shut down the company and thousands would lose their job. I don't want to do it, but I'd rather die than see a stranger run my company. Would working in your precious think tank net you the same sense of achievement and belonging you would get working for the family company? Dedicating its resources and capital towards the good you can do? Leave a mark of your own on this world?"
The final nail hammered in his coffin. The bastard had done all his research on him.
He thought about the choices that were left to him. No more moves left. So he played the only move left available to him.
"You win, you shrewd old bastard. I'll do it. But I have a favor I want, first."
That day had marked the beginning of the end for him. After Cat had left, he'd been approached by a secret Government organization to join their Think Tank. Alex had been in need of a distraction and fairly excited about the opportunity. Being able to utilize his analytical skills of finding patterns and applying them to solve real-world problems had given him the opportunity to make a difference. Alex had realized his life's true purpose as the work had been intriguing and exciting. Puzzling out if funding to Country A was diverted to Country B would help in starting an agricultural revolution or killing the dictator of a country in the Middle East in a Secret Operation would restore democracy in the state had been distracting.
But fate had intervened that night and Alex had made his choice.
Undergoing a short training period with Sebastian Knight, Alex had quickly realized that his grandfather's old-world values and ideals also extended to how he ran his company. Lacking the knowledge of modernizing Knight Inc. and failing to capitalize on its brand value and goodwill, Sebastian had nearly run his business into the ground.
By setting up various infrastructure modules, reorganizing the structure of the company and bringing in new business contracts from the Government, Alex had slowly bought back the company from the edge of disaster. By that point, his grandfather's health had deteriorated. Any hopes Alex had had of enjoying some freedom of living outside the company he'd rebuilt had been quashed completely.
So he forgot everything and diverted his energy to take the business world by storm. All the while he resented his grandfather for pushing him into this choice but carried out the values of the Knight legacy instilled in him.
Above all, Alex thought he had made a deal with the devil and made peace with his decision at the time. But he still felt guilty of what he could have done and disappointed for not having been strong enough to choose differently. Alex had still been a part of the world he'd chosen to leave behind. Working with some of the brightest minds in the country and being a part of something bigger than himself, his recruiter had given Alex his life's purpose.
He realized that he'd been living with these feelings for a while. Pissed off at Cat for resurrecting these emotions again, Alex knew that she had entered his life and turned it upside down, once again, without giving any explanations or even so much as an apology.
Without any effort at all.
He couldn't allow this. He had to have his revenge. This time it would be him, who would walk away from her. After getting everything she had to give and whatever else he wanted and more. He strode with purpose out of the elevator and toward her office.