I’m not even going to lie - it feels fucking glorious to be able to say it. Building the tallest tower in the world has been a dream of mine for God knows how fucking long, and now I’m really going to be able to do it. Soon enough, right between Central Park and Madison Avenue, Equinox Tower is going to reach into the skies.
Besides, this also translates as a few hundred millions in profit which, as you can guess, also feels fucking glorious.
I look around the crowd of reporters, looking for a special someone, and there she is, right in the middle of the fray. With a notepad in her hand, a pencil between her thumb and index finger, Penny’s scribbling away as I speak.
“How does it feel, Mr. Davion? It’s been an uphill struggle to get the city to award you this contract,” one of the journalists closest to me asks, and I turn my eyes toward him and grin.
“It feels amazing, Michael,” I reply, reading the badge hanging from his breast pocket. “This whole deal took tremendous effort to put together, and I owe it all to a special someone.” The journalists start buzzing their questions faster now, just like a swarm of angry bees, and I find myself trying to wave them down. Chill the fuck out everyone.
“Who?” I hear that question repeated ad nauseam, but I keep the answer to myself. I just push my way through the crowd of journalists and walk straight toward Penny. The journalists part before me as they see where I’m heading, and I feel like fucking Moses parting the Red Sea.
Penny’s eyes widen so much it almost seems like they’re going to pop out of their sockets, but I just smile at her and drape one arm over my shoulders.
“Penny Wright, my stepdaughter,” I proclaim, “has been instrumental in all this this. If it weren’t for her advice, I doubt we’d have such a happy conclusion.” She turns to me, slightly flushed, and then smiles. She opens her arms and hugs me tight, her perfume making me feel slightly lightheaded. Fuck, I can’t wait to get home and rip her dress off of her body. I want to fucking celebrate.
Maybe I shouldn’t be this vocal about Penny, allowing the world to shine a spotlight on her, but I just can’t fucking help myself right now. I really feel thankful for having her in my life and, besides, her adv
ice really helped secure this deal. I thought long and hard about what she told me, how people wanted their vision of the world reflected back at them, and that went a long way when it came to my meetings with the board. She was right: once your mirror what’s in people’s hearts and minds, they can’t attack you… Or else they’d be attacking themselves. I know I really sound like a fucking Zen master right now, but I’m not trying to bullshit you.
Holding Penny close to me, her delicate body pressed against my own, I lean in and lay my lips on her cheek.
The journalists go wild, and everyone’s snapping pictures left and right. They start asking me so many fucking questions that I don’t even bother with responding to a single one.
Penny’s in my arms, the Equinox deal is moving forward - fuck, it feels good to be alive!
Penny
It’s already 9 pm, but my mother’s still in her office. I can see that the lights are still on, their orange glow showing under the door; I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to catch her in her office, but it turns out I was right about her whereabouts.
After Magnus’ impromptu conference on City Hall’s steps, we left in a hurry and rushed toward One57 in his limo. We made it out all the way, and it took only half a minute for him to rip my dress apart once we were inside his apartment. He was in a celebratory mood and, I’ll admit, so was I.
We fucked until our bodies were drenched in sweat, and then we fucked some more. We did it until our muscles grew cramped, and only then did we allow exhaustion to finally take over us both. Afterward, I lay naked in bed by Magnus’ side, fully knowing that, sooner or later, I’d have to face my mother.
My job was a simple one: to destroy Magnus Davion and make sure that the Equinox deal never came into fruition. I managed to do just the opposite. Despite not agreeing with my mother, there’s no other way to say it: she misplaced her trust in me and paid the price for it.
I got dressed and, despite Magnus’ insistence for me to spend the night, I got out of One57 and grabbed a taxi. I tried to call my mother several times, but she never picked up; as such, I decided to head for the Daily Journal’s office. After Laurel Trask lost her battle with Magnus, I figured my mother would be hiding in her office, fuming about everything that happened.
And that’s where I am now, slowly making my way across the long rows of empty desks. Most of the staff has already gone home by now, and only a few unlucky souls remain in their desks, hunched over their laptops. They barely notice me walking in, and I make my way toward the Editor in Chief office with a knot in my stomach. I knock once, and then twice, but no answer comes.
Not willing to give up this easily, I open the door and step inside. My mother’s sitting by her desk, reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose, and she doesn’t even raise her eyes from the documents she’s reading as I enter her office.
“I’m busy. I don’t want to be disturbed right now, so --”
“Mom, it’s me,” I say, and she finally raises her eyes to look at me. With careful movements, she takes her reading glasses off her nose and places them on top of the folders she was reading.
“What are you doing here, Penny?” she says, almost too casually. Breathing hard, I close the door behind me, walk toward the desk, and sit across her.
“I came to… apologize,” I whisper softly, waiting to see a look of sadness and disappointment creep up on my mother’s face. That doesn’t happen, though. She just looks at me with a blank expression, waiting. “I know we don’t agree on a lot of things, but I know that you didn’t want it to end like this, with Magnus getting the Equinox contract. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she whispers back at me, and then a faint smile takes over her lips. “You’ve played your part, Penny. Maybe you couldn’t see the whole chessboard in front of you, but you did everything you were supposed to.”
“I… I don’t understand,” I start, and my mother’s smile widens even more.
“You don’t need to understand. Your job is almost done, Penny. There’s one last thing for you to do, and then this is all going to be over,” she continues, her voice strangely calm. This isn’t how I envisioned things would go. I expected a shouting match, a mother and daughter fight for the ages… and all I get is her quizzical smile and confusing words. What the hell’s going on?
“What…?” I ask her, and she picks up a sheet of paper from her stack of documents and slides it across the desk.
“This is a draft. It’s the only weapon left that we have against Magnus. I want you to write this column and own up to what’s in there. And then this whole thing will be over. I promise you. It might not be easy, but Laurel Trask is on our side… And she’ll look after you.”