Suddenly Jakob sat forward, making Lili aware of his presence again, and of his impatience. “We’re not here for chitchat.”
Ivan sighed, nodded, got a dossier out of his briefcase, handed it to her. “Indeed. We’re here to give you this.”
Confusion deepening, she took it from him, and at his prodding, opened it and read.
With each line, each page, her shock deepened.
These were legal documents. Written in extensive, meticulous terms. Turning over Antonio’s R & D empire to her.
When she finally raised flabbergasted eyes to them, Jakob’s lips curled in disgusted disapproval. “Antonio believes you’re better equipped to benefit the world with what he’s built. He also believes you’d probably want to segregate it from Black Castle and become your own independent business, which he believes would be best for you and for your nonprofit policies and pursuits.”
“If you’re wondering what he’d do instead,” Ivan said, watching her closely as if to document her reaction, “he’ll turn full-time to what he’s best at. Surgery. But he says he’ll now emulate you, direct his skills and resources to nonprofit work. But as a surgeon, that would take him into the field of humanitarian work. He’s already organized his first mission.”
Lili stared from one man to the other, as if they’d suddenly laugh and tell her it was all an elaborate joke.
But from their grimness and their clear dismay at their brother’s bequest, and mostly from the wording in those papers, which she knew was Antonio’s, this was real.
“Needless to say,” Ivan said, “we are extremely disturbed by his decision. We know no one could ever replace him, but since it’s you, the others have empowered us to extend you an offer. We will accommodate anything you wish, if you agree to keep the division part of our joint business.”
She could only stare at them, totally numb.
Jakob added, “He also said you’d have qualms on account of having no financial or management skills, but he assures you everything will be run by his deputies, while you orchestrate the scientific direction of the organization. He himself will always be available to you as a consultant whenever you wish.”
And it was as if a dam burst inside her, making her blurt out, “Is he insane?”
Ivan nodded with another sigh. “Bonkers.”
“It gets worse.” Jakob produced another file from his own briefcase. “These are the deeds to his mansion in LA, his penthouse in New York City, his best jet, and assorted assets and holdings with a collective net worth I couldn’t stomach registering.”
She felt as if she’d been caught in an explosion, and the shock waves were widening, tearing down everything.
All she could finally manage was a whisper. “I—I don’t get it.”
“Don’t you?” Jakob tilted his head, a contemptuous edge creeping into his steel-hued gaze, making him look pretty sinister. “From where I’m sitting, you seem to have gotten everything you could have wanted and way more.”
She shook her head, shell-shocked. “I only want him.”
“Now that’s priceless.” Jakob scoffed. “You dare say that, when you put the man through a hell far worse than all his ordeals combined?”
Ivan frowned. “Jakob’s right on this one. According to Antonio you had every right to punish him, but I kept hoping you’d stop your punishment before you finished him. When you went past even that, I wondered what kind of succubus could do that to him. Then I saw you and I don’t get it. You’re filled with marshmallows and rainbows. How could you do this to him?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she cried out. “How could I punish him when I thought what he felt for me was...nothing like what I felt for him? When he left me alone after he discharged me, and I thought he’d realized he was better off without me, as I always thought he would be?”
Ivan’s eyes narrowed before they shot wide. “That’s it. That’s my answer. You’re really that insecure, aren’t you?”
A shudder of misery shook her. “Only when it comes to him.”
Ivan huffed mirthlessly. “Then, boy, are you two even. He’s totally, explosively, inventively irrational when it comes to you, too. The man has been punishing himself for hurting you far more brutally than any of our abusers ever did.”
“The only thing that hurt me was thinking he didn’t...didn’t...”
“Didn’t love you?” Ivan supplied for her. “If he loved you any more he’d be downright dangerous. As it is, I think he is, very much so, to himself. All this...” Ivan flicked a hand at all the paperwork. “Signing his life away to you? Going to put bodies back together in the most dangerous war zone he could find? He might not be doing it consciously, but I know him. He’s given up on you, and he can’t face life without you, so like a missile on its last burst of fuel, he’s trying to go out with a bang.”