Wicked Lil' Brat(45)

The anonymous sources do acknowledge that Mr. Kane has made no formal declaration of any of the speculation—neither confirming nor denying these allegations. However, amidst a culture on Wall Street that acts on rumors and vague murmurs, the allegations were enough to send shares of Kane Price plunging 15% during market trading before stabilizing during after-hour trades.

The sudden decrease in share price has many shareholders and clients once again considering whether Mr. Kane is the right person to be managing the investment bank that he founded and took public several years ago. While critics do not question his potential to make money, they do question whether his extra-curricular entanglements have gotten to such a point where he is no longer able to serve as a fiduciary steward of shareholder value.

It was only two months ago that the self-styled King of Wall Street married Lorna Lowell, a shareholder activist who controls a large chunk of voting stock within Kane Price. Ms. Lowell has been outspoken in her criticism of Mr. Kane and his handling of his personal life prior to their marriage as well as his investment choices that he has made in recent weeks.

Both sides agree that a vote of no confidence, unheard of in the button down world of Wall Street would literally tear the company apart, with factions splitting off into opposing camps and halting the business that is conducted daily by the globe-girdling bank. That such a development would be disastrous to shareholders and clients is something both sides agree on and only warranted in the most extreme circumstances.

Still, the tension and threat of a no confidence vote are simmering under the surface.

Internally, sources confirm that Kane Price is splitting up into battlegrounds over a proposal by Ms. Lowell to invest $1 billion of the Firm's assets into Indonesian regional airline provider, Red Lion Aviation. Mr. Kane has strongly opposed this investment, stating that the risk is too great for any return. However those who favor the investment view any delay on Mr. Kane's part as simply being based out of ego and not on rational decision making.





21





Becca





Five.

That's how many weeks it's been since I first fucked Mason in the bathroom of the bar. Before I knew who exactly he was. Before we began to spend more and more time together. Before I realized his connection to Lorna. Before I realized a lot of things. I used to think I was so grown up. But I realize now just how naive I was. It feels like in those five weeks since I've met Mason, I've crossed a bridge that can never be crossed, you know? Like I've matured much faster than any 21 year old should have to.



Seven.

That's how many days ago I finally moved the last of my things out of the townhouse that Lorna lives in.

Mason helped me of course. "Mom" wasn't around to even see me go. Mason didn't know where she was either. Only later did I find out from our housekeeper—who cried all day as I was moving out—that Lorna had gone to the Hamptons with another Kane Price shareholder.

Of course, you know what she did there?

I don't have to have a very vivid imagination to say that she went out there to seduce him. I'm not being a bitch if I say that. She pretty much told me this herself a few days after I overheard her tell Mason that she wasn't my mother.

That's right, babe. I totally confronted her. I remember. It was a Saturday morning and she was reading the newspaper on her tablet in the sunroom.

"Why do you look so shocked, Becca?" she asked me when I asked her if it was really true. "You got a good deal out of it, didn't you?"

"But that's not the point, Mom," I said, instinctively falling back on the moniker.

"Please, will you fucking stop calling me your mother," Lorna said with obvious disdain. "I could give two shits whether you live or die, to be honest. You're only as good to me as you photograph, if you must know."

I think I gasped or something, you know? Just hearing those words coming from the woman I thought had loved me my whole life.

"Oh, don't look so shocked," she said to me. "You're nothing like me. You're weak, soft, and stupid. You don't have the killer instinct."

"Is that why you didn't like Dad?" I asked her. "Because he didn't have the killer instinct?"

Lorna's face turned into a grimace. "I wish he'd never brought you into the marriage we had," she sneered. "If he'd just thrown you out on the corner, maybe he'd still be alive. I wanted him, not you. But when you came along with him, it sort of ruined the experience for me, you know?"

I remember shaking with fear and shock and loathing. How could one person be so cavalier about the dead? So hating toward the living.

"I cheated on your father every chance I got," she said, smiling as if relishing the fact that she was hurting me. "I made sure he found out about it each and every time. I fucked guys on our bed. I left panties soaked in other men's cum for him to find and see."