CEO Of My Heart 274 274

Nadius looked uncomfortable as he scratched his head deep in thought as he remembered his early days. It wasn't something that he thought of often now that he was established and reaping the benefits he had sowed so many years before.  "I'm pretty sure that time I was just starting our business team. I was a complete n.o.body from University of St Petersberg. You know my love story, I met a young model in Moscow who was going to design school in Paris and was in my town on an a.s.signment from her agency.  She later became my wife, your aunt.  She was so beautiful then, a bit less as she's bloomed with age.  But you know other than my Sheng Mei, no one knew who I was really. I barely spoke English and even my Mandarin was laughable so Sheng Mei did most of my talking for me.  I met my sister-in-law and brother-in-law on separate occasions. But you know Sheng Mei and I aren't shy about our love as she was all I had here in the city. I gave up everything that was my old life back in Russia.  I did it all for her.  It still baffles me that only by coincidence did your parents chose a Russian name for their son as his American name.  It's funny to me still that they chose it because of some old Cold War propaganda they'd seen where the American was played by an actor named Conrad.  It is the opposite of American.  But I'm getting off track . . . she raged at Conrad when she heard that he had taken me to a high cla.s.s brothel against my will. It was vicious the things the two of them would pull on each other just to get the reaction they wanted.  You do remember your father did have many women whom you met. I'll make it clear that any woman he introduced to you were his mistresses. He had many to make your mother jealous. Some were the wives of his employees. The pitiful ones didn't bother her so much as it did when the girls became younger and younger. She wasn't that old, but you know he did bring one to their anniversary dinner party and made sure that the little girl was introduced to everyone.

"I didn't understand what was causing such a stir as I was engrossed in a conversation with Mingxia and Sheng Mei about I'm not sure, probably something quite trivial to take away from the fact that the anniversary dinner was just a show.  But what I do remember clearly is when Conrad put his arm around that girl's shoulders she broke the gla.s.s that was in her hands and cut her hand open. You know she went to a school run by Shaolin monks when she was younger and I know if we had not been there she would have probably made sure neither of his hands or legs would ever be able to work again.  I've seen her defend herself quite well when men refused to leave her alone. But you know two can play at that game, the dinner went on as planned and she was the perfect host such that people were very confused. She didn't touch the mistress, not a single hair. But she did get caught by a tabloid kissing the mayor of New York at the time, Arthur Crawford, who was separating from his wife of ten years.  He had been by her side the whole time as a staunch supporter of her.

"Mingxia and Art were seen everywhere.  Not much different than you and your current wife's media obsession.  Good for revenge but not so good if you're trying to win custody of a young son in court.  You know your dad got a full restraining order against the two of them so they couldn't even drive down this street.  Now you can imagine how it would be impossible for her to see you. But you know Michael would have you play in the playground a bit further from your school or he would sit by the window in a cafe somewhere and Mingxia would sit close by so she could see you.  Of course, your father erased every mention of her from the house and had a moving company break all of her things to have them sent to Crawford's house. You know she never did live there, even though it made for a great stabbing of her heart. Your father was also responsible for Crawford's impeachment by the state legislature.  He bribed everyone in government so none of Crawford's promises to the people were met so when Crawford ran for Senate you can imagine the loss was devastating to his career. The depression I'm sure was a factor in his heart attack some time later."

Henry seemed downtrodden by the added information. "Why do people have to be so complicated?  Why didn't she just quietly leave him? Why did she have to go out and make such a big fuss?"

"Why would she make a fuss?  Why did your father have to be such a nitwit when he was running such a big company?  His dalliances almost cost him the b.l.o.o.d.y job. Neither of them are innocent in this manner, but no matter how much you squint Conrad was a bit more aggressive." His uncle shrugged with a sort of practiced irritation—this was obviously a point he had made up in his mind several years previous. "I was a great friend to your father but I have to say I did have a lot of affection too for your mother as I share many wonderful memories with her. But together as a duo they were two devils strapped together making mischief for everyone around. Conrad was always at his worst when he was around her."

"So my doting mother left her son and absconded with a richer man." Henry hung his head in his hands. "That did nothing to change what was going on with her family. She didn't take care of anything. She hid me as if I was a skeleton in her closet. Why?  Am I not my mother's son even though I had blood from someone she hated?"

Nadius shook his head and moved closer to his nephew.  "Do you have no faith in her? Of course you wouldn't . . . you never got a chance to know her.  Mingxia was very headstrong. It's not a bad thing, but she would have had all of this if she had stopped to think for a moment so the thinking came after your father had brought out her full fury.  She didn't like the governor any more than she hated your father. She did come to care for Art Crawford but you know his family wouldn't approve of him marrying a Chinese without American citizenship.  They thought she was illness driven and you know just generally racist. You know he did love her truly though, they had many happy years living together after he decided to retire from politics and get into the private sectors.  They never had children, but you know mentally his decline lead to his eventual physical one."