"Mrs. Kiriakis?"

"Oh, sorry," said Chloe, coloring as Brady's words penetrated her trance.  "My mind must have wandered.  Anyway, Bra—Mr. Black, you know the reason I'm here, to beg you to reconsider.  You can't take Titan away from Phillip.  You just can't.  It's his legacy."

Brady's face was like granite to her pleas.  "It was my grandfather's legacy, and Phillip is on his way to running it into the ground.  Wouldn't you rather I stepped in than some complete stranger?"

"I don't care about the company!" Chloe spat out.  "I care about Phillip, and the thought of losing Titan is killing him.  Please, Brady, he's family to you."

"Yes, he is," said Brady, still appearing unmoved.  "Which is why I'm not just turning him out on the street.  I've made him a more than generous office, and he'll still be in an executive position."

"A token job," Chloe protested.  "He'll sit behind a desk and read reports and have no say whatever in what happens in his company."

"And you think that's a bad thing?  I'm sorry, Mrs. Kiriakis; but from the moment your husband took over Titan, his foolhardy decisions have been causing the business to flounder.  For the survival of the company, it is essential that Phillip be removed from any kind of leadership role."

"You think you can do better?" challenged Chloe.

"I don't think, I know," Brady replied firmly.  "Over the last five years, I've taken Basic Black from a start-up company to a multi-billion dollar international corporation; and that's a hell of a lot harder than keeping an already successful business afloat."

"Well, it's nice to see your ego's still functioning properly, Brady Black," Chloe told him in a voice laden with sarcasm.

"And it's nice to see you've matured so much since high school," he shot back.  "But then I guess you never needed to."

Chloe flinched.  "What's that supposed to mean?"

Brady eyed her coolly.  "Simply that I doubt your life with Phillip has been a real growth process."

Chloe was brimming with rage, but she couldn't think of an appropriate response to his comment.  Mainly because it was true.  After she had been rejected from Julliard, she had cut things off with Brady abruptly.  Phillip had been right there waiting for her.  Soon after graduation, she'd let herself be talked into marrying him.  But things between herself and Phillip had never changed, even with their marriage.  He was still jealous one minute and apologetic the next.  She still kept him shut out of huge areas of her heart.  Chloe felt the need to deflect Brady's knowing stare.  "I assume then, since this conversation has wandered so off-course, that your answer is no."

Brady shook his head.  "I guess I was wrong.  Phillip has influenced you.  The Chloe Lane I knew would have fought back.  Too bad.  And I'm sorry; but I'm not walking away from Titan.  Like it or not, I'm part of your life now."

"Not mine," said Chloe, jumping out of her seat.  "Maybe Phillip's, but not mine."

In a matter of a few seconds, Brady had come around the desk and stood only inches away from her.  "What's the matter, Chloe?" he asked huskily.  "Afraid I might try something?  Or that you might like it?"

His smooth, deep voice was intoxicating her.  The very nearness of him was giving her shivers down her spine.  Reluctantly, she made herself back away, breaking the spell.  "I think we're through here," Chloe said, almost managing to control the tremor in her voice.  "I'm leaving now."  She turned on her heel and marched resolutely to the door, not giving him the satisfaction of looking back.

Brady watched her leave, an ache forming in the pit of his stomach.  God, after all this time, she still took his breath away.  He had spent years trying to forget her, first in alcohol, then in women, finally turning to work.  Work had given him a purpose.  He had thought he had finally exorcised her from his system.  What a laugh.  "Let's face it, Black," he said aloud.  "You're stuck.  She's in your blood."

He wondered if anyone else could see the things about her that he noticed in the first few moments of their conversation.  She was too thin and pale, like she hadn't been well for a long time.  There was a resignation in her voice which all his attempts to rile her hadn't been able to shake away.  And her eyes held a quiet desperation and a deep sadness.  She was miserable.  How come no one else could see it?

He had stayed away from her since her marriage.  Just being in the same room as her tormented him.  He knew she would never be his, and he could have lived with it if Phillip had somehow managed to make her happy.  But obviously, Phillip had failed.  Surprise, surprise.  So then and there, Brady set himself on a quest.  He was going to make sure that Chloe was happy.  No matter what it took.

~~*~~

Chloe Kiriakis entered the mansion with the by-now familiar feeling of depression.  This house was just too big.  And lonely.  Ever since Belle and Shawn had joined the Peace Corps and gone off to see the world, she didn't really have any friends.  Friendships were just too difficult to maintain with Phillip around.  He was constantly calling just to "check up" on her.  If she was home five minutes late, she had to endure a twenty-minute interrogation.  She had discovered Phillip was easier to deal with if she just stayed on her own.

After changing into more comfortable clothes, Chloe went to the kitchen to start dinner.  They had fired the cook after things had started to go badly for Titan.  Chloe didn't mind cooking, but Phillip looked upon it as some huge mortification, that his wife would have to do her own housework.  She didn't tell him that she was relieved to have it.  Even mundane chores were better than doing nothing at all.

She was only twenty-three, but she felt old.  Old and tired.  Five years of marriage to Phillip had dragged on like fifty.  She told herself she stayed with him because of her vows, but it had more to do with an unnamed fear.  A fear of what he would do.  Phillip had a sudden and violent temper, something she had known before her marriage but had chosen to ignore.  There was no ignoring it anymore.  Not that he ever hit her now.  No, after the first few months of her marriage, she had learned that if she simply let Phillip have his way in everything, he would be as sweet and gentle as he was when they first started dating.

Her mind wandered back to her meeting with Brady.  God, he looked good.  Except for a certain harder line to his mouth, which she had always remembered as intoxicatingly sensuous, he hadn't changed a bit in five years.  Of course, she'd seen his photograph in the papers dozens of times in the interim, mostly in connection with his large strides in the business world; but occasionally, she caught a blurb about him in the society pages, always with a different, beautiful woman on his arm.  She always felt a twinge of jealousy when she saw that.  She knew it could have been her.  She knew that if she hadn't rejected him, he would have stayed with her forever.  He had offered her his heart, no strings attached.  And she had run away as fast as she could, because he wasn't safe, because he could hurt her.

Phillip was predictable, easy to understand.  She knew how he would react to any given situation, which made him controllable.  With Brady, she was never quite sure what he was going to say and do next.  That idea frightened her more than anything Phillip could do.

Chloe heard the front door slam and busied herself setting the table.

"Hi, honey, I'm home," Phillip announced, coming up behind her and kissing her neck.  She forced herself not to stiffen.

Chloe faked a smile.  "So how was your day?"

Phillip shrugged.  "Well, I've lost the company.  As of tomorrow, the takeover will be effective.  I have a meeting with Nicole tomorrow morning.  She'll be filling me in on the specifics of my new job."

Chloe recognized the bitterness in Phillip's voice.  Phillip was bitter about a lot of things lately.  He had been ever since his mother shot his father and was sent to prison.  No doubt if Kate had been acquitted, she would have protected her son from such a business failure.  Phillip blamed Nicole, both for the lovers' spat that had effectively robbed him of both parents and for the decline of Titan.  Chloe knew better, though she wisely kept her mouth shut. 

It had been Phillip's constant attempts to manipulate his parents that had been the guiding force in Kate's action.  And Phillip had fired Nicole as soon as he took over the company.  A reckless, stupid move.  Nicole had simply walked through the doors of Basic Black and taken most of Titan's secrets with her.  So while Basic Black had flourished with Nicole and Brady at its head, Titan had been left with Phillip and Austin running the show.  It was hard to believe it had taken this long for Titan to go under.

Chloe didn't care much about office politics.  But she had her own reasons to hate Nicole.  The latest in Salem gossip said that she and Brady Black were lovers.  Chloe shuddered.  The whole idea was repulsive.  Brady deserved someone better than that.  He deserved someone like…

You? Asked a tiny voice inside her head.