The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark followed Bobbie into her office and looked around at the walls.

"Wow. You really made this space your own."

"I did." Bobbie grinned back as she stood next to Lark and looked at the photos on the wall. She tapped her finger against a photo of Lark, Ollie, and Max hugging her while Bobbie held her degree the day, she graduated law school. "One of my favorite moments there."

"I bet. You must have been so proud."

"I was. I prouder though my kiddos were there to see it. I worked hard and I hoped they would see my work ethic and follow suit."

"They all work hard," Lark tried to placate Bobbie's frowned comment.

"They play harder. You know, I cannot tell you how many times I've looked at my six kids and wondered where the hell I went wrong." She rubbed her forehead. "Max was always precocious. Ollie was always a firecracker. When the triplets came along, I tried really hard to keep my focus on them but with preemie triplets all with significant medical needs the first couple of years, I didn't do as good a job as I hoped. Your mom helped me so much," she smiled a photo of her and Everly on the wall at a gala of some sort. "She is the best friend I ever had."

"She says the same about you, Bobbie."

"I know. It's because Max gives us spa packages," she laughed at her joke.

"I read the article he did," Lark shook her head. "How did you not kill him?"

"I almost did. Olivier is a bold, brash man. He always was from the time I knew him. He has zero filter. Max possesses the same lack of diplomacy. Olivier's motto for years has been diplomacy is for chumps. He has always encouraged the kids to be who they want to be. I try to reign them in, he pushes them to be creative and free spirited. I have six kids who have multiple grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who all treat them like they are kings and queens. When the triplets were born, Olivier's sisters and their kids were around a lot making of the babies. It made Max and Ollie feel even more left out. We would send them all out to play and then we would find one of the cousins back in the nursery fawning over the baby dolls. It's what they called them, the baby dolls. The problem is, they still treat them like this. They seem to forget they were all thriving by the time they started school. My kids are assholes." Bobbie groaned and walked to her desk. " Speaking of, can you look at this with me?" She held up a file. "What is it?"

"Margot was accused of cheating on her exams last year. There was a teacher at the private school who thought there was no way she could have gotten perfect marks. The woman hated Margot from day one because she taught the triplets and Max. It didn't matter what Margot did, this woman had it out for her. Olivier wanted to pull her from the woman's class, but I insisted she stay," Bobbie grimaced, "because we can't keep removing them from challenging situations. Life isn't always fair. Now I'm working on a lawsuit because I didn't remove her."

"Why?" Lark took the file and sat in the chair adjacent to Bobbie's workstation.

"It's no secret Margot is on par with Max in terms of intelligence, maybe even smarter than he is." "Really? I didn't know."

"No? Well, she is bloody brilliant. She completed all her high school requirements last year. Olivier and I both felt though she was too emotionally underdeveloped to start university, so we made her stay another year at the high school taking college entrance courses."

"You did it with Max too," Lark remembered.

"Yes. He was advanced in all of his classes. Margot as well. Anyway, she studied hard and wrote the paper in her physics exam in under thirty minutes and got a perfect score. The physics professor not only accused her of cheating, but she did it at the time in front of all her classmates. She called the Dean into the space, demanded security do a search of her body for any devices or papers she would have hidden on her to cheat and then made a comment about the Villeneuves paying off the school to hide their illegal activities and scheming. She was screaming in front of the entire room of students about how Margot was the latest in a lengthy line of cheaters and she was done with letting such s**t pass."

"Poor Margot."

"Margot is so soft, Lark. Unlike Ollie who would have punched the woman out, or Max who would have simply humiliated her, she stood there and cried. The triplets would have tag teamed the woman until she folded but it was Margot. She stood there sobbing her little heart out while the security guy went through all of her belongings, got a female security officer to make her strip down in the changing rooms and then they searched her locker, her laptop, her books.'

"Oh my god."

"When she got home, she was wrecked. We got the school board involved and the chancellor of the school as well. In the end, the chancellor is friends with a physics scientist from Caltech and got him flown in. The man, in front of the physics teacher, the Dean, the entire board of directors of the school, quizzed Margot at length. He then stood up and told the physics teacher she was a f*****g i***t, in those words, and how Margot was incredibly gifted and offered her a full ride to Caltech right there on the spot. He also told her she would be welcome to attend any of his classes."

"What did she do?" Lark grinned at the outcome.

"She tripped over her own feet, spilled a glass of water down the front of his shirt and started to cry."

Lark laughed, "poor Margot. She always was so clumsy."

"Her brain moves faster than her body," Bobbie shrugged.

"So, what is the lawsuit. You're suing the school?"

"Yes, but the physics teacher is countersuing. She alleges it was all arranged and the questioning of the Caltech professor was a stunt set up by Olivier and me to get rid of her. We don't want to make Margot go through all of it again, but we may have no choice."

"She was fired?"

"Yes. She was fired. The Dean was heavily reprimanded for ordering a student to be strip searched and is on probation of sorts. He can't take a piss without having to ask the Chancellor for permission."

Lark read quickly through the accusations, and she grimaced, "is she actually stating the entire Villeneuve family has it out for her since she gave Max an A minus in tenth grade?"

"Yes. Max argued his test was flawed and her answers were wrong. He proved it and was awarded the perfect score he deserved. Unlike Margot, Max by high school was capable of defending himself, sometimes too good."

"True. I remember this now I'm thinking of it." She giggled, "he tore her apart in front of the class and blatantly proved how and why her answer was wrong. He worked it out on the board right in front of everyone. He hijacked the class. It was kind of cool."

"It wasn't cool," Bobbie grunted. "It was rude. He could have done it much quieter."

"But she wasn't quiet. He told her his answer on the test was right very politely at first and asked if he could explain she told him she was the teacher and he was the student so he should sit there, shut up and take the grade. He didn't raise his voice once. He simply got up, went to the board, proved her wrong all the while explaining his work aloud as he did it. She was screaming at him to get away from the board, but he refused."

Bobbie leaned back. "You remember this?"

"It was one of my only classes I actually took with Max. We shared the physics class in grade ten but then I didn't take physics again. I hated it. I did biology and chemistry because I needed them for college, but he was in the advanced classes, and I took the lower level with Johan. I hate science, Bobbie. I swear my brain doesn't work the minute I see large formulas or complex compounds."

"Same," Bobbie shook her head and then grinned, "you used to participate in a lot of science experiments. I remember Mentos and Coke being a favorite.'

"Diet Coke works best, and it was only because it was what Max wanted to do. If he would have wanted to raid a foreign country I would have learned to shoot rifles for him." She mocked herself. "Idiot."

"Hey," Bobbie leaned against her desk. "You're not an i***t, Lark. I might not be the best parent in terms of turning out socially acceptable human beings, but I can own the fact I raised giant assholes. Max f****d up with you. I'm not like Ollie who will defend him baselessly. They are connected by their souls. When one hurts, So does the other. I'm their mother and I know they were not good to you in high school. I saw it every single day. I told I told your mother e times than not how I was ashamed of how both of them dragged you into their crap. If it If it wasn't Ollie getting you arrested, Max was leaving you in the lurch to get blown. She shuddered exaggeratedly. "When you said you were going to Mississippi for university, I was happy for you, Lark. I wanted for you to find your way out of their shadows. You bailed them out of their s**t all

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the time and covered for them too much. They needed to learn to stand on their own two feet just as you did. They still had each other. It was only when Ollie went off to Houston when Max actually grew up a bit. He didn't have either of his crutches then."

"He had Johan."

"Pfft," Bobbie waved her hand. "He's a nice guy but he's not Max's soulmate and he's not Max's twin." She froze and looked to Bobbie, "soulmate?"

"Well, yes, Lark. Do you really think otherwise? Who do you think the Villeneuve Witch has been talking about for years? It's always been you, Lark. Always."

"What if I don't want to be his soulmate?" She asked bitterly.

"Nobody says you have to be with him, Lark." Bobbie said seriously. "He's not done anything which makes him deserve you. Just because your souls were made for one another doesn't mean you have to comply. You make your own destiny in this life, Lark." She smiled softly, "do me a favor though?" "What?" she didn't immediately agree.

11

"Don't make it easy on him," Bobbie stared her deep in the eyes. "That boy has his entire life handed to him since his father appeared when he was eight. I'd like to see him work for something, for once."

"I have no intention of giving him anything. Neither my heart nor my soul belongs to anyone but me. He's not getting them.

Bobbie leaned forward and kissed her forehead, "good girl. Now, let's look at this case and figure out how to prove this woman is full of shit."

As Lark began reviewing the file she couldn't help but think of Bobbie's words. Soulmate. Why did it make her want to run back to Houston?