“I guess you should have thought of that when you let my partner go.”
“This is about Bridget?” Ned said. “Because you were screwing her?”
“It is about Bridget. And every woman in this firm. And my daughter.” I touched my beaded bracelet to keep from shouting. “You didn’t give Bridget the ninety days you promised. You gave her the boot without listening to her presentation, without valuing her contributions over almost twenty years here. You were the ones who fucked her over, not me.”
“She asked you to do this?” He narrowed his eyes.
“No,” I said. “Thanks to you, she’s not answering my calls. But it’s the right thing to do. It’s what she’d have done. I’m only sorry I waited a day and didn’t walk out by her side yesterday.”
“You’re seriously leaving us without a CEO,” Anita said.
“I am. Good luck. On my way out, I’ll tell the executive team to expect your call.” With that, I ended the meeting and picked up my box. I walked to the door and opened it. “Finley, I’ve got some news.”
“Come in, come in,” my mother said, bending to hug Caitlyn. “I’m glad you came.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I lied. I’d have missed it if I could have come up with an excuse. My mother’s annual Christmas Eve cocktail party was boring at best and painful atworst. And after two days of not seeing Bridget, all I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket on my sofa that still smelled a little like her perfume. But my parents’ party was mandatory. I handed our coats to the attendant.
When she air-kissed my cheeks, a cloud of Chanel No. 5 and sauvignon blanc enveloped me. “Come to the terrace.” She tugged me inside the wood-paneled foyer, which was hung with pine garland and fairy lights.
People I didn’t know surrounded the Christmas tree in the center of the room. A string quartet in another room played Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony like I was walking into Nakatomi Plaza. “You must meet Willa Spencer.”
I went stiff. “Who’s that, and why do I have to meet her?”
“She’s a member of our club. Very accomplished. It’s time for you to settle down. Caitlyn needs a new mother.”
“She has a mother,” I said.
“You know what I mean.”
“Daddy already has a girlfriend. I like her,” Caitlyn said. “Grandmother, where are Liam and Logan?”
“Downstairs in the media room. Run off and play, but don’t wrinkle your dress. We’re taking a family photo later.” As Caitlyn skipped away, I envied her the ability to hide in the basement for the rest of the party. While I was trying to figure out a way to follow, my mother turned to me. “Now Cole, what’s this about a girlfriend?”
“I’m seeing someone.Wasseeing someone.” I’d been hoping Bridget would answer one of my phone calls or texts. It had been only two days, so in theory, I didn’t have to tell Caitlyn that the kind woman who’d cared for her when she was sick, who’d briefly made work a bright, happy place for me, and who filled my stony heart with joy, wasn’t part of my life anymore. “It’s complicated.”
“Who is she?”
“A woman I work with.Workedwith. I quit Apex.”
“You what?” Her light-pink nails dug through my tuxedo jacket into my arm as she tugged me through a door into her private sitting room. “But you were CEO. You can’t simply quit.”
“I was co-CEO, and I quit after they fired Bridget. It was a toxic environment.”
“Your résumé will be toxic after this. Cole, what were you thinking?”
“I don’t want to work for a company that undervalues talent, especially female talent, like Apex does. What kind of example would I be setting for Caitlyn?”
“Caitlyn would understand,” my mother said, “if you’d sent her to St. Marcellin like we told you.”
“Zara refused.” I folded my arms. “And so do I. Why would I want her to understand that we live in a fucked-up, misogynistic world where women aren’t given a chance to succeed in leadership?”
“If your co-CEO was dating you, it’s obvious she slept her way there. She got what she deserved.”
“She didnot!”I roared. “Bridget worked hard over twenty years to get to that office. She deserved to stay more than I did.”
When the door opened, I realized the music had stopped, replaced by an uncomfortable buzz. My brother sauntered in and closed the door. “There you are, Cole. I wasn’t sure you’d come tonight, but then I heard your dulcet tones.”
“Thank goodness.” My mother threw up her hands. “Talk some sense into him, Mason, then take him to meet Willa Spencer. I have to see to my guests.” But before she opened the door, she turned back. “Remember, Cole, you’re not getting any younger or more handsome. You should find someone before those dark circles under your eyes get more pronounced.”
