Arm-in-arm with Annalise, who helped manage her dress, she smiled at each of her bridesmaids in turn, then at her mother. Ruth gave her an encouraging nod, and Kendra took another deep breath. Then she left the bridal suite, heading downstairs and toward her future.
This wedding was going to be perfect. It had to be.
CHAPTER 2
LUCAS
“You have got to be kidding me.” Lucas Chambers stared at his lawyer in complete disbelief. “Seriously. You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid not, Mr. Chambers.” The lawyer, an older woman with graying hair by the name of Elise Cairn, shook her head. “I know this must come as a huge shock, but it’s only a matter of time before it hits the press. We need to decide how you should react, and quickly.”
“I think we already know the best — and only — way to react to this. Lucas needs to distance himself from the company,” Lucas’s PR specialist, Oscar Jones, spoke up. “The press is going to have a field day with the news anyway. If he’s even close to this, they’ll think he’s guilty.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” Lucas protested. “I had no idea this was going on.” His hands balled into fists. He wanted nothing more than to upend the large oak conference table around which they were sitting. Even the view of LA outside the expansive picture window didn’t bring him the satisfaction it usually did. Not today.
“We know that,” Oscar said calmly. “The police know that. But the press don’t, and the facts don’t matter as much as the headlines.”
“I want to talk to Jim,” Lucas said. “Before we make any decisions, I want to talk to him. I need to know what he was thinking. I need to ask him how he could do this.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Oscar said. At the same moment, Elise shook her head.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Adams is already in custody, so it won’t be possible to talk to him for a while. And more than distancing yourself from Omegron, you need to distance yourself fromhim. You need to make it clear to everyone that you didn’t know what he was doing.”
“OfcourseI didn’t know what he was doing.” Lucas got to his feet and began to pace. As he did so, he ran one hand through his short brown hair, a habit from his college days that showed his frustration. “Do we know how much he took? Or how long this was happening?”
“Not yet,” Elise said. “More information will come with time.”
“I’ve already asked the accountants to go through everything.” Lucas shook his head, his blue eyes flashing with annoyance. “I just can’t believe this was happening right under my nose. And I can’t believe Jim would do this to me.” He turned back to the people assembled at the conference table. “How could he do this?”
“Again, Mr. Chambers, this is why you need to stay away from the press,” Elise restated. “You’re clearly agitated and with good reason. This must feel like a betrayal.”
“Of course it is.” Lucas stopped his pacing and slumped back into his chair. “I’ve known Jim since college. He was the first person I wanted to work with me when I started Omegron. And now I find out that he’s been defrauding the company behind my back? Probably for years? What could that be other than a betrayal?”
“I have to agree with Elise on this,” Oscar said. “You need to take a step back. Be out of the spotlight for a while.”
“What does that even mean?” Lucas snapped. Immediately, he realized he’d spoken too harshly and pulled back. “I’m sorry, Oscar. I know this isn’t your fault. It’s just a lot to deal with.”
“I recommend getting out of LA for a bit,” Oscar said. “Even out of the country, if possible. Otherwise, you’ll have journalists following your every move trying to get a soundbite out of you, and that isn’t what we want right now.”
The thought of leaving his precious company in such a precarious state turned Lucas’s stomach, but he knew Oscar had a point. He could step back for a day or two. Taking a deep breath, he sank back into his chair. “How long? How long do I need to leave the country for?”
“A few weeks, probably,” another member of the PR team spoke up. “Until things blow over.”
“I can’t do that.” Lucas shook his head. “I’ve never taken a day off, not since I started Omegron. I can’t just walk away when things are at their worst, not for more than a few days.” Without him, the company would probably crash and burn.
“I don’t see any other option,” Oscar said. “And we’ll have to delay the launch of the SolPhone 3, for sure. Launching a new product right now would look like you’re trying to cover this up.”
Lucas sighed. He knew his PR team had a point, but this was hard to accept. Today was meant to be the launch day of a new revolutionary phone that Omegron had spent the past two years perfecting. It was supposed to be a triumphant occasion and a culmination of a lot of hard work. Instead, Lucas had come into the office to find it crawling with FBI and police officers, and Jim, his business partner, being hauled away in handcuffs.
“You’re right.” He sighed again. “I know you are.”
“The company will be in good hands while you’re gone,” his CTO, who had remained silent until now, put in. “We know exactly how you do things, and we’ll keep everything on track.”
Lucas managed a nod, but his stomach twisted again. He didn’t trust anyone with Omegron. The person he’d come closest to trusting was Jim, who he’d appointed as CFO, and that had turned out terribly. Leaving the company now felt like abandoning everything he’d spent the last decade building. But his team was right. Staying here would open him up to more media scrutiny and, in the worst case, make it look like he was covering things up.
“Tony,” Lucas said, turning to his assistant, “could you arrange for my private jet to fly me down to Cabo in a few hours? I’ll spend a few weeks at my house there.”
Tony looked a little pale. “I’m sorry to say it, but your jet is out of commission at the moment. It’s been locked down, along with the rest of Omegron’s assets, until the investigation is complete.”
