Michael’s expression took on a mean edge. “And you’ve forced us to gather here today because you have some misguided desire to give away a part of this business…which you haveneverdone anything to grow…to a nobody?”
Beside her, Josh stiffened.
Her father noticed. He wasn’t obtuse, just craven. “Is that why you knocked her up, mechanic?”
Monica’s blood ran cold. “Don’t call him that.”
“Why not? That’s all he is. A dumb car buff who tricked the right girl into spreading her—”
“Enough.” The word exploded out of Josh. Sharp. Loud. Silencing. “Do not speak about my wife that way. And I’m either dumb or conniving. You can’t have it both ways, because they have opposite meanings.”
“You can’t—”
Josh took two fast strides, stopping just in front of Michael. “I can. I will. We are equals in this room, whether you like it or not. You will never threaten her ever again. Do you fucking understand me?”
Time froze.
And Josh didn’t move a muscle.
Finally, Michael nodded. “My apologies for the indelicate suggestion.”
Josh clearly didn’t look like he accepted it. “That is your fucking daughter,” he growled. “How dare you speak to her like that?”
“Because he resents that I’m his daughter.” She sounded sad, and she wasn’t. She was accepting that her father didn’t love her the way others in her life did. She took a deep breath. “Let’s get this meeting under way, shall we?”
Everyone sat around the board table. After the meeting was called to order, Monica stood. She was going to be recognized for the first order of business, whether he liked it or not.
“I am now formally informing the board that three years ago, I got married, and due to the negligence of another board member, I was unaware I had the right to present my husband to the board as a family member. I am now claiming that right. Here is our marriage certificate.” She nodded at her lawyer, who passed around notarized copies. “And, given that this board only meets a few times a year, you can take this as my advance notice that at the next meeting, I will be notifying the board that I have had a child. I will accept a board-appointed trustee to hold that seat for my child until they turn twenty-five.” She smiled. “And I am ready to assume my own seat on the board as well.”
The other board members murmured amongst themselves, and her father’s face turned red.
Good.
He could sit on it and rotate for all she cared. Her real family now had four seats, with two ex-wives in affiliation with them, on what will soon be an eleven-seat board.
Also known as, a majority.
* * *
“Ready to go home?”
She was standing in her empty closet, where months ago, Amira told her that her name had been attached to a TikTok scandal.
She turned around.
Josh was leaning in the doorway. Backlit, he looked big and strong. Everything she’d imagined he might be when she first saw him almost four years ago.
She stretched. “Yep.”
His gaze dropped to the slight swell of her belly. “How’s our bean?”
“Active.” She crossed to him, and he curled his hand over the curve. “I can’t wait until you—”
Right on command, their little coffee bean kicked, and Josh gasped. “Hey.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s…that’s our kiddo.” He dropped to his knees and pressed his cheek to her belly. And he got kicked again.
