And I had receipts.
Thanks to Amy and Faith and Amy’s crack team of investigators. Her law firm had a section that dealt solely with insurance and fraud cases. After I’d had my epiphany that I was a supreme moron and I couldn’t live without Faith, I’d called Amy andengaged her firm to go all in. it had only taken them a week to uncover everything. If I’d known they would be so efficient, I would’ve done it a lot sooner.
So, tonight wasn’t just for announcing my future—the world wasdyingto know because there weren’t more important things to report on than some rich guy’s business plans. I kept my eyeroll to myself. Tonight was, in part, for righting my reputation. But more importantly, it was for Faith. I wanted her to know she was valued, trusted, and important, no matter what her mother, my father, Victoria, and any other boneheaded imbecile had to say. I wanted the world to know what an amazing person she was. It was time someone truly stood up and backed her.
That someone was me.
If it wasn’t enough for her to forgive me, I didn’t care. I just wanted her to have everything she deserved. Okay… I did care if she didn’t forgive me, but I would never give up trying to win her back. Unless she told me I was creeping her out. Then I’d leave it alone. I swallowed at the horrific prospect.
Don’t think of that now.
Right. I needed all my confidence to sell this and to deal with the fallout that would be coming my way. My father and Victoria would be out for blood. If my father disliked me before, he was about to hate me. Any thin thread of a relationship we’d had was about to be destroyed. I was cutting him and his toxicity loose. It had taken me too long to realize, but when he went after Faith, he’d crossed a line. I would do anything to have her in my life for the rest of my life. She was more important than my father, than my job, than anything.
A flash of sadness at how it would affect the rest of my family flared through my body. I had to trust they’d deal with it one way or another. I knew my siblings would stand by me, but my mother… well, she was in a difficult situation, right in the middle. Aunt Stephanie had chosen my side and was ready for the fallout. She’d apologized profusely when I presented my evidence against Victoria. The fact she’d kept my secret from my father about tonight showed I could trust her now. She also admitted that she hadn’t wanted to go along with my father, but her own job had been at risk.
What a piece of shit that man was. Family meant nothing to him.
I shook off those thoughts and ran a hand down my tie. I took a deep breath.
It was time.
My reason for being here was watching. The brave woman who gave everything and asked for nothing. She peered at me, uncertainty on her face. I met her glorious gaze and took strength from it.
This is for you, my beautiful Faith.This is for all the times people have let you down.
“Good evening, everyone. As my Aunt Steph said, welcome, and thanks for coming. As you all know, the past few months for me as CEO of Knight Advertising have been… interesting. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I’m no longer CEO. That title goes to theresourcefulVictoria Worthington.” I smiled as if it didn’t bother me. There was uncomfortable murmuring in the crowd. Victoria sat up straighter and preened, her smile oblivious to the few angry looks being shot her way—mostly from Faith’s table. I also noticed a few rolled eyes, mainly from Faith’s friends in marketing. I imagined Victoria hadn’t been making life easy for anyone. Unlike Victoria, my father’s impassive face gave nothing away. My mother chewed the side of her bottom lip, her “worried” tell. She was probably thinking about how it had all affected me. My siblings shared curious looks—they didn’t know what I’d planned. I didn’t want them involved. Even though I was ready to drop an ACME anvil on my relationship with my father, they might not be ready. I wanted them clear of repercussions.
Because there would be many.
No one made a fool of my father and got away with it. But he only had himself to blame, so I had no sympathy. I could’ve gone to him with this information myself, but he hadn’t thought twice about publicly shaming me in the media as being incompetent. And he was always telling me I wasn’t ruthless enough, so I was only taking his advice. I’d ditched all my ruth and was totally without it. Definitely no ruth here.
“So, what are my plans, you may ask?” I smiled, a bit of evil slipping into it. Faith’s brow furrowed. She could tell something unexpected was coming, that I was zigging before I zagged, because she knew me. No one else had picked up on that fact. That she knew me so well filled my heart. If she could read my expressions, she’d believe me when I told her I loved her. Whether she wanted to hear that or not was another story.
Ignoring the fearful thud of my pulse in my neck, I forced my tone to joviality. “Well, you’ll have to wait a few minutes longer to find out.”
A few people chuckled.
I nodded to Aunt Steph who held the projector controller. She pressed a button and the screen behind and above me lit up with a collage of four images. Everyone’s heads tipped back slightly as they peered at the large screen. “The picture on the top to your left is Knight Advertising’s Victoria Worthington and her friend Amanda McCormack in their second year of college.” While everyone stared at the screen, I stared at Faith. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open slightly. What must she be thinking? Was she in pain at the memory of the betrayal of Mark and Amanda, or had she recovered? She would definitely be wondering what the heck I was doing.
“You’ll see the picture next to that is Victoria and Amanda at Victoria’s twenty-fifth birthday.” I was at that party too. I’d known Amanda only distantly, as Victoria didn’t tend to mix friendgroups. It hadn’t struck me until Amy sent me particulars that Amanda McCormack—Victoria’s friend—was the same Amanda McCormack, partner of one of our competitors. Piranha Media hadn’t come up on my radar much until now. They were too small to worry about. Or they had been. Since poaching our clients, they’d improved their clout and had attained even more high-profile clients. All thanks to Victoria.
The question was why.
I was about to answer it.
“The next picture is Victoria and Amanda at lunch two years ago. And, finally, Victoria and Amanda at Mark’s birthday party a few months ago. Amanda’s boyfriend, Mark.” The same Mark who’d helped try to destroy Faith’s future and my reputation. Red-hot anger flowed like lava through my arteries, giving me all the energy I needed to keep going even though my father’s jaw was set and Victoria’s face pale. One of them was sure to object soon. Not that my father knew what had really been going on right under his self-important snout. “You can see how close the two are. You might be interested to know that there are currently plans on the table for Knight Advertising to acquire Piranha Media, at a price much inflated from it’s worth only twelve months ago.” I stared at my father as realization dawned.
He'd been played.
Victoria wanted to help her friend make money and in the meantime acquire the position she’d coveted ever since we started at Knight Advertising. Her father used to joke she’d make a great CEO one day, and she’d wondered aloud to me more than once who’d reach CEO faster—her or me.
It was hard to tell in the low light, but my father could’ve turned a shade of ketchup. Victoria’s mouth was clamped tight, and by the way she was jerking her gaze from the screen to the door on the far side of the room, she was calculating whether she wanted to stay to hear the rest of the damning evidence or leavewhile she was still a free woman. The joke was on her though as the FBI were outside, waiting. I’d called on a favor from a friend to review all our evidence ASAP. Aunt Steph was ready to order Knight lawyers to press fraud charges, and I was suing her for slander and defamation and bringing charges of conspiracy to defraud. She and Piranha gained from me being fired, and I lost, big time.
The next picture that appeared on the screen was the first page of the document that outlined the terms of Knight’s buyout of Piranha.
Victoria jumped up. “It’s all lies!” she shouted. “You can’t trust Curt. He’s a liar and a sore loser. I’m the better CEO, and everyone knows it. You’re pathetic, Curt.” My sister frowned and wiped her face—probably hit by furious Victoria spittle.
My family stared at her, except Jack, who turned, smiled, and gave me a thumbs-up. I returned his smile. The table of reporters in the middle of the room were all typing furiously on their phones like teens at a family gathering, and a couple of them were filming the whole thing. Yep, this would be front page tomorrow. No one could resist a juicy drama.
