“You didn’t mention it when we spoke yesterday.”
“I didn’t realize you needed to know.”
“I’m your attorney, and you’re in the middle of a huge deal. I need to know everything. But the intruder makes me wonder…” Richard’s tone was pensive. “Did you know Lena Monroe is back?”
Just the sound of the woman’s name had acid pooling in Noah’s stomach. “She called me this morning.”
“Just up and called you like you were old friends?”
“Like nothing ever happened. Like she hadn’t ruined my life.”
The older man blew out a breath. “She’s three pickles shy of a quart, that one. But I still say she did you a favor.”
Noah wasn’t going to admit that, not even to Richard.
“You don’t s’pose it was her in your house the other night, do you?”
Lena? His home invader? The woman had some bizarre idea that the two of them belonged together, but breaking and entering? “To what end?”
“No telling with someone like her,” he said. “Whoever your invader was, the board got wind of it…all of it. The article, Charlotte, the cops. It’s causing some…disruption.”
Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. The merger of Noah’s company, MidAtlantic Analytics, with a logistics company out of Norfolk was supposed to be straightforward. Noah’s new AI integration would be customized to work with Tidewater’sexisting infrastructure. The merger would fortify Tidewater’s position in the market and secure MidAtlantic’s place as an innovative leader. And, more importantly for Noah, provide him enough margin in his life to raise a four-year-old without risking his father’s legacy.
“What kind of concerns?” he asked. “None of this has anything to do with MidAtlantic?—”
“The board’s wondering if you’re more interested in being in the spotlight than running a company.”
As if he’d ever craved the spotlight. That had been Marianne’s obsession, not his. “By ‘they,’” Noah guessed, “you mean Lowell, right?”
“His voice is loudest, but he’s not the only one expressing doubt. Nadine suggested you’ve been really distracted lately. Now that they know about Charlotte, at least I can explain that away.”
“I don’t want you using my niece as an excuse.”
“She’s not an ‘excuse,’ Noah. She’s a reason, a very sound reason, for why you haven’t gotten them everything they’ve asked for.”
They’d demanded financials going back years. He was working on compiling all the information they required, but between caring for Charlotte and running his company…
“Lowell convinced the board to look at other AI companies before committing.”
Noah stifled his frustration. “He’s been looking for any excuse to call it off.” Lowell Jeffries used to be Noah’s best friend. Just one more person he’d lost when his life had blown up a couple of years before. “I hired a new nanny, and I think this one’s going to work out. But is it too late? Do I still have a shot?” Noah’s tone was steady, even if his nerves felt anything but.
“If they call it off, I have no doubt Lowell will give you the news himself.”
Noah covered the speaker and blew out his fear.Thank God.
Let this merger happen, please.
“Just don’t feed the rumor mill, stay out of the paper, and keep your head down until we get those papers signed.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
“I know most of this has been out of your control.”
The understatement of the year.
“Please, just…do what you can.”
Noah desperately needed the merger to go through, to save his family home and his father’s legacy—so he could focus on being a good parent to a little girl who had nobody else.
