Chase swears under his breath and Whitney gasps audibly next to me as her pen falls onto the table. She leans forward so she can get a better view of the photos. I flip through the pictures, catching sight of Whitney and myself at my mother’s gala, my eyes looking ravenous as I stare at her in her purple dress. In another one we’re out to dinner and her head is tossed back as she laughs at something I must’ve said. And finally, the last one, the two of us standing out on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. I’m cupping her jaw tenderly as I tilt her face up so I can kiss her deeply.
Clearing my throat, I toss the photos back into the center ofthe table. A few of the other board members lean forward so they can see what Elena has brought forward.
“Did you have us followed?” I ask her, my voice level.
“It was brought to my attention that there may have been some less than professional behavior coming from our CEO, so yes. I had someone look into it,” Elena says, tipping her head up so she’s looking down at me from across the table.
I fold my hands and lean forward. I can feel Whitney’s eyes on me as she waits for how I’ll handle this situation. “My love life is not up for speculation at this present moment.”
Elena laughs humorlessly. “So, you can accuse me, but you can’t take it when I turn the tables on you? I see.”
“This is not the same thing.” I motion to the pictures. “You have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from this company, and the game is over. You’re done here.”
Elena swiftly snaps her notebook folder shut and stands. “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe you’d accuse us of such a horrendous crime. Expect to see termination papers on your desk by the end of the day, Mr. Hurst. We can’t possibly have someone in charge of this company who is willing to behave in such a manner.”
“Actually,” I halt her in her tracks. “I believe those will be directed to you, Elena. There are FBI agents waiting outside for you. I can’t say I’d recommend putting up much of a fight; I hear that doesn’t always work in your favor.”
Elena’s face pales, and her chin quivers before she tilts her head up at me, glaring down her long, pointy nose in my direction. “I’ll take my chances.”
With that, she walks out of the conference room as if completely unaffected by my accusations of her. I look to the other two, Maxwell and Kurt—two stuffy, old men who have no business being on the Board of my company anymore.
“That includes you two,” I say, my voice cold. They eachshare a glance, knowing they’re caught, before gathering their items and walking out of the conference room to meet the same fate.
Another heavy silence falls over the room. The remaining three members stare at me with wide, shocked eyes, but are unable to say anything at this time. I can imagine their heads are spinning at full speed currently.
I unbutton my suit jacket and sit down at the head of the table, folding my hands neatly over the smooth oak. “Well, that was exciting.”
Slowly, a few of them release nervous chuckles as if they’re unsure what to do with me now. I look to Chase and Whitney, who are watching me with equal amounts of amusement and pride. Pulling my folder with my typed-up agendas, I hand one to each of the remaining participants of the meeting, and I get started.
“I hope that this is the start of a new age where we can work together for the good of this company and its employees. I don’t want us to be at odds, but rather, working toward the same goal,” I address them.
Together, the four of us go through the process of what enlisting new members for our Board of Directors will look like, and we establish a plan moving forward. They get a chance to look over the reports I have completed as of today, and they seem pleased with all of my hard work.
As things are wrapping up, I bring one last item to the agenda. “Now that we’ve gotten through that debacle, I believe we need to address the elephant in the room,” I say. Whitney’s eyes flash to me, knowing exactly where I’m taking this. She drops her eyes down to her notes as her cheeks flush.
My brother leans back in his chair, watching the two of us with amusement, also knowing exactly where I’m taking this.
I clear my throat and address the remaining Boardmembers, who are watching me with confusion. “I’m in love with Whitney Palmer,” I announce, not beating around the bush. “And we would like to move forward with an official relationship, effective immediately.”
For the third time that day, the room grows ominously silent. The back of my neck starts to sweat a little bit, but I hold my ground.
They’ve seen the proof themselves, there’s no going back now. Not that I would, anyway.
Whitney is mine, and it’s damn well time everyone knows it.
Whitney
“See, that wasn’t so bad,”Theo admonishes me as we walk out of the building at the end of the day.
I roll my eyes at him, sure he wasn’t in the same room as I was. “It was exactly as bad as I expected it to be. Those poor people had the rug swept out from beneath themtwicetoday.”
“Well, they didn’t explicitly say no,” Theo says, urging me to see the brighter side of things.
“But they didn’t say yes either,” I point out.
He shrugs as if that’s no big deal, which I think is a little ridiculous. Sure, the Board appreciated Theo being so open and honest about the whole thing—little did they know that this relationship had been going on for months prior—but they said this was something we needed to circle back to once the remaining Board positions had been filled.
Theo is to still report our relationship to HR, but whether or not this is stillallowedis the big question.
