I hesitated. “My only saving grace is Jane’s mother, Nora. She’ll vote in our favor. She won’t let the sale go through, but I’m not putting all my eggs in that one basket.”
Charlotte made a thoughtful noise. “You’re not sure about her?”
“Harlan made some points I can’t ignore.”
“And if she doesn’t vote in your favor, it becomes a knife fight,” Charlotte said carefully.
“Yep.”
“Okay,” she said briskly. “Trent isn’t going to like the rush on this, but I’ll talk to him.”
“He’ll listen,” I said. “Troy will want into Thayer and Trent knows opportunities like this don’t come around every day.”
She hummed. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing.”
That mattered more than I wanted to admit. “Thanks.”
“Oh, but Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“If this all blows up and you end up living in a cabin with no Wi-Fi, I call dibs on the guest room.”
Despite everything else going on, I smiled. “Noted.”
As we hung up, I felt marginally better. At least the plan was starting to come together. Nora would vote with us, but if the board thought they could blindside my wife, they were about to learn exactly how far I was willing to go—and that I would never, ever, just roll over and give up when it was my family they were coming after.
CHAPTER 41
JANE
Ifollowed Wyatt to the living room, where he sprawled out on the couch and kicked his feet up on the coffee table, despite Mom’s standing rule about shoes and furniture.Fucking teenagers, man.
Biting back a reprimand that came almost as easily at this point as breathing, I watched him pull his phone out and start scrolling with aggressive intent, thumbs stabbing the screen like he was trying to bruise it.
“I thought we were going to talk,” I said, perching on the arm of the couch across from him. “Can you put your phone away, please?”
He didn’t look up. “There’s nothing to talk about, Jane. I don’t get why you keep asking me about it.”
Nothing to talk about? How about the way you flinch every time my husband breathes in your direction. The way you look at me like I betrayed you. The knot that’s been in my chest for weeks because you refuse to speak to me.
“Why don’t we talk about the fact that you’ve been acting like I ran over your dog and take it from there?”
He rolled his eyes but finally looked up, his shoulders already squared for a fight.God, he looks so young like that.
Convinced the world was out to screw him over personally.
“I’m not acting like you ran over my dog. I’m not the one who’s being weird. You’re the one who—” He cut himself off, scoffing. “Whatever.”
I moved from the arm of the couch, settling in for a longer conversation on the armchair Mom loved and I never used. “You know I wasn’t having an affair, Wyatt.”
His mouth twisted. “Yeah. I know thatnow.”
“But you’re still angry.”
“Because you didn’t tell me,” he shot back. “I had to figure it out myself. Like an idiot.”
“That’s not fair.”
