Worried flickered behind his eyes as he held my gaze. “If Jane is going to be CEO, even with you and possibly me taking the vacant board seat and investing to carry a single vote in Jane’s favor, Nora still has to vote with you.”
Harlan finished for him. “Otherwise, you don’t have majority.”
The room went quiet again, but only for a few seconds before Sterling finally nodded. “I’ll invest and take the seat, but I’m not doing this blind. Nora has to be managed. Carefully. Closely.”
Managed. Christ.
My dad rubbed his hands together and stood up out of the armchair he’d been occupying. “This is all very dramatic. Is anyone else hungry?”
I stared at him. “You’re unbelievable.”
“I’m coping,” he said. “It’s how I survive.”
Eventually, after a quick lunch with my cousins and our dads, the conversation wound down. Harlan clapped me on the shoulder, Sterling promised to follow up with Zach, and Jameson talked about looping Colin in once things were official, but I left my dad’s house with that same bad taste lingering in my mouth, snow crunching under my shoes as I walked to the car.
Jane deserved better than this. Better than a board salivating over a sellout. Better than a mother who might or might not choose her. Better than having to carry everyone else’s weight just because she was capable of doing it.
As I climbed into my car, my phone buzzed and I smiled when her name lit up my screen.
Jane: Wyatt ate all the cereal and put the box back in the cupboard empty. I’m considering pressing charges.
I laughed out loud, my fingers flying across the screen to reply before I turned over my engine.
Me: I’ll have Zach draft the paperwork.
When I drove away from my father’s house, the knot in my stomach finally loosened just a little. I couldn’t fix everything that was wrong in her life. I couldn’t force or buy her mother’s loyalty and I couldn’t go back in time to make the woman be a proper mother either, but Jane had me now.
No matter if it meant navigating mothers, boards, and brothers with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, I was in. Fully.
And together, somehow, we’d figure it out. At least we could do that now that we knew what might be coming.
CHAPTER 33
JANE
By the time the office started emptying out, the sky outside had turned that bruised-blue color it only ever did right before heavy rain rolled in. I hurried back to my office from the copy room, knowing exactly where I wanted to be by the time the storm hit.
Thankfully, I was already wrapping up my workday. All I had to do was answer the last of my emails and I’d be home free. As I sat down behind my desk, however, Colin appeared in my doorway.
He didn’t knock, but he never did, just sauntering in and shutting the door behind him. “Are you busy?”
I didn’t look up. “That’s never the right question.”
He laughed. “That’s fair. You’re always busy, but do you have a minute?”
“For you, I can make one.” I finished the sentence I was typing, sent the email, and finally glanced up at him. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” he said, which immediately told me everything I needed to know. Something was definitely up. When I arched an eyebrow at him, he caved without hesitating for even another second. “I got an email.”
My stomach tightened. “From?”
“The board,” he said. “They’re meeting next week.”
I straightened in my chair, my full attention now on him and my remaining emails forgotten. “Next week?”
He nodded. “Apparently, Sterling Westwood is being brought on to fill that vacant seat.”
For a moment, I just stared at him, but then a few of the knots that had been living in my muscles for years loosened. A pinch of relief spiraled through me as I absorbed the news. Sterling coming here meant that there was movement.
