For someone as angry as Colson, I assumed Lush would be his target. A place where he could let off some steam. Where he could take out his feelings, even if he wasn’t taking them out on me.
That was why I stayed, why I refused to get up from this seat.
What if Colson pulled himself out of bed, unable to sleep, and he decided to come here?
What if he had an event that was let out late?
By two in the morning, I ran out of what-ifs and faced the hard truth. Colson wasn’t coming.
TWENTY-NINE
COLSON
Troy sat at the head of the conference room table on the executive floor of the Daltons’ law firm, his hands clasped over several files, and Jenner was next to him. My entire family was spread around the rest of the oversize oval, minus Beck, who was on a stretch of away games.
Troy gave Jenner a brief look before he said, “We believe we have a case.”
“Thank fucking God,” I groaned.
Since the Gordons’ PR stunt several days ago, things had been fucking brutal. Eden, who considered herself a realist rather than having an unwavering positive attitude, became more convinced by the hour that we wouldn’t be able to turn things around. Beck’s contribution was a slew offuuucks in the family group chat. Hart was working the media angle and trying to stay optimistic. Since we were in limbo with our legal team, deciding whether this was worth pursuing, Hart participated in multiple interviews. He didn’t call the Gordons liars.He wasn’t about to make anything worse. But he was responding to comments and attempting to calm the storm. Walker, the most negative of the group—and we loved him for that—was drinking his face off, just as we’d anticipated. I was somewhere halfway between Eden and Walker, keeping a bottle of vodka close by while overseeing Hart’s efforts to make sure his public stance was in line with what Troy and Jenner had suggested. The last thing I needed was for him to go rogue during a live broadcast. I’d just done that with a flask hidden in my pocket.
And every time I thought of her, every time her name was mentioned, every time I thought I saw her, my brain fucking with me, I took a sip.
“There’s a chance the judge will toss out the case,” Troy admitted, his blue eyes gazing across the room to hit each of us. “I don’t know if you’re going to be awarded the millions we’re going to sue them for, but I’m telling you right now, we’re going to fight like hell.”
“The second we file, there’s going to be another media shitstorm.” Jenner held the base of his tie and turned his neck to the left and right. “When that happens, I don’t want you discussing anything with the public. Let Troy and me do all the talking for you.” He focused on Hart. “I know you’ve been the spokesman so far, but I recommend discontinuing those efforts until after we go to court.”
“So, you’re saying I should cancel the upcoming interview that I have scheduled?” Hart asked from the seat next to mine.
“If we decide to sue, yes, immediately,” Troy answered.
“And if we do that, how do you suggest we respond to the accusations?” Eden inquired. “The ones that come in through email or DMs from our social media accounts?” She sat on the other side of me, putting her at the head of the table, across from Troy.
“You don’t,” Jenner said. “We essentially want you to ignore everything.”
“That’s”—Eden exhaled—“scary.”
Walker’s chair swung back and forth while he ran his hand over his whiskers. Days’ worth of unshaved growth had accumulated below his chin, making his face and neck one long, unruly beard. “Will you explain something to me?” He was glaring at Troy. “There was an NDA on the Horned deal. How in the hell are the Gordons allowed to disclose the numbers and the negotiation that took place?”
Stats that had unfortunately hit the internet, adding more fuel to an already-blazing fire.
“The NDA you signed was with the previous owner,” Troy said to him. “The Gordons didn’t have one.”
“But how do they know the details,” Walker pressed, “when the only people privy to those numbers are the ones in this room and the previous owner?”
“The previous owner or her attorney must have told the Gordons—that’s the only conclusion I can draw,” Troy replied. “Which means they broke their NDA, but we’ll never be able to prove that. There are too many loopholes.”
I reached for my collar. The top of my polo was already unbuttoned even though it felt like it was strangling me. “I wonder just how much she was paid for that information.”
“Those assholes,” Walker muttered.
The room went quiet until Eden voiced, “What if we lose?” She had her glasses on today, thick black frames that sat high on her nose. “What if our efforts are for nothing and we end up making fools of ourselves? We already look bad, Troy. We don’t want to look worse.”
“That’s always a risk whenever someone files suit.” Troy stared at her, rubbing his lips together. “But I have a good feeling about this. Regardless of being public companies, yourcompetition made a verbal play to ruin your reputation. We just need the judge to see it that way.”
I leaned back in my seat, the beating of my heart making me rock the frame. “What if we sayfuck itand just buy them out?”
That was a conversation Eden and I’d had yesterday. An idea she had come up with during this fucking nightmare. One that we only discussed between us. We hadn’t presented it to the rest of the family. We wanted to have this meeting first. But now that we were here, I was curious what Troy’s and Jenner’s stance would be.
