Page 41 of What Maple Heard

Kyle relaxed slightly.

“He is a terrific businessman.” I looked at the board. “We worked hard together on these projections. Kyle has a great business instinct. He has been through genuinely difficult times — his company went through a rough period, as you all know — but he fought his way back. When he came to me with this plan, I backed him immediately. I gave him my full support.”

I locked eyes with Kyle.

He smiled at me. Grateful and warm and completely unsuspecting.

I smiled back.

I turned to the board.

“He is a promising businessman,” I said. “But he is a backstabbing, lying, and deeply untrustworthy friend.” I kept my voice completely level. “He is also a selfish man who is willing to go to whatever lengths he needs to in order to get what he wants. He can manipulate anyone. His best friend. The woman his best friend loves. And if given the chance, the people in this room who are considering funding his business.”

The room went very quiet.

Kyle’s chair scraped back slightly. “Cade — what are you—“

“I’m talking about you,” I said. I turned to face him directly. “I’m talking about you and your sister engineering a situation to benefit yourselves. Orchestrating situations, pressing every button I had about my parents and their expectations and the Sonnenberg name, one after another, until you had me saying exactly what you needed me to say.” I looked at him. “And then making sure the only woman who has ever mattered to me was standing on the other side of the door to hear it.”

Kyle’s face had gone red. “Cade, let’s talk about this later—“

“I think now is fine.”

“This is not — you don’t understand—“

“I understand exactly.” I kept my voice even. “You did it so I would end things with Maple. You did it so I would turn to Sapphire. And you did it because if I married Sapphire, you would get a larger connection to my father’s business and my company.” I tilted my head. “Did I miss anything?”

“That is not — Cade, come on, you know I would never—“

“I heard you on the phone, Kyle.”

Kyle closed his mouth.

The room was completely silent.

I turned back to the board.

“As managing director of Sonnenberg Industries,” I said, “I am advising against funding this project.” I looked at each of them in turn. “My father built this company on one principle above everything else. Integrity. Not profit. Not growth projections. That is what this company’s name means in this town and in this country. And I will not attach that name to a man who does not have it.”

I sat down.

There was a long pause.

One of the oldest members of the board — Wilfred, who had been with my father since the beginning and who I had known my entire life — looked at Kyle.

“I think,” Wilfred said pleasantly, “that you should leave.”

Kyle looked at me one more time, picked up his laptop and walked out. The door closed behind him.

Wilfred turned to me.

“Whether you had said any of what you just said or not,” he began, “I want you to know that this board was already deeply uncertain about this project.” He placed his hand on the table. “Kyle Griffin has a reputation in business circles that precedes him. Untrustworthy is the word I have heard most often. Your whole family has stood by the Griffins through some genuinely difficult years. We are aware of that. The board has always respected the loyalty.” He paused. “But we are not compelled to fund a bad investment out of loyalty to a family friend. And after what you have told us today about what he did to you personally—“ He shook his head. “That will not be overlooked.”

I nodded.

“The answer was going to be no regardless,” Wilfred said simply.

The other board members murmured their agreement.