He Chose His First Love. I Own His Empire. novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: The Real Emerald
I wore the Christmas coat to the board meeting.
It was dark green wool, and the pouch was in the right pocket, small and heavy against my hip.
Benton pushed Odile's wheelchair down the corridor of the Aldrich Grand at five minutes to nine.
She had checked herself out of the hospital against the doctor's advice and sat very straight, with an oxygen tube across her face and her cane across her knees.
"Hold your head up," she said to me, without turning. "You've done nothing wrong."
"My stomach doesn't know that."
"Then tell it."
The ballroom doors opened.
Nine board members sat at a long table under the chandeliers.
Adaline sat at one end, in a black suit, and the family lawyer sat beside her with his briefcase.
Dalton stood at the head of the table in a navy suit, with Camille on his right.
The emerald was on her finger, and in the morning light it flashed green and cold.
Every face turned toward us.
"Grandmother," Dalton said, and his voice cracked with something that sounded very much like fear. "You shouldn't be here."
"I'm the largest shareholder in the room," Odile said. "I'll sit where I like."
Benton wheeled her to the opposite end of the table.
I took the empty chair beside her, and I felt every eye in the room come to rest on me.
"Let's begin," Dalton said, and cleared his throat. "As you know, my grandmother has been ill. In light of her condition, and in the company's interest, I move that I be named acting chairman, with the Aldrich Trust's vote to be exercised on her behalf."
"On whose authority?" asked an old man halfway down the table.
He had run a jewelry house for forty years before he joined the board, and he sat with his hands folded on his cane.
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