He Didn't Know She Was the Heiress novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Door Is Behind You
The Fairbanks ballroom held four hundred people on Saturday night, and every one of them had a glass in one hand and a question in the other.
Who is the owner?
The invitations said only that the late chairman's heir would speak.
I stood in the wings in a green dress my attorney had picked, and my hands were damp.
Samson stood beside me in a black tuxedo with no tie, which was how he wore everything.
"Ready?" he said.
"No."
"Good. People who are ready give bad speeches."
I walked out onto the stage into the light.
The room hushed.
"My name is Lena Fairbanks," I said into the microphone. "My father built every hotel you're standing in. He died in May, and I didn't answer the phone for six months."
Somebody in the front row made a small sound.
"I'm answering it now. The company is mine, it's staying mine, and it is not for sale."
The applause started in the back, with the staff along the wall, and then it rolled forward.
I hadn't known I would cry, and I let myself, for a second, under the lights.
That was when the doors at the far end of the room opened.
Ethan came in with his coat over his arm and a rented tuxedo that didn't fit across the shoulders.
He was not alone.
A woman with a phone walked at his side, and behind her a man carried a camera, and the room turned to watch them come down the center aisle.
"Don't let him get to the stage," I said, low, to the security man at my elbow.
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