Her Fiancé Sent His Twin, She Chose the Brother She Loved novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: One Dollar

The board met at two that afternoon in the boardroom on the sixth floor.

It has a table for twenty and a view of a parking structure.

Seven board members sat down one side of it.

The chair sat at the head, in gray, with a leather folder and a pen.

Victor stood at the other end in the blue jacket with his hands folded.

I sat in a chair against the wall, where the chair had asked me to sit.

"Ms. Bell is here as a witness," she had said. "Not as a vote, and not as an advocate."

Sal sat beside me with his blanket and his tea, and his eyes were already damp.

"Mr. Aston," the chair said. "You did not apply for this position."

"No, ma'am."

"You have run our plants for eleven years. You have been passed over for every title that was given to your brother. Why would you want it now?"

"I'm not sure I do," Victor said.

A board member dropped his pen.

"I'd like to be honest about that. I like the plants. I like the test kitchen. I like knowing the names of the people on the line."

"But?"

"But I watched this company nearly get run by a man who counted everyone and knew nobody."

He stopped.

I saw his hands tighten, and I knew that look.

It was the look he gets just before he reaches for something funny.

"I'm told the board is looking for a settled family," he said. "I'm a man who sleeps on a couch and keeps a cot at work. So that's an asset."

Nobody laughed.

He looked down the table at me.

I raised one eyebrow, very slightly, and held up a single finger on my knee.

It meant one dollar.

He closed his eyes for half a second.

"That was a dodge," he said, to the chair. "I'm sorry. I do that. I've done it since I was nine."

"Please continue."

"I'd be good at this because I remember what people tell me once. A line cook's daughter's name. That a driver's knee is bad on the cold mornings. That the person you work with takes her tea steeped three minutes."

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