The Girl They Forgot to Love novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: What Tobias Did

I read the release three times on the receptionist's phone.

Then I took off my badge, told the hygienist I was taking my lunch early, and drove to the Brannigan tower.

The all-staff announcement was at one o'clock in the forty-first floor atrium.

The lobby guard knew me from the video. He looked at my scrubs and my face, and he swiped me up without a word.

About ninety people stood in rows under the glass ceiling, holding paper cups.

Rowan stood at the front beside a podium, with Tobias at his right in a clean blue suit.

I stayed by the back wall, behind a pillar.

"I'm proud to introduce our new Chief Financial Officer," Rowan said. "My brother has taken a hard year and turned it into purpose."

There was polite applause.

Tobias walked up to the podium and put a folded paper down on it.

He didn't unfold it.

"I was supposed to read you a statement," he said. "It says I think the photo of my brother's legal pad was a joke."

Rowan's smile held.

"It wasn't a joke," Tobias said. "My brother Pierce practiced my sister's signature thirty-one times, and then he forged it on a paper that gave Rowan her vote."

A paper cup slid out of someone's hand and hit the floor.

"Tobias," Rowan said, lightly. "Let's not do this here."

"You told me to say it was a joke," Tobias said. "You told me you'd pay off my loan. You said you'd put my name on the door."

His voice shook. He took out his phone and set it against the microphone.

"This is you, in the corridor yesterday."

Rowan's voice came out of the speaker, warm and clear. It said: Say it was a joke, say you were drunk. Lizzie won't ask you for anything. She never has.

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