The Men Who Walked Out novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Board

The boardroom at Larkin had a glass wall onto the open floor, and by ten o'clock half the staff were standing along it.

Nobody had told them to.

Ten directors sat around the long table, with Rosalind at the head and Gordon at her right in the same dark jacket.

Brent sat three chairs down from him, not looking at me.

I took the chair at the foot, where the secretary usually sat.

"Item one," my mother said. "A family matter that affects the company."

She stood.

"Gordon Wray is Daphne's biological father. I intend to correct the record, and I'm asking the board to approve a change of her name on the trust."

Nobody in the room moved.

Gordon's face lost every drop of color.

"Rose," he said. "I didn't agree to this."

"You didn't have to. It's true."

"It's true. It isn't yours to say in a room like this."

"I'll say it where I like," Mom said.

I stood up, and my chair rolled back into the wall.

"My name is Daphne Bradstreet," I said. "My father is Gerard Bradstreet."

"Sit down, Daphne."

"He held me in a hospital hallway when I was an hour old, and he threw his cigarettes in the trash. He carried a bracelet in his wallet for twenty-nine years."

"He signed the divorce papers himself," Mom said. "He isn't here."

The door opened behind her.

Dad came in wearing his good grey jacket, with Elliot half a step behind him.

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