The Queen Reborn: Claiming What's Mine novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: Say It in Public

The lawsuit was withdrawn on Friday, as promised.

On Monday evening, Ronan took her to dinner at a steakhouse where the tables were far apart and the lamps were low.

"It's a business meeting," he said at the door.

"Then why are we alone?"

"Because the investors canceled. They're afraid of your name now."

"That's good," Cora said.

"It's very good," Ronan said.

A waiter showed them to a corner booth by the window.

Rain had started again outside, light and steady.

Cora ordered the cheapest steak on the menu, and Ronan ordered two of the most expensive and told the waiter to bring her whichever she wanted.

She was halfway through her water when her phone lit up.

It was a business news alert, and she turned the screen toward herself under the table.

KEANE CAPITAL RAISES STAKE IN MADDOX SYSTEMS TO 22 PERCENT. The filing was dated last Tuesday, nine forty-one in the morning.

Cora read the time.

Then she read it again.

At nine forty-one last Tuesday she had been sitting in a gray car outside her own gate, with her tote on her knees.

"You bought more," she said.

Ronan did not pretend not to understand.

"Yes."

"The morning I left. While I was in your car." She laid the phone flat on the table. "You raised your stake in the company I built, on the day he threw me out, using what you knew about me."

"Yes."

"You didn't tell me."

"No."

Her voice dropped, and went hard.

"Is that what this is? You buy the thing he undervalued, and then you buy the person who wrote it?"

"I bought the shares because I wanted to own the part of him that would feel it," Ronan said. "I didn't buy you."

"It looks like you did."

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