I Married My Fiancé's Uncle novel · Chapter 27 of 32

Chapter 27: Midnight

Laurence laughed, high and short.

"We close on the second," he said. "You'll have the land on the second. Everything's on schedule."

"The land belongs to your aunt," the developer said. "Alone. I just heard her husband gave her his half in a tea room."

"The lawsuit..."

"Was your idea." He didn't raise his voice.

"You told me the marriage was a stunt and the chair was in on the sale. You told me the deposit was in escrow."

He looked around at six hundred people in evening clothes.

"I'm sixty-four years old," he said. "I don't buy buildings from men who can't control a coat check."

The two men in dark overcoats had come back in from State Street.

They stood at the foot of the grand staircase, one on each side, with their hands folded.

Laurence looked at them, and then at his mother.

Priscilla was looking at her plate.

The older cousin rang her little brass bell.

"The tabled motion," she said. "Removal of Felix Bancroft as chair. Directors, all in favor?"

Laurence's hand went halfway up.

It was the only one.

He looked across the tables at the three lunch women. None of them would look back.

He put it down.

"Against?"

Nine hands went up. Priscilla's stayed in her lap. Felix's stayed at his side.

"The motion fails," the cousin said. "I have another."

She didn't consult a paper.

"Removal of Laurence Bancroft as president of Bancroft's, effective now. All in favor?"

Hands went up at the directors' tables, in a ripple.

Then, slowly, so did the younger cousin's.

Then one of the lunch women's.

Then all three.

"Carried," the cousin said. "Ten."

Somebody at the crew's table whooped, and the old electrician shushed them, delighted.

"And Priscilla," the cousin said.

Priscilla looked up for the first time.

"The shareholders elect this board," the cousin said to the room. "Every one of them is standing in this atrium."

"You heard the investigator. Does anyone here want Priscilla Bancroft to keep her seat?"

Nobody moved.

"Then raise your hand if you'd like her to give it up tonight."

The hands went up across the marble.

Hundreds of them, glittering, under the flying reindeer.

Priscilla stood.

She picked up her black evening bag and her camel coat from the back of her chair.

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