Marrying My Ex's Boss novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Emergency

There were three news vans on Liberty Avenue by nine.

Truman drove past the front entrance and into the garage, and a security guard I had never met lowered his eyes to my shoes.

"Say the word," Truman said in the elevator, "and we walk out."

"I'll sign the votes over to my mother in the lobby."

"No."

"Claire."

"I didn't write that napkin to hide it," I said. "I wrote it so I'd have somewhere to stand."

The doors opened on fifteen.

The boardroom was full.

Eight board members sat in their chairs.

Honoria sat at the head this time, in black, with her cane laid across the table.

The trust's lawyer sat at her elbow.

Colin stood near the wall by the projector cart, in his navy suit, with his hands folded over his belt.

He looked like a man at a funeral he'd paid for.

A printed copy of the email lay in front of every chair, with the photograph of the napkin in the middle of the page.

"Mr. Shaw," said Honoria. "Mrs. Shaw. Sit down."

"I'll stand," I said.

The room waited.

I had not planned a speech.

I'd planned to be sick in the elevator, and then I had not been.

"The napkin is real," I said.

A board member near the window said, "Good God."

"I wrote it. It took me four minutes, and the pen was his."

"I wrote six terms in capitals because I always write contracts in capitals."

"Ms. Adair," said Honoria.

"Mrs. Shaw. Please let me finish."

I put my hands on the back of the empty chair.

"I won't read you all six, Mrs. Shaw. Term three, I take no money from him."

"You can look at my account. It has two thousand one hundred and fourteen dollars in it."

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