One Kiss, the Billionaire's Bride novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Vote
There was flour on Holbrook's lapel when they walked into the boardroom.
Bryony saw three directors notice it, and one of them look away to hide a smile.
She had no time to be embarrassed.
Lyle sat at the head of the black glass table again, and this time nobody told him to move.
"Cousin," he said. "I'm glad you could join us for your own removal."
"Call it."
"The motion before the board is simple. Holbrook Draper has misled this company about his marriage. I move that he be removed as chief executive, effective today."
"Second," said a director on his left.
Cordelia sat against the wall with her cane across her knees.
Her lawyer stood beside her with a leather folder.
"Before we vote," Lyle said, "I'd like the stockholders to see one thing."
He nodded to his own lawyer, who passed a sheet of paper down the table.
It reached Bryony last.
She knew it before she read it.
It was a copy of her mother's bank slip.
THE DRAPER FAMILY TRUST. $400,000. 12 SEPTEMBER.
"Four hundred thousand dollars," Lyle said, "paid to Rosalind Ridley six weeks before the two of them met. For what?"
The directors leaned in.
"For the bride," Lyle said. "My cousin didn't marry a woman. He bought one. And if the marriage is purchased, the stock that comes with it is tainted. I ask that my cousin's wife be recused from this vote."
Bryony put the sheet down on the table very gently.
Her ears were ringing.
She remembered every second of that dinner at the lake house, her mother's fork and her mother's pearls, and her own voice saying you sold me.
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