Queen Mom Rules novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Project Lantern

Brannigan Capital takes up three floors of a bank tower downtown, and the lobby has a fountain.

I walked past the fountain at ten past noon with my phone in my hand.

Leon was already there.

He must have left the hardware store right behind me.

He stood by the reception desk with his coat still on and his face the color of ash.

"Marlena."

"Don't."

"Let me explain."

"You'll have a chance to. I'd like these people to hear it."

I looked around.

There were about twenty people in the lobby.

Two analysts in shirtsleeves, a woman with a stack of folders, three men at the elevators with lanyards around their necks.

All of them had stopped talking.

I held up my phone.

"Project Lantern," I read. "Objective: acquire Harbor Line Inc. Method: enter through the founder's family."

I scrolled.

"Step one, extend credit to the founder's father, Albert Kettering. Step two, establish personal contact at family events."

I scrolled again.

"Step three, present the acquisition as a rescue."

The woman with the folders looked at the carpet.

"Dated March twenty-ninth," I said. "Signed, Leon Brannigan."

"I wrote that before I met you," Leon said.

"We've met three times in boardrooms. You've been in my conference room for two years."

"I wrote it before I knew you."

"Then why does it name Albert Kettering of Kettering Hardware in a footnote?"

He stopped.

"I knew who your father was in January," he said finally.

He wet his lips.

"My people pulled his name from a loan application. I knew you were his daughter."

"And you lent him four million dollars."

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