After I Saved Him, My CEO Said We Were Strangers novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: The All-Hands
Dorothea called the all-hands for nine o'clock the next morning, in the atrium of the Ashworth headquarters.
Four hundred people stood under the glass ceiling with their coffee, whispering.
I stood at the back, beside Bea, in the one blazer I owned.
"You don't have to do this," Bea said. "You could go home. I'd bring you ice cream."
"I told him term one. He says it out loud."
"Out loud to who?"
"Whoever asks."
"Nobody's going to ask, Hallie."
"Dorothea might."
Dorothea was already on the little stage with her cane planted and a microphone in her other hand.
Declan stood a pace behind her, in a charcoal suit that fit worse than usual.
He had shaved.
It didn't help.
Camille and Garrison Draycott sat in the front row, in two chairs with their names on little cards, and Camille was smiling at me over her shoulder.
She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers.
"Good morning," said Dorothea.
The room went quiet.
"Eight days ago, a crane broke on our riverfront site. A member of this company, Hallie MacAuley, put herself between that beam and my grandson. She has a metal plate in her collarbone to show for it."
People turned, scanning the crowd for my face.
"Hallie, come up here," said Dorothea.
I went up the aisle with four hundred people watching.
Bea started clapping behind me, loud, and the crew picked it up.
When I reached the stage I stood next to Dorothea, and my knees felt like water.
"Mr. Ashworth has something to say," said Dorothea.
Declan stepped to the microphone.
The room waited.
I watched his throat move.
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