Caution! Cute Baby Alert! novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Ledger

The boardroom of Pendelton Group was on the thirty-first floor.

A window ran the length of the wall, with Lake Erie lying flat and gray below it.

Twelve leather chairs.

Eleven were full.

Nathaniel took the thirteenth, at the foot of the table, the one nobody used.

I took the seat beside him.

A man in a bow tie opened his mouth to object.

"She is my guest, and the subject of item one," Nathaniel said, and the man closed it.

At the head, in navy and pearls, sat Constance.

On her left, with a small leather notebook, sat Dr. Lyle.

I realized he was the board's medical director.

I had never asked what kind of friend of the house he was, and now I knew.

"This is painful for all of us," Constance began, folding her hands.

"My son has been under extraordinary strain."

"A death in the family seven years ago left him fragile."

"Now, a woman has appeared with a story, and he has allowed it to eclipse his judgment, his duties and his daughter's welfare."

"His daughter is six," said a director. "Her mother is here."

"A woman with no standing, whom the court has not yet recognized."

"The court," Nathaniel said pleasantly, "has not yet recognized you, either, Mother. I had the order vacated at ten past eight."

Someone down the table smiled into his coffee.

Constance did not blink.

"Nathaniel is not himself. I move that the board accept his temporary leave."

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