Claire and Nicholas After Divorce novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Gala Doors

By seven the photograph had been shared forty thousand times.

By eight, seven of the nine board members had signed a letter.

Audrey read it aloud over the room service tray, standing at the window of the suite with her arms folded.

"'Given the chair's recent conduct, we call an emergency session to remove her. We will hold it Saturday night at the anniversary gala, before the sale vote.'"

"What sale?" Nicholas asked.

"The sale to our biggest rival," I said. "My father meant it. Once I'm out, the board sells Corbin Home to our biggest rival before midnight, and every store closes."

"Can they remove you?"

"Seven of nine can," Audrey said. "He only needs two more to turn on him, and he's had thirty years to buy his friends."

Nicholas put his coffee down.

"I'm the conduct," he said.

"You're the photograph."

"I'll leave. I'll say we were never..."

"You will not."

I said it so sharply that Audrey looked up.

"I walked out of a house in front of twelve guests," I said. "I am not going to hide in a room because a man took a picture of me walking into a hotel with my own ex-husband."

He looked at me.

Slowly, his mouth curved.

"Then I'm the conduct," he said, "and I'm staying."

"Good."

The front desk rang up at nine.

A young woman was waiting in the lobby, and would not leave without seeing me.

It was Brianna.

She stood by the fountain in a plain grey coat and no makeup.

She had lost the cream dress and the sweetness, and the girl who stood there looked twenty-one and frightened.

"They dropped me," she said, before I could speak. "The university has suspended me. Mr. Corbin's lawyers won't take my calls. I have no place to live."

"And you want money."

"I want to give you this."

She held out her phone.

"It has everything. Every message, every payment, the speech they wrote for me. They told me to delete it, and I didn't."

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