Chapter 19: The Vote

On Thursday night the ballroom held four hundred and twelve members, and every one of them had a paper ballot on the table.

The lawyer sat at the side wall in his expensive suit, next to the treasurer.

A stack of blank checks lay between them.

I stood at the back with Birdie and Zara.

Zara had come in last, in a plain navy dress, and four tables had made room for her without speaking.

Ramsay walked to the podium alone.

He didn't have notes.

"Here is my offer," he said. "It is the opposite of the other one."

"The insurer is owed four hundred and twelve thousand dollars."

"The Trust will pay one hundred and forty thousand. That is everything it has in cash."

"The rest, two hundred seventy-two thousand, comes to about six hundred sixty dollars from each of you."

A groan rolled through the tables.

"I know," he said. "I'd groan too."

"In return, the Trust gives up its sixty percent. It becomes one share per member, equal for everyone, and nobody ever owns this club again."

"I will have one vote, like you."

The ballroom went completely silent.

A man near the front said, quite loudly, "He's giving away his control."

"Yes," Ramsay said. "I was a bad owner, and I'd like to stop."

He stepped away from the podium, and he looked for me.

I nodded.

Then the treasurer got to his feet.

"This is sentimental foolishness," he said. "My client's proposal puts fifty thousand dollars in each of your hands."

"Seven hundred dollars out of your pocket, or fifty thousand into it. Think carefully."

Murmurs rose, and some of them were not kind.

I had told myself I'd let the room decide.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Corrupting My Billionaire Boss's Heart from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.