The 23rd Deletion Bride novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: All Hands

Cullen told me about the car park at six in the morning, and he told it plainly.

I listened from the couch with a cup of weak tea going cold in my hands.

When he got to the end, I put the cup down.

"He said he'd take my baby."

"He said it. He won't manage it."

"But he'd try."

"Yes."

"Then I'm coming to the vote."

"Linnea, your doctor said flat on your back."

"She said avoid stress," I said. "Sitting in this loft while he sells my father's company and tells a judge I'm unstable is stress."

Hattie, in the kitchen doorway with a coffee, said, "I'll get the wheelchair."

By eight-thirty we were in the lobby of the Amory Group tower.

I sat in the chair in my mother's cream coat, with a blanket over my knees and my hair brushed, and Hattie pushed.

The guard at the desk looked up, and recognized me, and stood.

"Mrs. Amory."

"Good morning."

"They're in the atrium, ma'am. Mr. Amory called an all-hands for nine. Everyone's down there."

An all-hands.

He had put the whole company in one room to announce the sale before the board had voted.

Cullen glanced at me.

"He wants the staff to cheer," he said quietly. "Then the vote is only paperwork."

"Then let's go and ruin it."

In the elevator, he leaned over to tuck the blanket tighter around my legs.

His fingers brushed my shoulder.

It was nothing, and I noticed it the whole way down.

The atrium was five floors high and full of people.

Three hundred of them stood on the ground floor and along the balconies, with coffee cups, and phones, and a low, uneasy murmur.

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