Chapter 15: The Board Call

Ezra's POV

I went into the Monday partners' meeting with her shampoo still on my collar.

It was lemon and something green, and I kept catching it whenever I moved my head.

The conference room at Vogel Ridge Capital had a glass wall and a long walnut table.

My senior partner sat at the head of it, in a vest, with a legal pad.

Beside him sat the firm's lawyer, who never spoke before the second coffee.

"Tell me where we are," my partner said.

"We're in a company whose pitch video buried a living woman," I said. "She's alive, she's recovering, and she isn't going to be quiet."

"Is she going to sue?"

"I don't know."

"Then here's what I know." He tapped the pad.

"We have one point eight million in that company. Nine hundred thousand is out, and nine hundred thousand is frozen."

"If the story breaks wrong, we lose both, and our other investors read about us on a news site."

"If it breaks right, we lose less."

"If it doesn't break, we lose nothing." He looked at me.

"Let her have her moment at the launch. We keep the second tranche on hold, quietly, until Halyard pays down our exposure."

"And the girl?"

"The girl gets a good lawyer, and we help pay for it. That is generous."

I looked at the glass wall, where a woman in the next office was watering a plant.

My mother had died while a hospital administrator adjusted a number.

"No," I said.

"Ezra."

"I won't sit on this to protect a spreadsheet."

The lawyer finally took a sip of coffee and cleared his throat.

"Before this goes further, I should say that Wyatt Prentiss has asked for a call with the board. He said it's about a resolution."

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