They Toasted the Happy Couple, So I Bought the Groom novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: Four to Five
My father stood in his own doorway with his hand still raised.
Inside, Clive pulled out the chair behind the car dealer's old nameplate.
Somebody had already pried the brass off. A strip of masking tape said MERCER in Odessa's capitals.
Odessa took the chair behind the tape that said GAFFNEY and unwrapped her legal pad.
I sat in mine.
The widow, across the walnut, smiled into her coffee.
"Gerald," the retired judge said mildly. "You might as well sit down. They're seated."
My father walked to the head of the table.
He didn't sit. He put both fists on the walnut.
"One item," he said. "I move to amend the bylaws. No holder of company debt may name a director."
"And the seats already named?" the widow asked.
"Vacated at the close of this meeting."
Marigold, at his right hand, raised hers before he'd finished. "Second."
She hadn't looked at Clive once. Her nails were pink today.
"Discussion?" my father said, in the voice that meant none.
Odessa raised her pencil.
"I'm new," she said. "Forgive me. Who drafted this?"
Nobody answered.
Odessa turned the page around and looked at the footer, at the tiny initials typed there.
"B.C.," she said. "Ms. Cromwell? The other one."
Berenice took off her glasses.
"I drafted it," she said.
"Last night?"
"This morning. At six."
"Your brother called you at six?"
Berenice didn't answer that.
Clive leaned forward.
"The notes require holder consent for any change to this board," he said. "Section eleven."
"I know my own notes."
"I drafted that section for you, Gerald. You asked me to make it bulletproof."
My father looked at him the way he'd looked at the page on the loading dock.
"You're conflicted," my father said. "You're the guarantor. You're in a divorce with my daughter. You shouldn't be at this table."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of They Toasted the Happy Couple, So I Bought the Groom are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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