An Understated Dominance novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Dinner

The Brown Palace ballroom held three hundred and twelve guests, two chandeliers, and a string trio playing something expensive.

I walked in at half past eight in a black dress and my mother's pearls.

Bev walked on my left.

On my right walked the man with the grey mustache, in a clean white shirt.

Behind him came twenty-two Fieldwell employees in their work vests.

Nobody had told them to wear the vests.

They had worn them anyway.

The doorman looked at the invitation, then at the vests, then at my face, and stepped aside.

Colter came in last.

I had told him he could come as a shareholder, in the open, with his name on a card.

He had worn the grey cardigan.

"You look like a man at a funeral," I whispered.

"I feel like a man at a trial."

"Whose?"

"Not sure yet," he said, and took my hand.

The room turned to watch us.

At the front, on a low stage, Russell Voelker was adjusting a microphone under a banner that read HARCOURT GROUP: A YEAR OF GROWTH.

The chair of the board sat at the head table beside an empty place card.

Two seats down from her, one chair away from the spotlight, a silver-haired man with a cane lifted a glass of water and smiled.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Russell said. "Welcome. Please, find your tables."

"I'm very pleased tonight to share news of our biggest acquisition in a decade."

He looked directly at me.

"A beloved Denver brand, Fieldwell Outdoors, will become part of the Harcourt family."

Scattered applause.

"The sale will close within the week, following the founder's restructuring of her debt."

"I'd like to thank the founder, Thea Forsberg, for being here tonight in the spirit of partnership."

He raised his glass at me.

"Thea, would you like to say a few words?"

The ballroom turned.

I walked down the center aisle with the vests behind me, and up the three steps to the stage.

Russell held out the microphone.

I took it.

"Thank you, Russell," I said.

"I'd like to correct the record, if that's all right."

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