How to Tame a Silver Fox novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: Eviction

The Chadwick & Rhodes autumn breakfast was held in the glass atrium of the company's headquarters, under a banner and a string of white lights.

Sixty people stood among the pastry trays with their coffee, bankers and clients and staff in good shoes.

I came in through the revolving door at ten past nine in yesterday's jeans and a coat with paint on the cuff.

Nobody stopped me.

Everyone was looking at the little stage by the lobby fountain.

My father stood at the lectern in a navy suit, freshly shaved, with the face he wore for ribbon cuttings.

Arlen stood beside the lectern with his hands loose at his sides.

In the corner of the stage, on a brass stand with a small plaque, was my mother's folding field easel.

It was weathered oak, with her thumbprint worn into the left leg.

I had not seen it since I was ten.

I had been told it was sold with her things.

"Friends," my father said. "I had a different speech planned."

The room laughed politely.

"This firm runs on trust, and I have been lied to inside it."

A woman near the front lowered her coffee.

"Mr. Rhodes hid a felony conviction from our lenders and from you."

The silence was so thick I could hear the fountain.

"Worse, he has been carrying on with my daughter, who is a student at a school this firm funds."

Heads turned.

I felt sixty pairs of eyes pass over me and move on.

Keep reading free with an account. Start How to Tame a Silver Fox from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.