One Night Stand novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Vote

Two guards stood at the boardroom doors on the fortieth floor.

I knew one of them.

He had taken my left arm on the steps three weeks ago.

"Ms. Hanley," he said, and he looked at the floor. "I've been told no guests."

"I know."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I."

I had my camera bag on my shoulder and Dottie's laptop under my arm, and I did not move.

"She's my guest," said a dry voice behind me.

Eleanor came down the hall with her cane tapping, in gray, with a leather folder.

"I hold the trust, young man. The trust may bring anyone it pleases to a vote on its own beneficiary."

The guard opened the door.

The boardroom smelled of coffee and old leather.

Fourteen directors sat around the long table, and every one of them turned to look at me.

Mateo was at the middle of the table, in a charcoal suit, alone.

Preston stood at the head with a folder open in front of him and a young lawyer on his left.

His eyes went to the laptop, and the smile went tight at the edges.

"Grandmother. I'm afraid this is a board matter."

"It's a trust matter. Sit down, dear."

"I was in the middle of..."

"You were reading a petition that calls the mother of my great-grandson unfit.

"Please finish. I'd like her to hear it."

He finished.

It took him ten minutes, and he did it beautifully.

He said the word fraud four times, and the word concern more.

When he stopped, the room was very quiet.

"Mr. Kincaid," said the director at the foot of the table, an old man with white eyebrows.

"Do you have a response?"

Mateo stood.

"I do. But I think the person who should speak first is sitting in the doorway."

Fourteen heads turned back to me.

My knees did not want to work, so I told them to.

I walked to the end of the table and opened the laptop.

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