The Night He Left the Syndicate, I Took His Chair novel · Chapter 4 of 32
Chapter 4: Five Chairs
Nobody stood up for him.
Nobody told him to leave, either.
Orson pulled out a chair for Emmeline against the wall.
She looked at me once from under her lashes and looked away fast.
Orson didn't look at me at all.
"Gentlemen," he said. "Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the six years."
"I'm not here to make speeches. I'm here to hand off my chair so nothing falls on the floor."
He finally turned his head.
His eyes went over my sweater and my jeans.
"I see you've let the girl who did the accounts in," he said. "That's fine. She can take notes."
Emmeline made a tiny sound into her hand. Almost a laugh.
"My chair should go to Mr. Hesketh's grandson," Orson said. "He's young, he's family, he's ready. I move we vote."
Hesketh tapped his cane once.
"There's another name," he said mildly.
"Whose?"
"Mine," I said.
The room went still.
Orson laughed.
"Ris. Sweetheart. Go home."
"I don't have a home. You changed the locks."
"In two weeks."
"I didn't need two weeks."
I put both hands on the back of his empty chair.
"The fuel contract with the mainland supplier," I said. "Four point one million a year. You signed it. I negotiated it. The rate is eleven cents under market because I found their inspector's tab at the Lower Wharf bar."
"Dock fees, all three piers. Nine hundred and twenty thousand last year. Not one late month in six years."
I looked at the fuel dock man.
He looked back at me and nodded, very slightly.
"The ice house. The harbormaster's envelope. The dredging permit." I kept my eyes on Orson. "Ask me any number from the last eight years. Any one."
"This is embarrassing," Orson said.
"Then ask."
The ice house man cleared his throat.
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