The Stranger I Married novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Board

Elias got out of bed without a word, pulled on his trousers and read the notice standing up.

His whole body had gone quiet.

"Who authorized this?" he said.

"The executive committee," said Judith.

"The executive committee is you, the CFO and a proxy."

"It was a majority."

"Not on my contracts. The COO signs vendor agreements up to a quarter million without the board."

"Then the board can overrule you, can't it?"

She smiled thinly at me.

"At ten o'clock.

I called the meeting at seven.

I'm sure the young lady has somewhere she'd rather be."

I was already dressing.

I zipped the blue dress with shaking hands, and I did not look at either of them, and my gloves were somewhere in the sheets.

"I'm coming," I said.

"Maya..."

"It's my contract. If someone wants to cancel it, they can do it to my face."

Elias looked at me for one second, and a very small, fierce smile crossed his mouth.

"Then you'll come in with me," he said.

At ten o'clock exactly he pushed open the boardroom doors.

I walked in on his arm in last night's evening dress, with my bare left hand held high.

Eight people sat around the long table, with one chair empty at the foot.

They were all old, all gray, all well-fed, and every one of them looked at my dress.

Judith sat at the head with a gavel she wasn't using.

"This is irregular," she said.

"So is canceling a vendor without the COO."

Elias took the empty seat and pulled out the one beside it for me.

"Mrs. Ferris is my guest.

If she wants to speak, she may."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Stranger I Married from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.