Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“I get that, I do,” she says, “but it doesn’t change us, really. We can still be friends and not sleep together. And I’m not leaving the company unless you decide you want me to. I just—I can’t have this come out, or everyone…you know what they’ll think.”
“I’m not going to let us hurt you, Bella. And why would I want you to leave? You’re one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and there is a boardroom of partners who would agree with me. I don’t want any of what comes with my father’s will. You have to know that.”
“How damning is the case he threatened to take public?” she asks, clearly going down the same rabbit hole of questions I did when I first heard about the will. “Are you sure it’s as bad as you think?”
“Yes,” I confirm grimly. “It’s bad. If it would have happened ten years later, or even five, I would have stopped it. I was a young buck trying to please my father. A father I should have hated at that point in my life.”
“There has to be a way to deal with this problem and then you can go to court over the will.”
“All I can do is everything I can do to stop this before I’m forced to marry. I have six months to act out a public engagement farce to make that happen.”
“Are you listening to me, Tyler?”
At Gavin’s question, I snap out of the past but continue staring out my window, ignoring him. He’s been rambling for what I estimate to be a good half an hour at this point, demanding answers he doesn’t want to hear. I’m not sure why he thinks anything has changed now.
“Damn it, Tyler,” he continues. “If she’s out, you need to look at the list of prospective fiancées and do so now. This is about the security of the company and your fortune.”
Now I rotate and I do so with Bella’s words in my mind “There has to be another way.” She’s right. Not only does there have to be another way, there’s always another way.
With that in mind, I focus on opening the door to another way. “Did you review the case file my father is using to threaten me with a public shaming over?”
“Of course,” he replies. “But unless we pull archives, there’s not much to see.”
“Order the archives. And I need everything you can get me on anyone who was working the case. Use that PI we’ve used a few times and do it now. “
“With what endgame?”
While I encourage my legal counsel to be opinionated, Gavin doesn’t seem to know when to talk and when to listen, and that could become a problem. “Just do it.”
“Okay,” he concedes, “but at least look at this.” He holds up a folder. “Your options that are not Bella in one concise list.”
“Keep it,” I say. “I won’t be needing it or them.”
“Then Bella said yes?”
“Not yet, but I’m a long way from done with Bella.”
“You know the clock is ticking.”
“Then I guess you better get me the information I asked for.”
His jaw clenches and his energy is utter frustration. “I really hope you know what you’re doing.” He leaves, shutting the door behind him.
I decide I agree with Gavin on at least something this morning. He’s not the only one who hopes I know what I’m doing. But unlike him, I’m coming from a place of knowledge and an understanding of my father he doesn’t possess. He tested me, pushed me, and asked the impossible of me and when I achieved it, that achievement was dismissed. In a heated confrontation only a few months ago, he told me there is always one more test.
Except that he is dead and there can only be one final test.
The one he left in his will.
With one final test in mind, I conclude that I remember the details of the Allen trial. But I was young and green and learning too much too fast, all while my father rode me like a damn horse he was trying to break. Maybe there was no suppression of documents, and there is no real blackmail. And somewhere in heaven or hell, my father is laughing because I have yet to do what he always preached for me to do—always know the facts, or you’re acting on fiction. Fiction is entertainment. Real-life operates on facts.
And those who operate in a fictional world in real life setting deserve what they get in return.
With my father’s thinking guiding me, I can’t assume there was actually anything done during that trial that would screw me and the firm over. It would be just like my father to test my attention to that detail. The truth will be in the case files. And maybe, just maybe, I’ve figured out the obvious and I’ve passed the test.