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“All the while, Oliver was calling me up and urging me to create a brand-new position in the company tailor-made especially for you,” he says, still perfectly calm.
“I didn’t ask him to do that!”
“You have to know what this looks like, Paige.”
“I didn’t! Please, Graham, you have to believe me.”
“I do,” he says, taking a breath. “But they don’t.”
I deflate. “So, then... what does that mean?” I ask, dreading the answer.
“It means...”
Graham looks down as that calm stoicism fades away.
My heart slows to a stop. “It means they want you to fire me,” I finish.
He hesitates. “Yeah,” he says. “They do.”
I nod. My shoulders sink.
I blame myself.
“What about Oli?” I ask, looking up.
“I don’t know,” Graham says, shaking his head. “But it doesn’t look good.”
“So, what? What’s going to happen? He can’t lose this job, Graham. It means everything to him.”
“I want to keep him as Liaison more than anybody, Paige,” he says. “I’ve looked up to Oli for years. He’s a brother to me. When my dad made me Liaison instead of him, I promised him it’d be me and him at the top someday. But after this...” He exhales the frustration from his lungs. “With Ian’s calls for new leadership and with Drake backing him up...”
“New leadership,” I repeat, disgusted by the implication. “Meaning him.”
Graham nods. “It looks that way, yes. At least, that’s what the current topic of discussion was when they asked me to step out.”
I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t at first. I stutter and bite down as anger takes hold. “Can’t you do something?” I ask. “Like... I don’t know. Block him in some way? He’s not standing up for workplace integrity. It’s a damn power grab!”
“I know it is,” he says. “Ian’s an opportunist, always has been, just like his dad. But if I do what I want to do, then it’ll only prove him right. I could ignore all of this, defy the board, and keep you and Oliver on, but it wouldn’t make it go away. Ian would make sure it of it. He would burn this company to the ground if it meant he’d come out on top.”
“So, what are you going to do?” I ask, my voice breaking.
Graham goes quiet. He looks at the floor for a moment, then he lifts his head and sighs. “Well, under normal circumstances, in this sort of situation, I would ask you,” he says slowly. “What do you think I should do, Paige?”
I think he should tell Ian and Drake and that entire branch of the Botsford tree to go fuck themselves.
But he’s right. Ian would burn this company to the ground for his own personal gain. He would drag his own family’s name through the mud, go on every news channel he could to expose our indecency, and he’s just charismatic enough to convince anybody he’s right. He’s already convincing the board. He would taint the entire Botsford brand, not just the hotels. He’d tank Fiona’s senate campaign if he really wanted to. And he would.
Logically, there’s only one thing Graham can do to keep the board on his side.
I stand up with my breath held tight. “I think... that you should fire me,” I say.
Graham nods.
I gesture at the closed door. “I guess that’s why Ira’s waiting out there, huh?” I ask with a dry chuckle.
He nods again.
“Right,” I whisper, swallowing hard. “Makes sense...”
