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What the hell is happening? “Jack, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Why is there a plan? Why would you make a plan to ruin us like that? This isn’t who I thought you were.”
“Oooh.” Cora places a hand to her head like she’s just figured something out. “Someone else found out too, didn’t they?” Jack stiffens, and I see the rage that enters his face. “This situation is so fucked up, Jack.”
“Cora—”
“You want to know why I’m really here as an intern?” she says to me, cutting him off. “It’s because Jack is in contempt of court and owes my mother eighteen years of child support.”
It feels like the air has been sucked out of the room. “What?”
“My mother always talked about the court case, and how someday she would find him and make him pay. But she never could, because he’s very good at using his money to hide. But I found him, and made him agree to pay it back. And I agreed not to say anything, provided he gave me this, and paid back the money. But you don’t get to ruin Michael’s life because of that. Certainly not when you’re stealing from him.”
There are hushed gasps around the room and I feel like the world is spinning. Cora continues. “When I came to see you Michael, I told you I had to talk to you about something important. Jack has been paying the child support—the bare minimum at a time. So, given my skills, I decided to see what possible reason there could be for him to not just pay what he owes at once and get over it.”
“Cora,” Jack seethes, “stop.”
“Turns out, Jack is broke. He’s broke because he’s invested all of his money into a business. A rival business: Takedown Clothing, which is bleeding money. So Jack doesn’t even have the money to order take out, let alone pay my mother. Instead, the money is being sent directly from the Tailor Me accounts. That’s what I came to tell you,” she aims the last at me.
I knew I had been missing something about the deal, and there it is. It all clicks into place, like a finished puzzle. “You invested in Takedown to drum up competition,” I say. “With the eventual thought that they would be bigger than us, more popular, and that we would be forced to sell out. But you would just switch from one company to the other.” It all makes sense now, and even if the plan is vicious, I have to admire it. It might have worked if it weren’t for Cora. “But because of the child support, you had to move up your plan. You wanted to sell so that you’d have enough money to pay off your debt and save your new company. And you weren’t afraid to use your own daughter to get it.”
Jack is sputtering, looking at the employees around the office, trying to see if they’ll support him. But a quick glance shows that there aren’t any friendly faces in the ones gathered. He points at me. “He sexually harassed my daughter! He’s the one you should be angry at, a boss taking advantage of an innocent girl!”
Cora laugh., “I’ll admit that we have had a lot of very hot, very consensual sex. In no way was I harassed, assaulted, or in any way forced to do something I didn’t want to do. Michael would never do that. Unlike you, who tried to have me seduce the investors from Anderson Financial who you were wooing to complete the buyout. Is that sexual harassment, Jack, to ask a woman to give sexual favors so your business will benefit?”
Cold rage floods through my veins. All this time I was trying to protect our friendship, to try to preserve what we had, and he was trying to stab me in the back. I don’t even know for how long this has been going on. I take a step closer to Jack, and he sees what’s on my face.
“Michael, we can work this out. You said it yourself; you know we can find a way that’s a compromise. After all, we built this together.”
“I thought we built it together,” I say, “but you can’t build something with someone if they’re actively trying to sabotage it. How much do you owe in child support?”
“Eighteen years worth,” Cora answers without faltering, “plus the cost of my tuition, which he promised to pay for my silence. In total, just shy of two million dollars.”
I nod, considering. “Jack, I think it’s time you retire. Your shares in Tailor Me are worth four million dollars. Subtract your debts to Cora and her mother and you’re left with two. I’ll pay you two million dollars today if you leave. But here’s the catch: If you leave, you leave forever. Cora and I don’t hear from you ever again. You disappear. Ellen, will you get my checkbook? And call security.”
I hear her footsteps moving quickly behind me, and it’s dead silence until she returns, and even then it’s only the sound of my pen on the paper. I hold out the check toward him. “Your choice. You’ll be leaving with or without the money. But if you don’t take it, I’ll turn your own threat back on you. By noon tomorrow, every newspaper in the country will know what a piece of shit you are.”
Jack stares at me, and I know he’s doing what I just had to do in my office—wrack his brain desperately for a way out of this mess. But there isn’t one. He saw to that. The security officers from the lobby enter, and I give them a nod. “Your choice, Jack.”
He snatches the check out of my hand and turns. He’s holding his head high as he’s escorted to the elevator bank by security, but he’s not fooling anyone. If he’s smart, he’ll never show his face here again. As soon as he’s gone, it’s like the room can breathe again, and it’s suddenly loud, with everyone talking at once. I turn to smile at Cora, but she’s not there. She’s not anywhere in the room.
Ellen taps me on the shoulder and whispers, “She took the stairs to the roof.”
“You’re a godsend, Ellen.”
“I know,” she says, and winks.
Now that everything is public, it’s time Cora and I had a talk.
11
E llen is right , I find Cora on the roof, looking out at the same view as I have in my office, but it’s better with the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. She doesn’t react as I come up next to her, just continues to stare into the distance.
“Are you all right?”
“I will be,” she says. “I was hoping that maybe meeting me, he would change. I ignored the stuff at the bar because I thought it was just a business tactic. I just…I didn’t want it to be this way.”
“Neither did I. Jack came to me earlier, he’d found out about us from someone at The Palace. He said that if I didn’t sign the papers that he would spread the word that I had harassed and assaulted you. I couldn’t let that happen to you, so I thought that if you weren’t at the company, I could spin it. That’s why I fired you.”
She nods. “I get it. I do. When I confronted him about the money today he basically said the same thing, that he would ruin me if I spoke out. I was coming to talk to you about it.”
“I’m sorry about him.”
She shrugs. “I had hope, but honestly, I didn’t know him well enough for this to hurt. He’s shown what’s important to him now. It’s more…a loss of what I had hoped for.” Leaning against the railing of the roof, she sighs. “I understand why you did it, but Michael, don’t ever lie to me again. I’ve had enough of it in my life, and I’m sick of it. I refuse to be involved with any more liars.”
I put my hand on her shoulder, and thankfully she doesn’t pull away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lie to you, but I didn’t know any other way to protect you.”
She laughs, finally looking at me. “I hope you finally understand that I don’t need protection. I can take care of myself. I’m not with you because I need you to coddle me or shelter me. I’m with you because you make me happy.”
“And are you? With me?”
There’s hope in her face and it crushes me that she might think I don’t want her. “Am I?”
“Yes,” I say, pulling her against me, “you matter to me. You were right before, in my office, but I couldn’t tell you because you left so quickly. I do love you. I’m an idiot that it had to take us being threatened to realize it, but I do. For a while now.”
I kiss her, and she melts into me, and the relief I feel is the sweete
st damn thing in the world. Cora kisses me back, arms twining around my neck, and then she’s laughing and I’m laughing, and I feel like I can fly.
“I guess that means that I’m not fired.”
“No, Ma’am. In fact, if you want, I’d like to offer you a job far, far, in advance after you graduate.”
Cora’s jaw drops open. “Are you serious?”
“Turns out I’m going to need someone to help me navigate the balance between new and old. Someone to help me expand this company the right way, one step at a time, but fast enough that we never fall behind. I, for one, think you’d be perfect, if that’s what you want.”
“Yes, of course that’s what I want!” she says, jumping into my arms.
I spin her around like we’re in an old time romance movies, kissing her as I do.
“It’s only lunchtime,” I say, “but what do you say we take the rest of the day off and celebrate?”
She smiles, her red hair blowing around us in the wind. “I think that’s an excellent idea.”
“After all,” I say, “you caused a lot of trouble this morning. Do you know what happens to naughty girls who cause trouble?”
Cora pouts, but her eyes are still twinkling. “Am I going to be punished? I really am awfully sorry for all the trouble I caused, Sir.”
“Then hopefully you’ll learn your lesson and not do it again.” I lean closer so that I can whisper in her ear. “Because I’m not letting you go. Ever.”
She grins up at me. “That sounds perfect.”
