Alex dutifully accepted the glass and swallowed the pungent liquid with a wince. “I didn’t realize you disapproved.”
“I told him he shouldn’t feel so beholden to catering to the base impulses of the board,” her mother explained. “Let the ones who disapprove of you leave and good riddance. You’ve proven yourself over again and again. And they would have seen that if your father had only let them. But instead he downplayed your accomplishments and your role into something more palatable for the masses.” Then she hesitated. “I’ve often wondered why you went along with it.”
“I didn’t know there was an alternative,” Alex said, more petulantly than she wished.
Her mother tilted her head. “I’ve never known you not to approach a problem without examining it from every possible angle. You give no quarter in any other area of your life, which is one of your great strengths.” Then she pressed a hand to her cheek.“But you have always treated your father with kid gloves. Even as a girl.”
Alex swallowed thickly and glanced down. “I just… I wanted to help him. As much as I could.”
My brilliant girl.
And she liked feeling special, especially in a world that treated her with such contempt.
“He can take this, Alexandra,” her mother insisted. “And if he fails tomorrow, he has only himself to blame.”
Alex let out a humorless laugh. “Even if it is at the hands of the man I jilted?”
“Men have done much worse,” she said with a wry smile. “The point is, your father will be fine.Youwill be fine.”
“Well, I certainly won’t work for that man if he does take over the company.”
“No,” her mother agreed. “But it might not be such a bad thing for you to leave, either.”
“No other firm will have me.”
“Then strike out on your own. My goodness, you have spentyearsnow drafting fail-proof business plans for other people. I imagine you are quite able to do it for yourself.” Alex bit her lip as she considered this. “But we don’t need to talk about all that now,” her mother continued. “First you need to rest.”
The draught had already started to take effect and Alex’s eyelids grew heavy. She had barely managed good night before she drifted off to sleep.
Thirty
Alex awoke early the next morning admittedly refreshed, but with a stubborn pit in her stomach. She could barely stomach more than a cup of coffee for breakfast until Aunt Winifred practically force-fed her a bun.
“No one ever triumphed on an empty stomach,” she said with a firm nod.
Alex was in no mood to argue and soon enough Father hustled her out the door. They barely said anything on the ride to the office, both too lost in their own thoughts.
The mood in the office was just as grim and almost violently subdued compared to the day before. It reminded Alex of a funeral, though she supposed it was, in a way.
The death of the company.
“Come this way,” her father prompted, interrupting her morose thoughts. He guided her to the conference room. “Chin up,” he murmured as they turned the corner.
Alex did as he commanded while fighting against the instinct to shrink back. A dozen men milled around the hallway waiting for the proceedings to begin, and she recognized many members of the board. Men she had known since she was a child, and who had known her father even longer. For some of them had been on theboard of this company since Grandfather had been in charge. For the first time, she was struck by the duplicitousness of it all. The sheer greed. When would they ever have enough? But then a gentleman stepped aside and she saw Benjamin in full view.
Before Alex even knew what she was doing, she charged straight up to him, her father heedlessly calling for her to stop. For his part, Benjamin made no attempt to hide. He simply met her gaze.
“Why are you doing this?” she hissed.
“I told you,” he said calmly, glancing at something behind her. Probably her father frothing at the mouth. “If I couldn’t invest in the supper club, I would be forced to take drastic action. And here we are.”
“You’ve been planning this forweeks,” she shot back, but Benjamin only shrugged.
“I needed a back-up plan. And when Mr. Tompkins mentioned his seat on the board, I made a suggestion. The rest was remarkably easy.” Then he narrowed his eyes. “I truly had no idea your father was hiding your contributions.”
“I’m nothiding,” she protested.
“Nevertheless, he did you a disservice,” Benjamin continued. “But not to worry. I am not so closed-minded as the rest of these fellows. When everything settles, I would be happy to take you on as an advisor.”
