My mouth goes dry as I flick a desperate look over at Ivan, who has still got his eyes locked on his laptop screen. No one else on my team is saying a word, both Daisy and Lucille looking uncomfortable, looking anywhere but at me.
“This is on my shoulders,” I say, attempting to smooth the troubled waters over one last time. “I’ll ensure you have a corrected report by EOD.”
Vivian exhales, long and heavy, her expression forbidding. Behind me, Gail’s pen scratches over her notepad, even though I’m not sure what the fuck she’s writing down. Reynolds hasn’t said a single word, but I can feel his judgment in the air, like he’s already decided how this all ends.
“If you just give us time, we’ll be able to find where the discrepancy happened and correct it immediately.”
“No need.” Reynolds’s deep voice cuts through the room like a roll of thunder. My head jerks in his direction, mouth open to argue, but he’s looking at Vivian. “A new account manager has already been assigned to Oceanic Capital. Daphne is excellent at what she does and has already been brought up to speed. I spoke with her just before the meeting started, and she reassured me she’d have new, accurate numbers by the time you’re ready toleave.” His words are pointed, condemning, even though he’s not looking my way.
Vivian’s eyes flash with satisfaction, but she hesitates. “And how can we trust that this was an individual fault and not a company-wide one, Grafton?”
“You’ll have to lean on the two-year-long relationship you’ve had with us, current situation aside.” He stands up, and every Oceanic member follows suit. “And on your experience with me, because you know exactly how I operate.”
I’m frozen to my chair, my breath hitching in my throat, eyes darting around the room as I try to figure out what the hell is going on right now. This is supposed to be a routine meeting, confirming the marketing strategy for their company for the second quarter and reassuring them that all their marketing goals are being met. Instead, I feel like I’ve been wedged into a guillotine, the sharpened blade just waiting to snick down and lop off my head.
Vivian makes a thoughtful noise as she rounds the table, approaching Reynolds. She’s acting like I’m no longer in the room. Anger bubbles inside me, but I tamp it down, self-preservation instincts warning me that this isn’t the time to call attention to myself.
“Fine,” she agrees with another sigh. “But if anything like this happens again…” She trails off, the threat clear, but he just smiles back, unbothered.
“I think you’ll be pleased with the results of this change,” he says. “I know I will be.”
He leads Vivian out, their heads bent together as they talk. I gape after them, wondering what the hell those last words meant, and then the rest of her team is filing out after them.
“What just happened?” Daisy mumbles. She snatches the folder from in front of me, flickingthrough each page. “These…” She shakes her head, eyes wide with fear. “These are all wrong. Where did these even come from?” Her tone turns accusatory.
My temper frays as I shoot her an agitated look, snapping, “From you. From the team. Where else would they have come from?”
She opens her mouth but seems to think better of it. Instead, she shakes her head and rises from the table, gathering her belongings. Ivan practically throws his laptop into his bag, and then he and Lucille are following Daisy out of the room, not one of them bothering to look back at me.
I drop into my chair and pinch the bridge of my nose.
Something monumental has shifted, and I can pinpoint it to the moment that Grafton Reynolds swept in like a tornado, disrupting my orderly fucking world. It might be his company, but he took a position I applied for myself. The board didn’t even bother interviewing me after that, trapping me in my current role. I wasn’t worried, at first—I know what I can do, what I offer, and it was only a matter of time beforehewas trying to win me over to his side.
Not the other fucking way around.
Except that never happened.
He seemed to dislike me from the get-go, and now…
Could Reynolds be responsible for this?
A throat clears right beside me, and I jump, whipping my head around to find Gail standing here, staring down at me serenely. “Mr. Reynolds requires you in his office for a meeting in thirty minutes,” she tells me dispassionately, but I swear to god, her eyes are amused. I stare back at her, a new inkling crashing through me like a tidal wave.
“You gave me the numbers,” I mumble, and she tilts her head to the side, eyes widening innocently.
“I’m sorry?”
“It was you.” My voice gets louder, and she takes a step away from me. Not out of fear, though. Gail’s not scared.She’ssmug.“You gave me the numbers before the meeting. You compiled the folder. I told you…I told you?—”
“You can’t blame this on me,” she says firmly. “I made sure of that.”
Without another word, she spins on her heel and confidently strides from the room, calling back, “CEO’s office in thirty minutes. I’m sure you won’t want to miss this meeting.”
Chapter 13
Grafton
Christopher draws up short as soon as he enters my office, his eyes flicking from me to the two others in the room. He recognizes Vicky, Reynolds & Media’s head of HR, sitting in front of my desk, but there’s a flicker of uncertainty when his eyes land on Oliver, who’s standing silently behind me, back braced against one of the windows and arms crossed over his chest.
