Or whether loving Levi was the truest thing about me, or just another symptom.
TWENTY-FOUR
Levi
“Where the hell have you been?”
I smack the loudspeaker button with a huff, typing so furiously on my laptop that even my PA looks up, startled. Sitting timidly across my desk as she makes notes.
I’m waiting for my lawyers, desperately hoping they can find a way out of the mess this clause has created. But I’m not sure I’ll be winning this one.
Sebastian’s ominous words come crashing back to me…
‘…Levi, their votes default to you. Temporarily. Then… hopefully permanently. But that’s a problem for another day.’
Well, today is another day.And I’m not sure I can make the temporary move toward any kind of permanency.
I’m a joke of a president.
Fuck.
“I’m in LA,” he says, a rough hesitancy in his tone.
My fingers halt. “And pray tell, what are you doing there?”
“Levi—”
I fucking knew it. “This is not the time to rectify whatever the hell mistake you made, Taewon. I need you here.”
“I just… I needed to see her.”
Her. Iris.
“Why couldn’t you wait until this crisis was over?” I snap, knowing full well I’m being unreasonable.
“I’m sorry, man,” he says in a resigned voice. “She… she quit Miller-Moore. Grace said she had a standing offer from another firm and suspects she took it.”
“Then… hound her when she starts her new job! Come back and fucking help me with this.”
He ignores my petulance. But I hear his gears turning in the silence that follows. He knows my outburst isn’t from his absence.
“What happened, Levi? IsNoonaokay?”
My gut clenches at the mention of Cece. “She’s… she’s okay.” It’s a lie. I know it the moment the words leave my mouth.
She’s absolutely not okay. But I can’t dwell on that just minutes before I’m needed by my lawyers to fix the mess my degenerate parents created.
“I’m meeting Jasper and Mr. Benson in less than…” I glance at my watch, “twelve minutes. I needed my fucking EA here to support me through this bullshit. You know you understand this legal jargon more than I do!”
“Listen, just… put me in via audio,” he says awfully calmly. “I’ll be there. What did they tell you already?
I drop my head down, trying to find the courage to tell him what I’d learned last night. Jasper had called me right before the clock hit midnight. “They…” my gaze snaps up to Janice, silently telling her to leave. “Give me a second.” I continue once she’s out of my office. “They told me how the clause was integrated into the decision-making protocol. The way they… God! Taewon, I’m not—I’m not technically President because of the clause. According to the policy, I’m anInterimPresident. On probation until the clause is fulfilled.”
“Ssibal!” He curses through the speaker, his voice a mix of rage and disbelief. “So what—the board can simply remove you? Is it subject to a vote?”
I shake my head. “Not just that. I-I can’t even remove the fucking clause without stepping down first and then getting voted back in—”
“And that doesn’t work given the management is already unstable,” he finished for me. “Hounding the fucking board because of the stock price dropping. Are they already panic-selling?”
