My entire body grows cold at his question, my knuckles paling against the edge of the desk as I grip it tight. “B-Back?” I stammer out. “You really think I’ve already lost her?”
“Haven’t you?”
My mind whirls back to last night, how her reserve felt strained. Her silence, painful. She wasn’t the same Cece I’d known. The one who took calculated risks. Who was admirably poised. Who would present a facet that worked best for the situation.
She definitely wasn’t the Cece I’d grown to understand in the world of Astors. But it didn’t matter what version of her took hold.
I didn’t fall in love with the boxes she checked. I’d always known this.
I fell in love with herdespitethem.
“I’m giving you a month,” I say finally, ignoring his prodding questions.
He sighs. “Fine. I’ll clock in remotely until then.”
I grunt in agreement, falling into a deep silence.
“Hey, is Mr. Benson… Hayes Benson?”
“Yeah,” I say, already knowing what he’s getting at. “Jasper said we needed a family lawyer to revise themarriage contract. Properly isolate it from the Astor’s presidential clause.”
“We can’t afford a single loophole,” he says firmly. “Glad you’re going with the biggest gun.”
I curse under my breath. “It’s so deeply embedded that even my kids can’t escape it. Benson is the only choice. I need it gone, Taewon.”
“And you will.” The conviction in his tone is supposed to be encouraging, but it still fails to lighten the weight of the stone wedging itself in my chest.
We hang up a few minutes later, my feet carrying me to the conference room. Dreading the meeting with Jasper and Hayes.
I pause at the threshold, my ears filling with the rough murmurs from inside the room. They’re already here.
Exhaling sharply, I close my eyes. I rub my hand against my chest, hoping I’d rid myself of the painful ache.
As always, I imagine her voice.‘Calm, Levi.’
Only then do I turn the doorknob.
??????
“It wasn’t necessarily an Executive Employment Agreement,” Jasper says, eyes scanning the screen of his laptop.
He’s been scrolling, viciously staring at each and every line item of my President Agreement that I signed three years ago.
Chuckling bitterly, he moves on to another clause, with Hayes Benson following his actions on his own laptop.
“It’s certainly made to look like one,” Hayes says,frowning. “But it’s worded exactly like a typical prenup—minus the partner addendum.”
I swallow hard.
“Is it even valid?” Taewon’s voice fills the room, loud enough on the speakers.
Jasper sighs, giving me a pitying smile. “Yes, it is. Unfortunately.”
I drag both my hands over my face. “Let me get this straight. That joke of a document you’re staring at, is basically me accepting the position ofInterimPresident. If I don’t fulfill the sub clause 3.1.6, my five-year probation ends with me basically jobless. And if I want to remove this marital clause, I’ll have to nullify this entire agreement and hand over my presidency to the VP?”
Both Hayes and Jasper nod, gaze steadily on me, listening to my every frustrated word with a careful mask.
A hysterical laugh slips out of me. “And of course, if I do that, it’ll be weeks—maybe months—before I can get voted back in.”
