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A few of the employees came up to me to welcome me back, and before I could thank them, Alice was brushing them aside and leading me towards the conference room. It felt odd being back here, as if I had been gone for weeks and not just a few days. Not much had changed, but I was looking at it all in a completely different light. There was so much I hadn’t noticed before and was only taking note of right now.
I’m going to need to make a few changes.
After the mess was cleaned up. All that other stuff could wait.
As we neared the conference room, I could see that the board was already inside, with Dennis at the front of the table where I usually stood, talking to them excitedly, his arms moving about as he spoke. He caught sight of me, did a double take, and froze in the middle of whatever it was he was saying. His reaction made everyone in the room turn in my direction.
I hardly registered the look on their faces. I was focused on Dennis, and only him. My fists balled up, and a sudden rage burned inside me. There he was, my best friend, trying to throw me out of my own company and acting like he had already taken my seat at the head of the table.
During the drive back from Ludwig, I tried to conceive how in the world he had thought he might get away with this. I wasn’t outside the country; I was in the same fucking state. What part of that asshole’s twisted mind actually thought that I would not accidentally turn on the news, or that Alice wouldn’t call me and give me a heads-up?
But I knew Dennis. He had probably been planning for something like this forever, concocting the perfect plan, just waiting for a chance to dig my grave and push me into it. He had moved as soon as I had disappeared, and he was working fast. If the meeting had gone as planned yesterday, I would have probably been fighting this battle from a completely different stand point. The mere thought of him sitting on this backstabbing scheme, waiting patiently, pretending to be my friend, angered me even more. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I had fallen for it.
At that moment, I hated myself more than I hated him. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fucking kill him if his lies cost me my company.
“Remember, finesse,” Alice whispered as she opened the conference room door and let me in. “And remember your heart.”
One or two board members stood up to greet me when I entered, all fake smiles and plastic cheer, as if they were ready to welcome me back. Most of the others were looking at me with their mouths hanging open, like they were in complete shock.
The look on Denis’s face was priceless.
“Chance,” he greeted, trying to compose himself. “What are you doing back?”
I smiled, chose not to answer, and walked up to him. Without breaking my stride, I drew back my fist and slammed it into his face.
Finesse that, motherfucker.
Chapter 15: Chance
Alice was wailing at me. “I asked you to do one thing! One!”
Mostly everyone at the office had clocked out for the night. The few people that remained were packing their things and getting ready to head out. Every now and then, when they thought I wasn’t looking, they would sneak a peek at me and Alice as we argued inside my office.
Have to replace the damn glass walls.
We had just come out of a meeting with the lawyers after hours of assessing just how bad my punching Dennis would be. Alice was right, I hadn’t handled it with fucking finesse. But one look at that smug bastard’s face, and all I could think about was hammering at him until he really did have use for his dental insurance.
Alice paced back and forth in front of my desk, and all I could do was lay back on the couch and try not get her any angrier than she already was. At this moment, she made me feel like this was her company, not mine. It was interesting what crap like this made you realize about the people around you. It really put things in perspective.
“He’s going to sue, you know,” Alice said. “And he has enough witnesses to make it seem like you ran him through a meat grinder.”
“It won’t be that bad,” I sighed.
“Oh really?” Alice asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “Sure, yeah, Dennis will probably forget about all this. Maybe he’ll come over and apologize for trying to screw you. You know what? Maybe you guys can go out and get a couple of beers, talk about old times, and wonder where the fuck things went wrong!”
“Alice!”
She stopped her pacing, took a deep breath and raised her hand to stop me from saying anything else. “I know, I’m sorry,” she said. She looked around the office and shook her head. “I guess it’s just…Chance, I really care about this place. I gave you some of the best years of my life, turned down good offers when they came, had your back through a lot. This isn’t just some job for me, you know?”
“I know. You’re preaching to the choir, Alice.”
She sat down on a chair next to me and folded her hands together. “I’d love to actually hear from the choir, if you don’t mind.”
I looked at her, scoffed and rubbed my eyes.
“What?” she asked.
“Do you want to go all the way back to my childhood, doctor?”
