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Bryson interruptedagain. "But how will you reach a consensus?"
"While the three of us may have different ideas, I will still be interim CEO. But the day-to-day operations of the company will now be led by my sister."
Bryson pushed to his feet. "You can't do that. There are people who have more tenure than her that deserve the role."
"Maybe, but we don’t have to consider tenure, and it's time that we change that idea."
I saw several board members nod in agreement, and one of them spoke up. "That change may be for the best."
My father pushed to his feet. "This is an outrage. You cannot split the shares. You will forfeit everything."
"Well, that’s where you are wrong old chap. We can according to legal. And while we're at it, I know that theclause that stipulates I need to marry remains in effect. And I shall, within thirty days’ time."
How do you plan on pulling that off?
I hoped to Christ that was more than enough time. I'd have to figure it out.
All the responsibility is not yours.
I knew it wasn’t, but I still needed to keep my word. Of course, one of my siblings could marry. The code allowed for such a thing. But I just knew Kaya was the one and this was our time. I would have to convince her that we belonged together.
My father shook his head. "You cannot make these changes."
I turned to him with a smile, the first moment of happiness I’d felt looking toward him in a long time. "That's the thing, Father. I just did."
I turned to Adrianna and Trevor. "The three of us will run the company together. Trevor and Adrianna will handle the day to day, and I will continue to be the face of the company. I understand there are some obligations to be met, and we will honor those. From this meeting forward I will no longer have singular voting rights. The three of us will run this company together as my grandfather intended."
I deliberately met the board member's gazes, letting them know that they were not shoving us aside and that we were there to stay.
My father pointed at me. "You're doing this on purpose. You are deliberately making efforts to devalue this company. My voting shares are not being sold. You aren’t getting rid of me."
I smiled at him bitterly. "Father, my whole goal in life was to keep you away from making any decisions that would affect all of us again. If I have not successfully done that this time, I intend to keep trying. I let my obligations keep me from happiness once before, and I won't ever do that again. The decision has been made, and no vote by the board can change it."
CHAPTER 50
KAYA
I finally hadmy life back, and I poured myself into school. I had viable reasons, but so far this term was shit, and I’d been hustling over the last two weeks to catch up.
To avoidyour empty heart?
Fuck, I wasn’t thinking about him. Or how much I missed him. I needed to focus and fight for my normalcy.
Most of my classes were fine. I had good study habits, and I was able to play catch up pretty easily. The one class I couldn't fake it in was photography. Xander had asked to see me after class, and I knew he couldn't be happy with me. My classmates were all busy out scoping places to shoot and meeting their assignments, where I was barely passing the course and turning in assignments. I got some shots in Scotland, so that was helpful. But God, I needed to realign my world back on track to get this done this semester.
Easier said than done when I was missing someone fiercely and felt like a piece of me was missing. God, I missed him. That deep, hearty laugh, his teasing smile and warm embrace. His hugs were just a cocoon that I wanted to stay in, but that wasn’t an option.
I missed everything about him. I was walking through a fog, going through the motions to just get by.Part of the problem was that all of this felt, not boring exactly, but like it was somebody else's life. I'd been living on adrenaline for two months, and now I was just supposed to go back to taking classes and be completely normal. How did people do that?
Not to mention, I'd met all these other people. Created attachments with a sort of family. I hadn't been alone. I hadn't dealt with that feeling of having to stay separate from everybody all the time. For two months I’d had a family. Not just Saint, but Westin, and Saff, and Lachlan, and of course, Gemma.
Gemma was the kind of friend I hadn't paid enough attention to before. She was my friend and I loved her, and she’d even let me move into her flat until I could find a place of my own. We were obviously close, but I'd kept her at arm's length until she had helped me through the fire that was Jasper Saint's world. And that world felt like my world now. It felt like where I belonged.
This world had started to feel awkward and uncomfortable. I still loved school, but I needed to get my focus back.
Gemma and I were walking across campus, and she said, "Oh shit, incoming. Andrew."
I immediately turned on my heel to go the opposite direction, but Gemma grabbed my elbow. "You are going to deal with him because we are not missing Xander's class."
