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“Absolutely. But why aren’t you going to tell him yourself?”
“He already knows about the accident and there isn’t much he can do to help,” I said. “I’m all the family that Mom and D2 have. I’ve got to be there with them. I’ll leave Simon’s car here and catch an Uber home.”
“Sadie?” Layla called.
The elevator chimed softly, and the doors whooshed open.
“Yeah?”
“I really think you should wait to talk to Simon. Are you sure you want to leave without doing that?”
I held the elevator door open and considered what I was about to do—deliberately disobey Simon. It wasn’t wise, given the state of my ass. I didn’t care. He couldn’t touch me if I was on the other side of the country. Besides, something shifted in me that day. After six long months of letting Simon make all the important decisions, it was time for me to make a few of my own. Yes, I was going to Montreal, with or without his blessing.
“I’ll text him.” There it was. I’d just broken a direct order to wait and didn’t care. If he was going to make me choose between his arbitrary way of doing things and getting to my family as fast as I could, my family would win. Every time.
FAMILY RULES
Simon
The minute Sadie scooped up her laptop and left the boardroom, I knew she was going to defy my note asking her to wait so we could discuss things more thoroughly. That angered me, anger was an emotion I couldn’t bring to the meeting at hand, so I slotted it into a ‘later’ box and focused on the deal in progress.
After months of back and forth, the meeting ran only a couple of hours until we finally reached agreement. We shook hands and expressed mutual admiration for how much territory we’d covered over the past few months. We’d struck a deal that would make everyone money while providing green power to some needy areas.
The boardroom doors opened, and Layla was standing at her desk, composed and professional as always. She joined me in bidding the others good night.
When the elevator doors closed behind the four Latinos, Layla pressed the stop button on the boardroom video recorder and turned to me. I nodded at the monitoring device.
“Send that to Legal tonight, okay? They’ll be back tomorrow afternoon to sign the contract. All parties will need to see the draft document by midday.” With that cleared from my agenda, I glanced into my office, hoping to see the woman who I knew wouldn’t be there.
“Where’s Sadie?” I asked.
Layla looked at her watch. Quarter to ten. “Probably just about to get into an Uber to go to YVR.”
“Pardon?” I forced a coolness into my voice that I didn’t feel.
“Cynthia and Sadie’s grandfather have been in a car accident.”
“Yes. I know. I told Sadie to wait, and we’d discuss what to do next.”
A flame of selfish anger burned through me. Sadie had disobeyed me. Deliberately. To be fair, I reminded myself how distraught she had to be.
“Why the hell didn’t she interrupt the meeting?” I asked, punching the elevator call button repeatedly while digging my phone out of my pocket.
“And what could you have done?”
“I could have gone with her.”
“Simon, you’re next to useless as a nurse and I’m sure that Sadie has figured that out by now. You need to do what you do best. Stay here and take care of business.”
“Sadie is my business,” I muttered as I stepped into the elevator.
Sadie
Layla had booked me a seat on the red eye, so I had enough time to pack carefully. Montreal would be stiflingly muggy, the air one degree shy of water. I chose my thinnest sundresses, shorts, and tops. Sandals and flip flops.
I had moved to the coast for a good reason. Summer in my hometown was a sweat fest.
I locked my suitcase and went downstairs to wait for my ride. Sad that I hadn’t been able to say good-bye to Simon, I pulled out my phone to see if he’d messaged me back. I bit my lip when there were no new messages from him, just lots of huggy-kissy ones from my mother. She must have been drugged or something. No one in my family hugs. That was a skill Simon was teaching me.
