AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you mean?”
Daphne shrugged. “Nothing. Just curious.”
But it didn’t seem like nothing. Something about how she acted reminded me of the other night at the Nguyen’s party…
“Oh boy—here comes Bryce. I better move over. You’re supposed to be next to him all night, right?” Daphne winked at me and hustled away.
“Right.” Gene Windsor had been crystal-clear that I was to stand by my husband and stay out of trouble all night.
But…how the hell did Daphne know about that?
I considered Daphne a friend. Still, that didn’t mean I could blindly trust her. She was as motivated by money and power as anyone else who surrounded me at the moment.
I decided to switch gears. “Daphne… How is everything with you and Gene? Are you able to talk to him regularly?”
She shrugged. “Not exactly, because of the prison’s restrictions. But we’ve been in contact.”
“So, are you planning on staying together?”
Daphne turned and stared at her enormous mansion. “I guess it all depends.”
“On what?”
She sighed. “On a lot of things.”
“Is it about the money?” I guessed.
“Isn’t it always?” She sighed again. “I don’t know about you, but I’m never going back to ‘normal’ life. I can’t. So I’m just hanging on here and seeing what needs to be done. You never know with my husband—you just never know what he’s going to ask for.”
True, Daphne. Very true.
I squeezed her arm. “I hope Michael Jones comes through for you with a big settlement offer. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, Daphne. You could do whatever you wanted if you got that—you and the baby would both be taken care of.”
“I know, but… Ten million doesn’t really seem like enough when you can have tenbillion, you know?” She kept staring at the house. “Gene makes you work for it, though. It’s not easy being in this family.”
I stood by her side, staring at the enormous oceanfront mansion. “You’re right about that.”
* * *
As expected, Bryce had a ton of emails to catch up on during the short plane ride to Boston. I didn’t mind at all. I sat happily by his side, nestled against his big body.
Heaven.If heaven could be a place on earth, this was it: right by my husband’s side.
“You’re being quiet,” he said as we landed. “But I guess that’s because I’ve been on my laptop non-stop. Sorry about that. And unfortunately, I have to go into the office for a few hours tonight. The government informed our legal team that they’re about to announce a pre-trial date. Jury selection will begin sooner than we thought, and we have to be prepared for how this will impact our stock valuation.”
I squeezed his hand. “That sounds like a lot. How is the board? How does everyone feel about all this?”
He blew out a deep breath. “Everything’s up in the air right now. I’m personally prepared for the fact that my father’s probably going to be convicted and that we’ll be forced to move forward from that. But Regina Hernandez and some of the others aren’t so sure. They want a plan in place in case thatdoesn’thappen.”
“You mean if he isn’t convicted?”
Bryce nodded. “They aren’t sure that they want him to come back. They might want me to stay on as CEO.”
“Wow.” I blinked at him. “That’s ahugedeal. How do you feel about it?”
He was quiet for a moment as our bags were loaded into a sleek black SUV. Once we climbed inside and the driver sped toward Beacon Hill, he said, “It’s what I’ve always wanted. And now that my father went and did this, I feel like I have the exact reason for taking over that I’ve been looking for. My father is greedy and only wants what’s best for himself—always. Now everyone knows it.”
Bryce held my hand as he stared out the window. The Boston skyline was streaked with pink, the city lights just beginning to wink out from the windows. “I believe we can serve a higher purpose with our company, and I’d like to grow it into something that our family can be proud of. We’ll still make tons of money, but there are lots of opportunities to innovate and do good things in the world. My father has never capitalized on that. He’s too afraid of risking what he has. His wealth has always been the most important thing to him. I can’t blame him for that. But I grew up different than he did—I’vealwayshad it all, and I realize I don’t need more to feel secure.”
