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A myriad of emotions crossed each of their faces—apprehension, fear, discomfort, dismay.
At last, Chloe opened her mouth.
And the whole sordid story spilled free. About how, the exact same day Dad had signed over the company to me, Cal had gone behind my back and approached Chloe and Brie, begging them to see reason, imploring them to vote me out of my CEO position when he eventually called for my removal. How he’d approached my parentsbeforemy official appointment, pleading with them to take a step back and seek an outside candidate.
From the beginning, Cal hadn’t believed in me. That wasn’t news. And maybe he’d come around to the idea, and maybe he believed in me now. But this? This cut deeper than I would’ve liked.
I loved him, and I thought he loved me too.
It fucking wrecked me to think he could’ve been pretending all along.
As the details unfolded from Chloe’s mouth, the pain in my chest morphed and shifted until it became something else entirely—rage.
So…yeah. I’d tell him he was going to be a father, that I was having our baby. But I’d be damned if he ever hadmeagain.
And I’d be extra damned if he had anything to do with runningmycompany.
This was the end of the fucking road for me and Calvin Ryder, both personally and professionally.
“Why didn’t you tell me Cal was essentially staging a coup before I’d even officially taken over the company?” I asked my dad when I’d unceremoniously pushed into their house the following morning.
I’d given myself a day between breaking the news to my sisters and telling my parents.
For their parts, the girls hadn’t left my side since they showed up at my house the day before, content to binge cheesy eighties romcoms and gorge ourselves on popcorn and chocolate. Delia, Ella, and Brie had dipped into my red wine selection, taunting Chloe and I by swirling the glasses under our noses.
Surprisingly, the scent of my favorite Italian Rioja made my stomach clench dangerously, and Chloe had never liked red anyway.
This morning, I showered and pulled myself together, my sisters hovering as though they feared I’d try to drown myself or something. Before I left, I made Chloe promise to give me a half hour head start. I knew she was chomping at the bit to make her own pregnancy announcement, and I figured if she told them after me, they’d be less likely to crucify me for getting pregnant out of wedlock by a man who was, for all intents and purposes, an employee.
A man they thought I hated, and who hated me in return.
God, I was not looking forward to my dad’s reaction.
Blessedly, I wasn’t sad and woebegone anymore.
Now, I was pissed off, the fury and rage at Cal fueling my every move.
Before I nailed his balls to the wall, however, I needed to have a frank conversation with my parents.
“Hello to you too, sweets,” my dad said, raising a brow. He was seated at the breakfast nook in their expansive kitchen, half-moon glasses perched on the tip of his nose, the Sunday paper propped up in front of him as he read what I knew was the business news.
You could take the CEO out of the company and all that.
“Don’t ‘sweets’ me,” I said, throwing myself into a chair across from him, leaning my elbows on the table and staring him down. “Tell me what Cal said to you before I took over.”
My dad sighed and folded the paper, laying it on the table and removing his glasses to set them on top. He was in no hurry, and his lack of urgency only stoked the fire in my blood.
With a sigh and a pinch to the bridge of his nose, as though he wished he could be anywhere but here, he said, “It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, Mar. He wasn’t on board with you taking over.”
“Why didn’t you tell me then?” I implored them both as my mom strode to the table and sat beside Dad.
“Because it wouldn’t have changed anything,” Dad said. “You were taking over whether he liked it or not. It wasn’t up to him—and it still isn’t.”
“Did you know he went to Chloe and Brie when he couldn’t sway you guys to his side?”
My parents blinked in surprise; clearly, that tidbit was news to them.
I quickly filled them in on what my sisters had told me, my father’s face darkening with each of my words. When I finished, he rose, practically vibrating with rage.
