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“That was months ago.”
Amara raised and lowered a single shoulder in an unaffected shrug. Only the tightness around her eyes and the sheer molten fire blazing in her golden irises alerted me to the level of her anger.
The depth of my betrayal.
“And then,” she continued, “we entered into an albeit inappropriate physical and emotional relationship.”
My heart stuttered. If she was droppingthatbomb without care for her safety, everyone in this family was already well aware of who Amara and I were to each other.
I supposed that explained the murderous gleam in Leon’s eyes.
“I don’t think your family needs to be here for this, Princess. If you’re mad at me, let’s go somewhere and talk.”
“I’m past ‘talking,’” she said. “And don’t call me that.”
“What do you want from me right now? Do you want me to tell you how I approached Chloe and Brie on New Year’s Eve and tried to take you out before you could run this place into the ground? Yeah, I did that. But like I said,that was months ago. I don’t feel that way anymore, and you know it.”
“What else?” she asked, ignoring my last statement.
“What do you mean,what else?”
“How about the fact that you gave me a fucking joke of a budget to roll out the canned cocktails? Or the fact that you tried to make me sign a promissory note to secure funds frommy own company.”
“You didwhat?” Leon asked, his cheeks flaming red as his temper flared further.
Fucking hell. If I got out of here with my head still attached to my body, I’d consider that a win.
“But you never signed it,” I protested weakly to Amara.
“The simple fact of the matter, Calvin,” she spat out my name, and I winced. It had been ages since she’d called me by my full first name, and I fucking hated it, hated how clipped and disgusted the two syllables sounded falling from the lips that had brought me so much joy and pleasure over the last few months, “is that you think you’re the one in charge here. And I let it slide because I was still getting my bearings, and you and I had enough shit to fight about without adding that to the mix.”
“Iamin charge of the money,” I reminded her.
“You’re in charge of tracking our finances, of offering solutions to our weaknesses and exploiting our strengths. Tell me, Calvin: when my father ran this company, did he ever have to ask—no,beg—you to give him money to run a new campaign or begin R&D on a new product? Did he ever have to deal with the bullshit you’ve put me through?”
“Let me answer that for you,” Leon said, smiling at his daughter. “No, sweets. I never had to deal with any of the bullshit you’ve had to. And you”—he turned to me, raising a finger to point accusingly at me—“have grossly overstepped.”
I looked around the room at the Delatou family, knowing I was fighting a losing battle, but still unable to stop searching for a foothold as I stared down a thousand foot drop to the bottom of a canyon. At last, my gaze settled on Brie.
“Remember what you told me that day?” I asked, and surprise by being addressed flashed in her eyes. “You told me you knew I meant well.”
“I also told you that your opinion of her didn’t make Amara any less qualified.”
“AndItold you,” Chloe piped up, “that you didn’t know better than my parents about who was fit to run this company.”
Up to that point, I’d been trying to save face. My relationship with Amara was terribly damaged, and I didn’t know if there’d ever be any coming back from this. I knew how deeply I cut her. I’d listened to her ideas, her dreams and plans, fears and hopes over the last few months. I knew how hard she worked, and how much this company—and leading it successfully—meant to her.
I knew that, and I should’ve come clean about the attempted coup ages ago. If I had, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now. God, I was so fucking stupid. I’d give anything to take it back.
I stood then, palms slapping down onto the table, reading to make my final stand. I wasn’t going down without a fight. Next to me, Brie flinched.
“Tell me, Cal,” Lena said, speaking for the first time, taking the wind right out of my sails. “Have you ever bothered to study our international distributions beyond reconciling the shipping invoices each month?”
I scrunched up my face in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“We’ve been telling you all along that Amara knows what she’s doing. About her MBA and every other thing she’s done for this company. But have you ever bothered to look into any of it, or have you just been content to coast on your opinion of her?”
“My opinion of her—”
