18. Liam
CHAPTER 18
LIAM
L iam was furious with himself.
All the way to work, he was fuming. He had no idea how he could have let a mess like this happen. Since he’d become CEO several years ago, there’d never been a fumble like this in corporate history. Sure, the error was fixable enough — Liam had a few people to speak with and a few emails to send, and the company would lose some money, but the mistake could be fixed. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he had trusted someone to make decisions for him and he’d been let down.
Over the last week, Liam had been so focused on Grace and Amelia that he hadn’t spared much time for work. Ryan had been right on Friday — the pile of things Liam needed to do was growing far too large. Even without this mistake, he needed to return to work. He couldn’t live in family make-believe land anymore.
No matter how much he might want to.
Ryan was already there when Liam arrived. He nodded.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.” Liam passed the reception desk and strode purposefully into his office, where he booted up his computer. Ryan followed. “What’s my agenda?”
“First, we need to address the purchasing error,” Ryan said. “It looks like one of your department heads purchased the services of a consulting agency but failed to consider the taxes on the service — which is why we’re facing a significant loss.”
“Understood. Do we want to work with that agency?” Liam felt out of the loop. Usually, he would have been brought in on a decision like this — no, he would have been the one making a decision like this. Now, after a week of light work, he had no idea why they had chosen this particular consultant.
Perhaps that was where his annoyance came from — not because of the mistake or the lost money, but because he hadn’t been involved.
“Yes, they’re a good agency, and we need them to do a review of our corporate policies for this year’s audit,” Ryan explained. Liam felt another pang of frustration. Even his assistant knew more about what was going on at the company than he did.
“Okay, then. I’ll sort that out with accounting. What else?”
“R you’re terrified of having people who love you and rely on you. That makes a relationship between us impossible, and that’s fine. I won’t push you. But Grace is different. You’re her father, and she needs you.”
“You have no right to talk to me like this.”
“I do, because I’ve been around. You need to know what’s happening with your daughter. You’re being selfish, Liam. Your daughter isn’t a business tool. You need to be savoring these moments with her, not running off.”
“Enough.” Liam didn’t raise his voice, but the ice in his tone made Amelia take a step back. “I know what’s best for Grace. You don’t. You seem to think you have a place in this family, but maybe you’ve forgotten our agreement. You aren’t really my wife or Grace’s mother. You would do well to remember that.”
And with that, Liam stormed out of the room.