Tess #3
I was so mired in feeling glum about the situation—along with admittedly having butterflies about the prospect of seeing Scott—that I neglected to notice the floor number when we got off the elevator until the doors had shut behind us, and I didn’t recognize anything around me.
“I think we got off on the wrong floor,” I said to Kendra.
“No, we’re here today. I know where the room is. Follow me.” She brushed past us to lead us down a long hallway past offices with signs like Media Relations, Production Development, and Director of Digital Content.
“Something’s weird,” I whispered to Teyana.
She was gazing forlornly after Kendra and took a moment to look at me. “What? Why?”
“Because this is all media related. Sebastian Industrial shouldn’t have offices like this.”
“But we’re at the Sebastian Center.”
“Do they rent out space in the building to other companies?” I didn’t know why I was asking her. She wouldn’t know the answer any better than I would.
Before I could direct the question to Kendra instead, we were at a large conference room, being ushered in by an assistant or receptionist-type person who was definitely not Eden or anyone else I recognized.
In fact, there wasn’t anyone at all that I recognized, and there were quite a few people in the room.
Where were Paris and Anthony and the Matts?
Where were the lawyers? Where was Brett? Where was Scott or his father, Henry?
“It looks like we’re the last ones here,” Kendra said, looking around the room. With a nod from an older gentleman standing at the door, she gestured for us to sit. “If you will all take a seat, I’ll get us started.”
I hesitated, wanting to get in a private word with her first, but she beat me to it. “In the future, you’ll handle this next part. Just, since you’ve been out of the loop, I’m going to step in today.”
“Uh. Okay.” Considering that I’d never actually been a liaison, I was happy to watch and learn. “But—”
I couldn’t say more since she’d already crossed the room to the head of the table. I exchanged a glance with Teyana, then we sat down in two of the empty chairs remaining.
Immediately, Kendra welcomed everyone. “I think there are a few people here who might not know me, so I’ll introduce myself.
I’m Kendra Montgomery, owner of Conscience Connect, and I am very excited that we have finally arrived at the day we seal up this wonderful partnership between the Sebastian name and the Dysautonomia Relief Foundation.
“While we did set out to court Sebastian Industrial for this union, led by my friend and partner Tess Turani…” She paused to gesture toward me.
All eyes swept in my direction, and I waved awkwardly.
“Our negotiations broke down a week ago when their high demands forced us to abandon our hopes of compromise.”
Wait...what?
Teyana slanted close to whisper, “High demands?”
“Demanding someone marry someone they don’t love is kind of a high demand.” Though, that probably wasn’t what Kendra was alluding to in front of all these people.
...or hold on.
I leaned forward, eager for her to go on, my stomach fluttering with tentative exhilaration.
“Fortunately, due to innovative thinking, a passion to succeed, and the support of the empire founder himself, Irving Sebastian, our teams were able to shift directions and secure funding with a corporation equally capable of sponsoring the DRF at the same level we could expect from the SIC. For more on that, I’ll turn the floor over to Sebastian News Corp president, Samuel Sebastian. ”
Sebastian News Corp? Samuel?
I vaguely remembered Brett mentioning Samuel as one of Henry’s younger brothers. And News Corp was another branch of the Sebastian holdings, a corporation that had split off from SIC in the nineties and was led by Samuel and another brother, August.
Which meant they were a Sebastian company not run by Henry.
Which meant they had Sebastian money and possibly no interest in who Scott married.
That tentative exhilaration lost its uncertainty and burst into full-blown excitement. Oh, Scott! What glorious thing have you done?
But where was he? And how on earth would his father let him get away with this?
My knee bounced under the table as the older gentleman who’d been standing by the door came forward, and Kendra took one of the other empty chairs. “Thank you, Ms. Montgomery. I’ll make my speech brief and let the people who really know what goes on around here handle the actual business.”
A polite chuckle spread through the room.
“In all seriousness, I just wanted to stop by and welcome the DRF to the family. I’m excited to bring awareness to this important issue and to hopefully change the world for those suffering from dysautonomia-related syndromes.
It’s high time SNC was involved with more public outreach, and we couldn’t step out in the limelight with a better partner than the DRF, so thank you all for being part of this.
With all that said, let me turn this over to the man in charge from here on out, our newest board member and VP of public integrity. ”
On cue, the door opened, and in walked the man I loved.