Chapter 46
“You can do this,”Bones said, taking my hand and kissing the back of it.
“I know,” I stated. I glanced out of the town car window and looked at the building I was about to walk into. It was going to be brutal, but I’d strut into it with my head held high and face the board…and my stepfather.
This morning, I’d woken up in bed next to my biker husband. Instead of letting anxiety and panic get the best of me, I’d slid off my panties and straddled him. I needed to take control and get what I wanted. I needed to know I could enter the arena like a fighter ready for hand-to-hand combat, and that I deserved to take what was rightfully mine.
While I was showering, Bones had knocked on the bathroom door to let me know the clothes I’d had delivered from Folson’s department store were waiting for me.
My dark hair was swept back away from my face. I wore a crisp white button-down shirt, a black suede knee-length skirt and leather boots that stopped at my calf.
I looked over at Bones who was dressed as Royce Dalton—dark trousers and a gray cashmere sweater that made his blue eyes pop. He hadn’t argued when I told him I’d arranged for clothes to be picked out for him too. He knew the persona he’d have to adopt when we entered Spencer Pharmaceuticals, even if everyone was going to know who he was before the day was over.
“Okay,” I said with an exhale. “Let’s do this.”
The driver opened my door, and I climbed out with a folder of documents in my hand. Bones wasn’t far behind me.
We entered the glass revolving door of the building and stepped into the lobby. I waved to the security officer behind the reception desk who’d been alerted earlier that I was coming and that I’d have a guest.
Bones pressed the elevator button and the carriage doors opened. We both stepped inside. I pressed the button for the floor with the executive conference room. As soon as the doors closed, I took a step toward him.
“You’ve got this, Duchess,” Bones said.
A smile tugged on my lips. “Now I know everything is all right because you called me Duchess, not Hayden. You only call me Hayden when it’s something serious.”
My heart drummed in my chest. The words felt like a lie on my tongue. This was serious. I was facing my fate; I was embracing my legacy.
Love you, Dad.
The doors to the elevator opened and Bones placed his hand at the small of my back, urging me to step out first. Oliver stood by the receptionist’s station, a smile blooming across his wrinkled face when he saw me. I walked to him and embraced him quickly before stepping back.
“They’re all in there,” Oliver said. “No one has any idea what’s going on. Arnold is blustering something fierce.” His gaze darted to Bones and then back to me.
I nodded. “That’s to be expected, I think. My mother?”
“She’s in there, too. She’s as confused as your stepfather—she has no idea you’re behind this meeting.”
“It’s probably better that way,” I stated. “Oliver, I’d like to introduce you to my husband, Royce Dalton.”
Bones held out his hand to the older man. “Pleasure to meet you, Sir.”
“And you,” Oliver said, immediately taking his hand. “I apologize, but only board members are allowed to attend meetings.”
“I have no problem occupying myself,” Bones said. He shot me a smile and dropped Oliver’s hand.
“Margot will be happy to get you anything you need,” Oliver said. “Shall we, Hayden?”
“Yes, I think we shall.” I looked at Bones one last time for moral support.
“Give ‘em hell,” he whispered, loud enough for Oliver to hear.
“I will,” I assured him.
Oliver and I headed toward the double mahogany doors of the board room. “I approve.”
“You don’t even know him,” I said with a smile.
“I’m a good judge of character. And Hayden, before you go in there you should know it’s going to get ugly. Stand your ground. You’ve got me and a couple of other board members as allies. We’ll go to bat for you, but the rest is up to you. Be strong.”
Oliver pulled opened one of the doors and gestured for me to enter first. The board members of my father’s company were already sitting at the table, and they were talking in low voices. One by one, attention turned toward the door to see who’d arrived.
Surprise lit several of their faces. A few of them openly smiled at me. I didn’t smile back. My gaze went to my mother, who sat at the far end of the table looking confused. Her gaze bounced from me to my stepfather who stood next to her.
“Hayden?” my mother asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Only board members are allowed at emergency meetings,” Arnold stated.
“Thank you for being here on such short notice,” I said, addressing the entire room and ignoring Arnold completely. “Yesterday morning, I got married.”
There was a rumble of surprise, followed by some cursing and at least one congratulations.
I waited for the room to calm. “As board members, you know exactly what this means. You’ve all known this day would come since my father died. Well, the day is here, and as of this moment, I’m the new majority shareholder and Chair of the Board of Spencer Pharmaceuticals.”
“Married?” my stepfather spat as his face darkened with annoyance. “We’re just supposed to take your word that you’re married all of a sudden?”
“No, you’re not.” I set the folder I’d carried into the room on the table in front of me and opened it. I pulled out my marriage license and a copy of the trust my father had set in stone and handed it to Oliver. Oliver immediately took the documents to Joyce Lynwood, the company’s General Counsel.
“It’s her marriage license and a copy of the trust,” Joyce announced. “I received an official copy of the license as soon as it was done. It’s been reviewed, and you can be assured that she’s satisfied the legal waiting period and the marriage is bound and filed with the county clerk. It’s official, and the requirements to execute her father’s trust have been fulfilled.”
“Who the hell did you marry?” Arnold snapped.
I met my mother’s stupefied gaze. “Royce Dalton.”
“Let me see that.” My stepfather jumped from his seat, but Joyce was already passing the marriage document to the next board member.
My stepfather nearly ripped it from Bruce Allentown’s hand. He stared at it in disbelief.
“I’ve also updated my personal will and testament.” I didn’t take my eyes off my stepfather when I delivered the final piece of news. “As of this moment, in the unlikely event that I die, Spencer Pharmaceuticals will be dissolved, the patents sold to the highest bidder and all proceeds donated to charity. Shareholders will of course be compensated for any shares held at the market stock price at the time of my death. Do I need to point out that would not be good?”
Arnold’s face morphed into a picture of rage. His eyes bulged like a cartoon character and his nostrils flared.
“This was my father’s company,” I said. “And his vision was always about affordable medication for patients in need of drugs that work as well or better than anything else on the market. He wasn’t interested in maximum profit. It’s why no one believed he’d ever amount to anything, and how he was able to maintain control of the company during its rapid growth before he died. No one was interested until the patents started getting approved and the money began to flow. And then, in the last few years after his death, the company has diverted sharply from his original vision. I intend to rectify that effective immediately. And in order to do so, my first act as Chair of this board is to fire you, Arnold.”
“You can’t fire me!” Arnold bellowed. “You need a unanimous vote. Marilyn, stop your daughter from doing this. She’s a child. This is insane!”
“I can’t,” Mom murmured. She looked confused. Hurt. And completely unsure of what was going on. “The trust has executed. The moment Hayden assumed her rightful seat on the board, I became nothing more than a minority shareholder. My vote is null. Actually, all of our votes are null if she wants you gone.”
Joyce Lynwood nodded in agreement but didn’t say a word.
“You planned this! You planned a coup,” my stepfather raged. He swept his hand across the table, scattering the papers to the floor.
Oliver went to the door of the boardroom and opened it. He stuck out his head and asked the front desk to call for security.
Arnold marched across the room toward me. He looked like he wanted to wring my neck. “You stupid fucking bitch,” he hissed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? They’re going to come after?—”
A hand reached out and clamped Arnold’s shoulder hard enough that it ended his tirade.
It wasn’t security—it was my husband. His expression was furious and he looked ready to tear Arnold’s head off his body.
“You’re done, asshole.” He met my gaze as he grabbed Arnold, ready to carry him out of the room if necessary. “I’ll make sure security escorts him from the building.”
“Thank you,” I said to Bones.
Before Arnold left, I leaned in close to my stepfather and whispered, “I know what you did to my father.”
I watched his expression; his eyes narrowed and color bloomed across his cheeks. “You’ll never be able to prove that.”
Bones roughly escorted Arnold from the room.
Oliver closed the door behind them.
A few board members rose from their chairs and left without saying a word, and others began coming up to me, congratulating me on my marriage and expressing their excitement that I was finally Chair of the board. I couldn’t help but notice it was all men who’d known my father.
Joyce surprised me when she came up to me and hugged me. “We’ve been waiting for this for a while, Hayden. Your father’s passing was hard on all of us who knew him, and we want his vision to succeed. With you at the helm, that can happen now.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.
My mother hadn’t risen from her chair. Instead, she’d swiveled it and was now staring out the window as the last of the board members left the room.
I looked at Oliver. “Thank you. For everything.”
“My pleasure,” he said. “I’ll ensure Mr. Dalton has no trouble coming back up. And I’m sure there are things you want to speak to your mother about…alone.”
I squeezed his hand and then watched the elderly man stand erect and nearly skip to the door. “Feels good to clean house, doesn’t it?”
I smiled. “It does.”
The door shut quietly behind him. I turned back toward my mother and slowly approached her. I pulled out the chair next to her and took a seat.
“What just happened, Hayden?” she asked, rotating the chair to look at me.
“There are some things I need to tell you. Things I’ve purposefully kept from you.” I paused. “I need you to be strong for me, okay? I need you to hear me.”
“For the love of—I’m listening, Hayden. Just tell me why you got married and didn’t tell me, and why you went behind Arnold’s back—just tell me everything.”
I’d doctored my life for so long when it came to my mother, but I realized what a disservice I’d done to us both.
Time for the truth.
“A few weeks ago, a man pulled a gun on me,” I began. “We thought it was just an accident—the police said he was a tweaker looking to rob someone and get his next fix. But a few nights ago, a man broke into my home. There was no sign of forced entry and the security alarm had been disarmed.”
My mother’s face paled.
“He was there to kill me, Mom. Bones shot him and then went after him, but he got away. Then we started to put the puzzle pieces together. Bones didn’t believe it was a coincidence and the more we discussed it, the more it became apparent they were both attempts on my life. There’s a lot going on here, but it all pointed to Arnold. Mom, he was the one with Dad when he died. The only one…and as soon as Dad was gone, he took control of the board and married you. And then Bones found out that he’s the one who scared off Tyler. He was preventing me from getting married and taking my seat on the board. With Arnold’s shares, plus yours and the interim Chair position, he gained full control of the company.”
The look of shock let me know she’d heard every word.
“He killed my Kellen, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but we can’t prove it.” I paused, and then tried to put myself in her position for a moment. “This is a lot to dump on you.” I took her hand. It was warm in mine.
She gave my hand a squeeze. “I don’t know how to process it. I’m so sorry, darling. I had no idea such a monster lurked beneath the surface. I feel like a fool.”
“He fooled us all,” I said quietly. “This isn’t your fault.”
“It’s my job to protect you. It’s a mother’s job to protect her children.” She clenched her jaw. “Why did you keep me in the dark? Why not tell me you were getting married and you were going to take over the company? Wait, who’s Bones?”
The door to the office opened and Bones strode inside. He marched over to the end of the table, pulled out a swivel chair and maneuvered it so it was next to me. He placed his hand possessively on my thigh, immediately drawing my mother’s attention.
“Mom,” I began. “I’d like to introduce you to Bones. He’s a member of the Tarnished Angels Motorcycle Club.”
My mother’s expression didn’t change, and it wasn’t because of the delicate work she’d had done. “You married a biker.”
I angled my chin. “Yes.”
She looked from me, to Bones, to the hand on my thigh, and then back to Bones. “Thank you for protecting my daughter.”
“It’s my honor,” Bones said, his voice low.
“I could kill you both for depriving me of attending your wedding,” Mom said. “And now with Arnold ousted, this will be a publicity nightmare. Not to mention the press is going to have a field day when news spreads that my twenty-five-year-old daughter with no experience running even a small company just married a biker and then took control of one of the most profitable pharmaceutical companies in the country.”
I winced. “The stock is most likely going to tank and people will flood the market with shares, but I’m prepared to buy them back. I’ll use every penny Dad left me if I have to in order to keep the company alive.”
My mother waved her hand away. “We can handle that together. That’s not my concern. My concern is standing as a united front when the news about Arnold hits. It’ll be messy. What with him being your stepfather and my…husband.”
“You’ve got a plan to spin this, don’t you?” Bones asked.
“I do.” My mother smiled. “We’re going to throw the wedding party of all parties. And if I recall, you look spectacular in a tuxedo.”