Chapter 17
Hilary Pen
Fear sweat gathers in my armpits, but I follow Mr. Pen into the opulent conference room, a step behind and to the right of him like I always do as his personal assistant.
Silence permeates the room as everyone locks eyes on us.
As I help my boss settle in, we work without a word spoken between us—a perk of spending eight years learning each other’s body language—while every eye in the room scrutinizes us.
Most people watch us with curiosity since we’re the newest and mostly unknown attendees of the Koch shareholders meeting, but Jocelyn Koch openly glares at me. Her thick makeup threatens to crack every time she sneers at the godawful ring on my finger.
Table seats are only for shareholders, while personal assistants, advisors, and secretaries sit along the outer wall, so I ignore the empty seat beside Mr. Pen and settle in the wall chair directly behind him as we agreed.
The meeting begins.
I play my part sitting in the background and absorbing the various reactions as Alex drones on. Connor slips his pen out from his pocket and creates a slow, unimpressed click-click as he pushes the back end on the table.
By the third time Alex gives him an annoyed glare with no change from Connor, he stops and addresses him in front of everyone.
“I’m sorry, who are you, and why are you being disruptive?”
Connor click-clicks the pen one more time before tucking it back into his pocket and weaving his hands on the table in front of him.
“I’m insulted you don’t remember me, Mr. Koch,” he drawls.
Alex’s aid rushes forward to whisper in his ear, but Connor doesn’t give him the chance.
“After all, I am your son.”
The entire room freezes.
Connor stands. All eyes lock on him as he saunters toward the head of the table.
“My name is Connor Pen, although I was born Heath Tombs. You took advantage of my mom. You’re my father.”
Dawning horror slackens both Alex and Jocelyn’s jaws. They stare with wide, unblinking eyes, refusing to believe the past has come back to haunt them.
Alex breaks his trance first, probably out of fear since Connor stalks toward him.
“What does your name have to do with anything? Everyone knows I only have a daughter.”
“Ah, but do you?” Connor asks.
Jocelyn jerks. Panic gleams in her eyes.
“What does that mean?” Alex demands.
“I have two paternity tests in the folder on the table. One proving I’m your son, and the other proving Destiny isn’t your child at all.”
Chaos erupts as Jocelyn dives over the table.
I stay calm and seated even as she snatches up the folder, scrambles back across, and flings it open.
Surprise sharpens my senses as papers fly everywhere.
The folder I put on the table was empty. Connor must have hidden the stack of copies in his briefcase and slipped them inside when I was adjusting his place setting.
A sheet slides across the glass table and floats down to land in front of my foot.
Connor spoke the truth. Alex Koch is not the biological father of Destiny Koch.
Joy fills my heart. Whether the test is forged or real doesn’t matter, although Jocelyn’s panic suggests it’s true.
Connor kept his word. He’s protecting Destiny. She’s free of her horrid parents.
“Stop this nonsense!” Alex shouts. “This is a shareholder meeting, not a circus. As the CEO and largest shareholder—”
“You’re neither of those things,” Connor interrupts with eerie calm.
Alex’s face turns purple with anger.
“Of course I am! This is my company,” he spits.
“Not for much longer.” Connor turns to me. “Mrs. Pen, the numbers, please,” he says as he pulls Alex’s vacant chair away from the head of the table.
I press the power button on the projector remote.
Already playing on a loop, the slideshow presents more and more evidence of Alex’s poor management of the business and Connor’s growing shares. I press pause on the slide showing the graph with every shareholder’s piece of the pie.
The Koch family has less than half of a percent more than Connor.
“Ha! See! I still have majority share,” Alex gloats.
Connor quirks a brow at me.
I rise and apologize before clicking to the next screen.
With my information included, the Pen family now has three percent more shares than the Koch family.
Alex grabs his chest and stumbles backward, looks lost for a moment, then rallies and points an angry finger at me.
He opens his mouth to scream, but the double doors bang open so hard the walls shake and the projector wobbles.
Police swarm the furious man at the head of the table.
“Alex Koch, you are under arrest for fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice. You have the right—”
As the officer drones on, two more pull Alex toward the door by his cuffed arms.
“This is crazy! I—”
Alex falls silent as his gaze lands on a copy of the paternity test. For a moment, everyone watches in horror as he lifts murderous eyes to his wife.
“You fucking whore! I’ll kill you,” he screams.
Past and present collide, his words the same as those in my worst nightmares. For several terrible heartbeats, I can’t move.
Sound blasts through the room, breaking my trance and slamming me into the present. Alex jerks. Dark crimson blooms on the front of his suit coat.
Movement in my periphery draws my gaze to Jocelyn. She trains the muzzle of her handgun on Connor.
My instincts launch the remote then my entire body across the table at her, but it’s too late.
My ears ring as she presses the trigger again.
Terror unlike anything I’ve ever experienced rips through me, and my soul cries out in misery.
I wasted so many nights and squandered so many days. Connor can’t be dead. I need him.
I need him as my boss, husband, friend, and lover.
The thought of losing him shatters my entire world.
I love Connor Pen. He can’t be dead.
He can’t be.