Chapter 33
Damian
Three Hours Earlier
I pull on the sleeves of my suit jacket and straighten my back. Louisa is waiting for me at her desk. She raises her brows in a silent question, her narrowed eyes trying to assess me. Her scrutiny is exactly what I need to remind myself who I am.
I am Damian Edgerton, founder and CEO of CreativEdge. This is my business, built from the ground up.
“You ready for this?” I say, walking up to her desk. Louisa always accompanies me to the board meetings to take notes and occasionally remind me that I need to be nice to these people.
“Yes, sir.” She picks up her notebook and rounds her desk.
“Just as a heads-up, things might go down in there today,” I tell her.
Louisa’s head snaps to mine. “What do you mean?”
“I’m going to disclose a conflict of interest to the board, and I have a feeling they’ll be unhappy about it.”
She looks at me like I’ve gone mad, but I haven’t.
Things with Brielle have been damn near perfect. And if spending this entire weekend with her showed me anything, it’s that I want more of that. I want to take her out, show her off. I want to take her on trips and go on dates. She deserves that. She deserves to be loved and cherished.
I never thought I’d want to be that person to someone, but I do. Brielle means the world to me, and what we have been building—it’s real. I can feel it.
“Is she okay with this?” Louisa asks quietly, slowing down her steps and forcing me to meet her pace.
“I’m not going to send out a company-wide memo. It’s just the board of directors that need to be made aware, not the staff. That can come later, whenever she’s ready.”
“So, you haven’t talked to her about it, is that what you’re saying?”
I shot her a look from the corner of my eye.
She shakes her head at me, not saying another word.
The boardroom is already full by the time we enter, as usual. I stand behind the chair at the head of the table, waiting until everyone’s eyes are on me. Louisa takes her seat to my right, her expression less than comforting.
Your funeral, her eyes say.
“Good morning, Mr. Edgerton,” Bill says. Everyone else follows up with a polite “Morning, sir.”
“Morning. Before we begin, I have something I’d like to say,” I start.
“We need to call the board to order first. Don’t start on anything yet.” Rachel waves her finger in the air.
If I do get sacked today, this is the one thing that I wouldn’t miss.
I glare at her, stating loudly and clearly, “I hereby call this meeting to order.”
We do roll call and review the agenda for this meeting before I take control of the room again.
“Before we begin, I have an item that needs to be addressed.”
Everyone turns to me, eyes casting glances around the room to see who’s in trouble. Only this time, it’s probably me.
“I have an important conflict of interest that needs to be disclosed.” The room stays silent, waiting on bated breath. “Recently, I have become close with one of the CreativEdge employees…” Still nothing. “Very close… to her,” I add.
That seems to have gotten through, based on the number of shocked eyes staring back at me.
I keep my breathing steady and even, exhibiting the same level of confidence that I always do. Anything less would rattle them more than necessary. I need everyone to see that this isn’t a major issue, nothing to worry about regarding the way I run this business.
“A relationship has developed between the two of us, outside of this company.” Mostly.
The image of her bent over my desk with her dress hiked up around her waist flashes in my mind.
“I want to make it clear that my relationship with Brielle has absolutely no bearing on my ability to lead CreativEdge in the same fashion I always have. I will continue to drive for results, providing superior quality content, creative and innovative marketing, and top-notch customer satisfaction to every client within our portfolio. This conflict of interest is already mitigated within the organization structure, with Brielle reporting to a marketing lead, Trent Abbott. If the board finds it necessary to put in place additional risk mitigation processes, I will accept that decision uncontested.”
The silence that follows my speech is deafening.
“Well, um, okay,” the board vice-chair, Cameron, starts.
“That was unexpected. I think it’s best for the board to convene on this matter separately.
This could have some major blowback on CreativEdge, Damian.
I’m not sure you’ve thought through what being involved with an employee could do to this company if things go sideways.
We need to protect our assets and, quite frankly, cover our ass, if this woman decides to come after you personally, or worse, the business, when this is done and over. ”
“Not ‘when,’” I growl.
“Excuse me?”
“You said ‘when this is done and over.’ I’m clarifying that statement.”
His throat bobs on a rough swallow. “Right. Of course. I misspoke. But that doesn’t change the fact that this carries a substantial risk to CreativEdge.”
“There isn’t any risk,” Rachel pipes up, surprising me. She folds her hands on her lap as everyone turns their eyes to her. Her lips tip up slightly, loving the attention. “Because she’s already quit.”
My brow furrows in confusion. What is she talking about? I think I would know if Brielle suddenly quit her job out of the blue. Besides, I haven’t even given them Brielle’s full name, so how could she possibly think she knows this information?
“Brielle Collins, right?” she asks. The faux innocence in her voice sends ice flooding through my veins. Where did she get that name from? Louisa looks at me, equally as lost as I am.
“Yes, but I can assure you she has not quit her job,” I tell her. My heart is racing, my pulse beating quickly in the side of my neck. An ominous feeling is pushing down on me.
“Well, either fortunately or unfortunately, you’re wrong. Just this morning, she gave her resignation to human resources, effective immediately.”
A level of fury I have never felt pushes at me from the center of my chest, trying to get out and unleash holy hell on this woman. “And why would she do that? What did you say to her?” Barely contained rage simmers just under the surface.
“This isn’t about what I may or may not have said.
Ms. Collins’s decision was of her own making.
If you must know, I told her not to quit.
” She levels a pointed look at me, like one of our best content creators quitting is my fault.
Her bracelets tink together as she waves her hand at me.
“Do sit down, Damian. We have a slew of topics to get through today. Although, I’d like to make a motion to move the sexual harassment training to the top of the agenda. ”
I couldn’t care less about this board meeting.
I need to find Brielle, to talk to her, find out what’s really going on.
Louisa kicks at my chair lightly, encouraging me to take my seat with pleading eyes.
She’s not wrong. After my announcement, the last thing I need is to look like my priorities are somewhere other than the business.
My jaw is tense, my shoulders tight with fury, but I pull my chair out and sit. I just need to get through these two hours, and then I am finding my girl.
Rachel’s motion to move the sexual harassment training to the top of the agenda is seconded. I listen to forty minutes of them discussing how to roll it out to the employees and what applications we can use to keep track of the completions.
I don’t provide any input, and no one asks me to.
We move on, each agenda item more tedious than the last, until finally we get to the end.
“Is there anything else we need to cover today?” our secretary, Stephanie, asks.
Absolutely not. I have been counting down the minutes to the end of this thing, and I’ll be damned if something is going to derail our ending now.
“If there is, it can be added to the next meeting. We’re done for today.” I look at Louisa, who’s been taking the meeting minutes. “Meeting adjourned.”
I all but bolt from the conference room. My cell is on my desk in my office. I wake up the screen, expecting to see a least a few missed calls and text messages.
Nothing. No notifications.
Maybe Rachel really was wrong. She must be. Honestly, how could she even have known enough to confront Brielle about our relationship?
I walk down the hall to the marketing office, finding Trent and Danielle together, along with Devin from the research team. No Brielle.
Danielle sees me first. Her eyes widen, and her mouth parts like she wants to say something. My blood begins to boil as the reality of the situation hits me.
“Where is she?” I don’t care if I’m giving myself away. I need one of them to tell me she ran to the bathroom or is taking a break. Anything that explains why she isn’t in this room other than her being gone.
“You haven’t heard?” Devin says. His lips tug as he tries to contain his smirk, adding gasoline to my already red-hot fire. “She quit. Said she couldn’t do it anymore. I guess the pressure of it all was just too much for her.”
“That’s not what she said at all,” Danielle hisses. She turns to me with sad, pitying eyes. “She wouldn’t tell us why she had to leave so suddenly, but I got the impression that she thought she was doing the right thing.”
“Yeah, apparently, someone”—Trent casts his eyes at Devin meaningfully—“made it impossible for her to stay.”
Fucking Devin. He’s been a pain in my ass for too long. His work is subpar, he’s always trying to offload his workload onto others, and he has no concept of being a team player.
“Devin, I want to make this very clear. You are consistently underperforming, you don’t work well with others, you lack a sense of pride in your work, and you’ve been nothing but a drain on this department and this company. You’re fired.”
“What? You can’t fire me. I’ll sue. That’s wrongful termination.”