Chapter 25 Theo
Theo
“Theo?” Whitney asks from my doorway once I hang up my phone call. I look up to see her frowning at me. “What is this meeting on the schedule before lunch? I don’t remember putting it there, and there are no details.”
She wouldn’t remember, since I was the one who called the last-minute meeting with the Board of Directors.
My eyes dart down to the manilla folder Chase delivered to my desk yesterday.
She also wouldn’t know that the individual I was just speaking with was a liaison from the FBI’s corporate fraud division.
What Chase’s PI uncovered during his investigation was enough to make sure that Elena and the other two members of the Board who were involved in this white-collar crime are locked away and tried for their transgressions.
Once Chase handed me the smoking gun, it took very little time to get everything rolling into motion. I had scheduled the emergency meeting with the Board of Directors, knowing that the FBI would be hot on my tail, arriving to arrest Elena and the other two.
I stand up out of my chair and button my suit jacket, holding Whitney’s gaze. “Yes, I scheduled that.”
She blinks but then nods, catching the severity of my tone that I mean business. “With the Board of Directors?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“To go over—”
“My ninety-day review, among other things,” I tell her, hoping she’ll catch on to what I’m saying without saying.
When her face pales, I know she’s on the right track. Whitney steps further into my office and then closes the door behind her. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
My lips twist in a smirk. “Perhaps. Are you thinking that I’m going to call Elena out on her shady bullshit in front of the rest of the Board?” Her lips fall open, but I don’t give her a chance to say anything yet, but my smirk widens. “Then yes, I am saying precisely that.”
She rolls her lips into a thin line, and I can see the wheels of her brain piecing together everything she just heard. “And your review? Have you finished everything?”
I dip my chin. “Everything that matters at this point. With Elena potentially out of my hair and no longer breathing down my neck, I’ll be able to have a little more time to complete everything I want to complete. Without the threat of a deadline looming over my head.”
“So, this is really it then? You found enough dirt on her that you can confidently say she was involved?”
“Yes. Her, Maxwell, and Kurt. They will all be terminated, effective immediately, after the meeting today. And I’m sure our good friends at the FBI will have a number of important questions to ask them.”
“Three of them?” Whitney asks, shock evident on her face now as I list off the members whom the personal investigator found to be involved.
I nod my head grimly. “Indeed.”
“That’s—” She runs her hand over her neck, shaking her head as if at a loss for words. “That’s insane.”
“It is,” I agree. “Which is why I couldn’t sit on this any longer than necessary. After today, we’ll begin the search for new members to join our Board of Directors and hopefully move forward and past this indiscretion.”
“I think that sounds wonderful,” she says.
I clear my throat. “Additionally, I think today would be a good time to announce that we are going to start seeing each other.”
Again, her lips fall open, and her chest rises with a deep breath. “You think?”
I move forward then, walking across the length of my office to where she’s still standing by the door.
When I’m close enough, I reach out and take her hand, threading our fingers together.
She watches me with wide, wistful eyes. “I don’t think I can go another day without the world knowing you’re mine. ”
“And you don’t think they’ll see a problem with it?”
“I honestly don’t care,” I say, dryly. “If they want me to resign simply because I’m in love with you, then so be it.”
A breath whooshes past her lips, and I can’t help but grin at her. “Theo.”
“Yeah?”
“Say it again,” she whispers.
I smile wider, taking a step toward her until our fronts are flush against each other.
“Say what? That I’m helplessly in love with you?
That I think I might’ve fallen in love with you the very first time I saw you sitting at your desk?
And that every day that has passed, I’ve only fallen more and more in love with everything that is you? ”
She looks at me so hopefully it makes my heart hurt. I want to brand those words on her skin so she might never forget them. “You really mean it?” she asks.
“With every fiber of my being.” I hold her gaze steady, unwavering. “I’ll love you until I’m old and gray, and even then, that might not be long enough.”
“Theo.” Her voice is so low I can barely hear her. Her lower eyelids glisten with overwhelming emotion as she looks up at me. “I love you too.”
“When you asked me if I’d ever been in love the other night, I should have said yes. Because I loved you then, and I love you now.”
She leans up on her toes and kisses me, sealing the promise we just made to each other. Her arms wrap around my neck as she kisses me over and over and over again.
Finally, I have to break away, knowing this isn’t the time or the place to get carried away—not with the meeting with the Board of Directors looming over our heads.
“We’ll definitely pick this up later,” I say, leaning forward and kissing her one last time. “But we need to get back to work.”
Whitney pouts at me in a way that makes me want to bend her over my desk, just like I did the other night. But unfortunately, I can’t. Though unhappy about it, Whitney agrees and wanders out of my office to gather everything we’ll need for our big meeting today.
A few hours later, we find ourselves walking into the conference room.
Chase has joined us for backup. He walks in, takes a seat, and whips out his phone, likely to message the FBI agent that we’re ready whenever he is.
Whitney sets up her items at her usual place.
However, I take the position at the head of the table, which is typically occupied by Elena, herself.
When she walks in, she stops mid-stride, seeing me in her place for the first time. Her eyes narrow, and her expression morphs into a scowl. I give her a tight smile and motion to one of the free seats at the table.
“Elena, happy you chose to join us today. Please have a seat.”
Out of my periphery, I notice Whitney cover her mouth, and I wonder if it’s to stifle a giggle.
I won’t lie that, although this is not something I ever thought I’d have to face in my professional career, I will be getting some sort of sick pleasure from handing Elena’s ass to her on a platter.
She’s been nothing but rotten to me since the moment I walked into this office.
Justice is always best-served ice cold.
“Thank you all for coming today on such short notice.” I begin the meeting once everyone is settled. I feel eight pairs of eyes on me, but really, only a certain pair of blue-ish gray ones seem to matter to me right now. “There are a number of items that we’ll need to get to today.”
“Let’s skip the pleasantries, Mr. Hurst,” Elena’s frigid voice echoes across the table. All eyes are now on her as she glares me down. “What is the real reason behind this meeting. Was our date not sufficient enough for you?”
I glance at Chase, who is now giving Elena a firm stare of his own. Whitney, next to him, gives me a small nod of her chin, and I feel emboldened to cut right to the chase. “Actually, Elena, it seems that there has been a matter of extreme misconduct that has arisen within this Board.”
The room grows eerily silent, and I can hear everyone holding their breaths for me to drop the next bomb.
I stare at Elena straight in her witchy face and square my shoulders.
“My brother and I discovered a number of properties that were subjected to improper reporting. We traced that back to Vance Peterson himself. And with the help of a private investigator,” I pause for effect, holding Elena’s gaze before jumping to Maxwell and Kurt, the other two offenders, “we discovered the others involved in the scheme.”
“This is absurd.” Elena immediately goes on the defense, her voice rising up an octave into a shrill register. “You’re accusing this Board of embezzlement?”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” I say calmly. “And I have proof to back it up.”
She gives me a stern look while the other two share concerned glances but don’t make any effort to defend themselves.
I watch her expression morph from that of slight alarm into a cool, frigid collectiveness.
She tilts her nose up and sniffs. “I’m not sure if you really want to be going down this path, Mr. Hurst. You’re not completely innocent yourself. ”
Now I frown at her, wondering what she’s getting at. “Is that so?”
Elena drums her fingers on a manilla folder and then slides it toward the middle of the table. “I believe your indiscretion is just as damning.”
I narrow my eyes and reach for the folder. When I open it, my stomach sinks as I realize it’s pictures of Whitney and me. Together.
Chase swears under his breath and Whitney gasps audibly next to me as her pen falls onto the table.
She leans forward so she can get a better view of the photos.
I flip through the pictures, catching sight of Whitney and myself at my mother’s gala, my eyes looking ravenous as I stare at her in her purple dress.
In another one we’re out to dinner and her head is tossed back as she laughs at something I must’ve said.
And finally, the last one, the two of us standing out on the sidewalk in front of her apartment.
I’m cupping her jaw tenderly as I tilt her face up so I can kiss her deeply.
Clearing my throat, I toss the photos back into the center of the table. A few of the other board members lean forward so they can see what Elena has brought forward.
“Did you have us followed?” I ask her, my voice level.
“It was brought to my attention that there may have been some less than professional behavior coming from our CEO, so yes. I had someone look into it,” Elena says, tipping her head up so she’s looking down at me from across the table.
I fold my hands and lean forward. I can feel Whitney’s eyes on me as she waits for how I’ll handle this situation. “My love life is not up for speculation at this present moment.”
Elena laughs humorlessly. “So, you can accuse me, but you can’t take it when I turn the tables on you? I see.”
“This is not the same thing.” I motion to the pictures. “You have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from this company, and the game is over. You’re done here.”
Elena swiftly snaps her notebook folder shut and stands.
“This is ridiculous. I can’t believe you’d accuse us of such a horrendous crime.
Expect to see termination papers on your desk by the end of the day, Mr. Hurst. We can’t possibly have someone in charge of this company who is willing to behave in such a manner. ”
“Actually,” I halt her in her tracks. “I believe those will be directed to you, Elena. There are FBI agents waiting outside for you. I can’t say I’d recommend putting up much of a fight; I hear that doesn’t always work in your favor.”
Elena’s face pales, and her chin quivers before she tilts her head up at me, glaring down her long, pointy nose in my direction. “I’ll take my chances.”
With that, she walks out of the conference room as if completely unaffected by my accusations of her. I look to the other two, Maxwell and Kurt—two stuffy, old men who have no business being on the Board of my company anymore.
“That includes you two,” I say, my voice cold. They each share a glance, knowing they’re caught, before gathering their items and walking out of the conference room to meet the same fate.
Another heavy silence falls over the room. The remaining three members stare at me with wide, shocked eyes, but are unable to say anything at this time. I can imagine their heads are spinning at full speed currently.
I unbutton my suit jacket and sit down at the head of the table, folding my hands neatly over the smooth oak. “Well, that was exciting.”
Slowly, a few of them release nervous chuckles as if they’re unsure what to do with me now.
I look to Chase and Whitney, who are watching me with equal amounts of amusement and pride.
Pulling my folder with my typed-up agendas, I hand one to each of the remaining participants of the meeting, and I get started.
“I hope that this is the start of a new age where we can work together for the good of this company and its employees. I don’t want us to be at odds, but rather, working toward the same goal,” I address them.
Together, the four of us go through the process of what enlisting new members for our Board of Directors will look like, and we establish a plan moving forward. They get a chance to look over the reports I have completed as of today, and they seem pleased with all of my hard work.
As things are wrapping up, I bring one last item to the agenda. “Now that we’ve gotten through that debacle, I believe we need to address the elephant in the room,” I say. Whitney’s eyes flash to me, knowing exactly where I’m taking this. She drops her eyes down to her notes as her cheeks flush.
My brother leans back in his chair, watching the two of us with amusement, also knowing exactly where I’m taking this.
I clear my throat and address the remaining Board members, who are watching me with confusion. “I’m in love with Whitney Palmer,” I announce, not beating around the bush. “And we would like to move forward with an official relationship, effective immediately.”
For the third time that day, the room grows ominously silent. The back of my neck starts to sweat a little bit, but I hold my ground.
They’ve seen the proof themselves, there’s no going back now. Not that I would, anyway.
Whitney is mine, and it’s damn well time everyone knows it.