Page 100 of Rebooked For Us
Ruben walked in and didn’t even acknowledge us at first. The headache only grew worse, and so did the nausea. I wasn’t exactly in the mood.
I folded my hands on the table and told my stomach to behave for a little while longer.
“Ducane.” Ruben took his seat at the head. “Let’s not drag this out. I’ve got an important lunch with a client.”
“We won’t be long.” Ducane didn’t sit. He stood tall at the end of the table. My husband. Cadence’s father. Calm and immovable.
Ruben’s eyes finally landed on me.
“Why is she at this table?”
“Because she can be.” Ducane opened the folder in front of him and slid a single page down the table. “Effective this morning, Skye Simmons holds a twenty percent voting interest in Shane & Simmons, transferred from my personal shares. Which, as you know, were transferred to me by my mother a year ago.”
“What?” Ruben and I said at the same time.
I looked at Ducane.
“What are you talking about?”
“Baby, hear me out.”
He never took his eyes off me.
“For years, people in this family made you believe you weren’t enough. That you didn’t belong in rooms like this. That loving you was somehow beneath me.”
He shook his head once.
“They looked at your bank account. Your last name. Where you came from and made up their minds before they ever got to know you. And I let it happen.”
The room felt smaller.
“It cost us. Six years. My daughter’s first steps. Holidays. Birthdays. Time I’ll never get back.”
He slid the paperwork another inch toward Ruben.
“I can’t change any of that. But somebody’s gonna pay for it.”
His eyes finally left mine.
They settled on his father.
Ruben shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Starting today, my wife owns twenty percent of this firm. She has a vote. She has a seat at this table.”
Ruben stared at the paperwork in front of him but never reached for it.
A knock sounded at the door.
Before either of them could answer, the rest of the board filed in, Dena leading the pack with the firm’s senior partners close behind.
Dena looked from Ducane to Ruben, then to me.
Her eyes found the paperwork.
She smiled.
“You finally told him.”
