Page 125 of The Gift
“Fuck you, Lennon. You are such a sour faced, hard ass bitch. No wonder you can’t get laid. You and your client will be hearing from my lawyers. Every fucking dollar I have paid will form my claim. She lied, pure and simple, which means you lied. Both of you are done. You’ll never work in this industry again.”
I see the slight drop of Bailey’s head, and feel her struggle. Though it’s Lennon who breaks first. Her laughter echoes through, filling the room, inciting my omega to join in.
Bailey waves her hand in apology. “Sorry, now that was unprofessional.”
Another raucous noise confirms Lennon is having issues locking down her laughter, and it could be one of those to-ing and fro-ing times where they both feed off each other. Bailey doesn’t even try to hold it in when it bubbles up again.
I cough, making her look at me, which was a bad idea, because she starts up again, her face flushed red like a tomato. But our pack lives for these memories and times, this is our girl in all her glory.
“Omega!” Donnie, shouts, slapping his hands on his desk and blasting her with his weak as fuck alpha power.
He barely finishes speaking and a massive boom echoes through his office. His bouncing head on the edge of his desk is the part of reason, Koda’s hands in his hair half dragging the man over the desk is the other.
“You did not, try to make me submit did you?” Bailey asks, her voice cutting through the groans of pain and panic falling from Donnie’s smashed up lips.
“Let me guess. Koda?” Lennon asks, making Bailey smirk again. “Okay. I’m signing off. I’ll leave you guys to discuss how you want to handle things over there. From my client’s point of view, Exposé are up shit creek. I’m phoning Davey and Associates now, so, Donnie, if you don’t want to be served, start running, you piece of shit. But the joke’s on you. The people standing in your office are the best trackers in the country.” Lennon hangs up with her weird ass snorting laugh filling the silence in the office.
The phone disconnects, but I hear the buzz of Bailey’s mobile as a text comes through. It will be Lennon. Bailey’s hands fly across the screen before she slides her phone in her pocket, crossing her hands on her lap and waiting for Koda to let Donnie’s head go, so we can start the humiliation.
“Anything you want to add, before we start, Carmen or Ben?” Koda asks, his voice is cold.
He’s rigid in his anger. The tension rolls off him as his need to protect and shield her from all this rides him hard.
“No. I have no issue with what Bailey did.” Carmen swings around in her seat, all but ignoring Donnie so she can focus entirely on Bailey.
“Perhaps if we hadn’t done this story, I’d have things to say, but I have seen the raw footage of everything we’ve done so far. If you had to lie to survive in this world, you don’t need me to ask for my forgiveness. You have it. Along with my unwavering support.”
“Thank you.” Bailey reaches over and holds out a hand for Carmen. “You saying that means a lot.”
“Would you like to take the floor now?” Bailey asks her.
“Sure,” Carmen replies, standing up and brushing her hand down her dark brown leather skirt, straightening up the matching-coloured sheer shirt.
Koda pushes Donnie back into his seat, clamping his hand around his shoulder to keep him there and maybe to help him out a bit—he’s looking a bit off.
Ben snaps. “I quit, you two faced motherfucker. Honestly, the only thing that has kept me working here are the people on my team. So, thank you for bringing us together. I can assure you our future success will not be due to anything we have learned here.” He flicks an envelope at Donnie and it smacks it in the face before he turns to all of us and offers a silent apology.
Carmen takes the floor next.
“Donnie, I’ll keep this short and sweet.” She leans down to her Fendi embossed briefcase and pulls out a sizeable envelope, the logo of her lawyer’s office clear as day. “Here is my written resignation. My lawyers have formally lodged with the court, a class action on my behalf, and the majority of staff working here have already joined.”
“What for?” He scoffs, despite the blood dripping from a cut on his forehead.
“The important question you should be asking is why you. Because as you see I haven’t served any of the other attending shareholders. As Chairman of Exposé you have a personal liability clause meaning any claim made against Exposé is your sole responsibility. And I know you are aware because you made a big deal about it when my contract negotiations were going on. I had any personal liability clauses crossed out. Copies of those negotiations and your signature are included in these documents. We are suing you for breaches of our contracts regarding remuneration. You have been underpaying all of us for years, along with mismanagement of corporate sponsorship paid to the station that was ours to collect, not yours. I also know that…”
The office door knocks once, and it opens, Reno ushering in the next part of our plan. Donnie’s poor beta wife. He’s waved his affairs in front of her face for years. The asshole used her and destroyed her in a lot of ways, but today is her chance to start reclaiming some of what he took from her.
“Hello, Donnie.” She speaks like a little field mouse, barely loud enough but at the same time she has the attention of everyone in the room. “I asked to be included in all this because I have had enough. I am serving you with divorce papers.” Koda picks up one of his hands, and Donnie fights the whole time with him but after a few fumbled attempts, Maryanne manages to slide the envelope into his hand before she takes a step back and starts walking out.
Donnie roars at her to stop and turn around, but Koda fills his mouth with screwed up paper and keeps jamming it in, effectively silencing him before he holds his head back by the hair so Maryanne can say her piece. “The children will be staying with me and won’t be visiting you while you are in prison. It’s lucky you insisted that all your assets be moved to my name in case you ever got sued because it will make us moving away from you so much easier. Goodbye, Donnie. And don’t drag those young girls you work with down with you, the ones you think I don’t know about. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
With a small shuddering intake, she doesn’t look at anyone as she scurries away. Leaving Donnie’s world looking even fucking worse than it did a few minutes ago.
Henley stands up, gathering the papers he brought with him, “And last but not least, this is from the rest of the shareholders, namely Pack Bailey. We are also taking advice from our lawyers while the SEC investigates you for misappropriation of company funds along with the illegal sale of company assets.”
Donnie tries to speak around the paper in his mouth, and at Henley’s nod, Koda removes the slobbery ball from his mouth. “You’ve lost millions,” Donnie laughs.
Koda doesn’t give Donnie the chance to even stop laughing before refilling his mouth again with fresh paper. Shutting him up, once and for all.
