Page 11 of The Spare
Guilt weighed on me. I hadn’t meant to be away so long. I knew it affected Henry, but I told myself he was busy with his own company. As for Xander, he had Sloan. She was the only one who didn’t seem upset with me, only upset that I hurt Xander in my absence. I never meant enough to her to hurt her.
A knot tightened in my chest. I ignored it.
I huffed a breath after a prolonged silence and decided to breeze past it. “You know, when you’re in charge, you will have to work weekdays.”
“This is work-related. I came to do some recon on the competition.” He smirked and folded his hands together.
I chuckled. “It’s cute you think it's a competition.”
His expression changed to curiosity when he noticed something on my desk. He leaned forward, reached across the desk, and grabbed a dark brown leather-bound journal. He flipped through the mostly blank pages. “You still have this thing?” he laughed.
Henry always picked up on little details. The only blind spot he had was Sloan. When it came to his little sister, he often looked past the obvious and saw what he wanted to see.
I snatched it back in a flash with more ferocity than expected. There was almost nothing in it, and certainly nothing I needed to keep hidden. A few random notes I scribbled down over the years.
“Why carry it around if you never use it?” He put his hands up in innocence and sat back down.
An awkward silence passed for a minute.
“We just acquired Ellory,” Henry said. Sutton Industries made a show of trying to acquire the company, but the plan was always to have Amari Global get the acquisition. It meant the Ellory owner got a seat on the Amari Global board, and that was far more important.
“You always remember your first,” I mocked.
“You know anything about Marie Ellory?”
“No more than you.” He knew very well that whatever I did know, I couldn’t tell him. Being competitors meant that type of advice was largely inappropriate. Although those were rules we often bent. “Why?”
“They just got a board seat. A new one. It came with the acquisition.” Henry sighed aloud. “I guess it's fine. It just seems weird.”
Being away came with the benefit of not having to lie to him. Lies of omission were easier, especially when I was an ocean away. “It's not unheard of in acquisition deals. Rishi approved it?”
“Yeah, my grandfather was fine with it.” He still seemed worried. I was a little impressed. He should’ve been wary. It was suspicious.
“What are you worried about?” I probed.
The board seat was technically Ellory’s, but she was a proxy, something Henry was unaware of but may have started figuring out on his own. Henry's instincts were impeccable. But a lifetime of second guessing them was his weakness.
“Honestly, I don’t know. My grandfather wouldn’t approve a shareholder vote to add a seat unless he felt secure with it. I feel like I’m always missing something.” He sounded practically defeated.
“I’m sure it’s for the best,” I reassured him after a few tense seconds. I glanced out the window to the gray, miserable day outside. “Lunch?”
“You gonna tell me why you left?”
He wasn’t going to let that go. “You know the reason.”
“You’ll tell me at lunch.” He grinned and pushed himself up.
CHAPTER6
Sloan
The week after the gala was hell. We needed to close several deals before the end of the year. With the holiday season starting, the pressure was mounting.
“Do you have the Hightower Energy file?” Penelope walked into my office, not bothering to look up from the file she was reading. Her smooth, British-Singaporean accent filled the room.
Penelope Astor was a junior partner at the firm. She and I met when we took the same position as associates during our first year out of law school. We’d grown to be something of a dynamic duo at work.
“One of the paralegals is checking the draft merger conditions.” I stood at my desk, distracted, as I reviewed another merger. Two sizable private banks with numerous financial trade commission concerns were attempting to merge. It was a legal minefield. “The W. Burton merger is equal parts mess and possible money laundering.”
