SWNOVELS : Chapter 53
Fiona
“There she is,” Conrad said, a broad, toothy grin on his face as he rounded the corner into my office. “My superstar.”
I squinted at my boss, looking for a trace of sarcasm on his face. But he seemed to be acting genuinely. I didn’t reply, waiting for an explanation for this sudden effusion of praise and suspicious cheerfulness.
“I just got off the phone with the escrow company.”
Conrad sat across from me at my desk. It felt odd. He
had never sat down in here before, and his large frame looked out of place in a chair designated for visitors. “I don’t know how you pushed that paperwork through so quickly, but it’s already been approved, and we are ready to break ground on the first site next week.”
My usually well-controlled professional demeanor faltered for a minute, a huge smile breaking across my face. “Really? I tried to pressure them into moving up the close date, but I didn’t actually think they’d give me the first date that I asked for.”
Conrad pressed his fingertips together in front of his chest, making a steeple with his big hands. He looked to the right, studying a spot on the wall or perhaps visualizing something in its place. “Whatever you did,”
he said, turning back to me, “it worked. Keep doing it.”
“I heard you’re breaking ground on the first building
project already.” Gerald, my coworker who had laughed in my face the day he learned that I was trying to launch this project within a month, was looking sheepish. His eyes were flicking up and down from me to his coffee and then back again.
“Yep.” I held back a smug smile. There was no need to gloat. I could see in his eyes that my colleague was already eating crow. I rinsed my mug in the sink and set it upside down to drip dry while my tea water boiled.
Gerald’s head bobbed up and down. “It’s impressive,”
he said quietly. “How are you pulling it off?”
I took a seat in a cushioned armchair across the table from Gerald, who was eating his lunch alone in the break room while reading a newspaper.
“Relentless badgering,” I answered with a sigh, a
combination of fatigue and newly emerging confidence making me recklessly honest for the moment. “Wildly lowballing negotiations just to see what would happen. Weeks of sleep deprivation and a total lack of work-life balance. Ha.”
Gerald froze, a forkful of steak tartare suspended in the air about an inch away from his half-open mouth.
The tea kettle started to whistle. I stood, crossed the room, and fixed my tea.
“I’ll see you later, Gerald,” I said on my way out, flashing him a polite smile.
He looked at me with his lips closed over a mouthful of food, chewing slowly, his eyes still looking stunned, and nodded once before I slipped away.
Third person
Scarlet was pacing the length of the empty boardroom, shaking with anger.
She had been working for so many years to ensure that Lucas would inherit the throne and become Alpha King. But that infuriating, relentless Alexander just could not be killed, no matter how many plots Scarlet devised to put him in harm’s way. Her son’s rival seemed to survive everything, always coming crawling back, like a cockroach.
And even more of Scarlet’s hard work had gone into her business dealings. For years, she labored over strategic acquisitions and investments, working toward a long-term plan that had only just begun bringing in that beautiful, endless influx of cash she’d been waiting on. And now, Alexander and his pregnant whore were again interfering in her business.
As if it weren’t bad enough that Alexander had revealed to the King that Scarlet had been embezzling from the royal accounts. His accusations had not yet been definitively proven, but they did leave Scarlet scrambling to hide evidence before it could be found by investigators. And it could still possibly land her in prison, or worse, if the King found anything he believed incriminated his wife beyond doubt.
And now, Fiona was suddenly working for Alex’s uncle’s investment firm, and leading the cause to expand one of their client’s businesses. A client that would directly compete with Scarlet’s company.
Scarlet had only just heard about Fiona’s involvement with the firm, but then within days, Crescent Ventures announced they already had a series of housing tracts under construction and would be leasing them within a month.
It was unbelievable. The world of real estate was notoriously slow-moving. Buyer delays, seller delays, and escrow delays were the norm. Somehow, Alexander’s pretty, young Luna fast-tracked her deals.
If Crescent’s project was successful, they were set up to directly squeeze out a third of Scarlet’s market. And something about it being Fiona’s doing just made it so much worse.
Fiona not only got herself knocked up and then moved, unwelcomed, into Scarlet’s palace, but also had the nerve to defy the queen in public. Not once, but twice. And now the bitch was coming after Scarlet’s money. That was the line. It had been crossed.
A woman cleared her throat behind Scarlet, catching the queen’s attention. “I am SO sorry,” the assistant
said, taking more steps into the room than Scarlet considered to be necessary. “But are you ready to start the meeting? I have the board of directors waiting. They’re all here, Ma’am. I mean, Your Highness.”
Scarlet raised a thin black eyebrow at the young woman, silently judging everything about her. “Send them in,” she said, pleased when the girl went away without further awkward chatter.
The board president, sitting nearest to Scarlet, made a constricted, groaning sound in his throat before he spoke. “However effective your plan could be, the amount of money you are asking to invest in this price war, on top of the ad campaign, is simply beyond the realm of possibility.”
“Thank you for your opinion,” Scarlet replied, giving the man a stern look. “But while you may lead the
board, you do not speak for all members.”
She moved her gaze to the next board member beside the president. He hesitated a moment, then stated, ambiguously, “It’s a risky move.”
“A calculated risk,” Scarlet replied confidently. “We cannot sit idly by while a new competitor begins to build an empire on our backs. We cannot let Crescent Ventures encroach on our target market and do nothing to counter-attack.”
After challenging each of the board members individually in turn, Scarlet then ordered an official vote. Again, they moved around the table in a circle, with each person now saying only “Aye” or “Nay.”
“The ayes have it,” the queen said in summation, smirking at the board president after all the votes had been cast.
His only response was a slight, resigned shrug of his shoulders.
“I will assemble a team right away,” Scarlet continued, addressing the room at large. “The advertising campaign will make all the difference. We’ll be sure everyone knows they can’t trust Crescent Ventures and remind them of their loyalty to our brands.”
The energy amongst the group was mixed. Those who knew Scarlet well, even if they were not thrilled about investing company resources in a blatantly unethical smear campaign, knew better than to oppose her outright. The board had an obligation to voice dissent to their CEO when necessary, but they only ever did so meekly, never supporting that dissent with their votes.
They knew that it was, simply, better to have her on your side.