Chapter 6: Boardroom
1225 Words
The word fiancee was still just… hanging there.
Calder ended the call like it was nothing. Phone back in his pocket. Calm.
Miranda, he said. My sister. Head of Legal. Bad sense of humor.
I stared at him. Your sister calls herself your fiancee for fun?
She tests people, he said. Thats what she does.
Cool. Great. So I just sold my body for forty three million dollars to a guy with a fake fiancee and a real sister who already hates me. Perfect.
I grabbed my blazer off his chair. My hands were shaking again. I hate that. I hate when my hands shake.
So what now, I said. You take me home? Put me in a pretty box till you need me?
He just looked at me. That look. Like I was a bug under glass and he liked watching me squirm.
I'll drive you to Mercy Ridge, he said.
No.
Yes.
Rule Four, Calder. No feelings. No sleepovers. No boyfriend crap.
This isnt boyfriend crap, he said, picking up his car keys. This is me making sure my investment doesnt crash her busted Honda on the turnpike at two AM.
I wanted to fight him. I was too tired to fight. Valery was getting cut open at six. I needed to be there, not arguing with a billionaire in a three thousand dollar suit.
Fine, I said. But you stay in the car.
He did not stay in the car.
0347 AM. Mercy Ridge, oncology wing. Calder Thorne walks in with two nasty vending machine coffees, no tie, sleeves rolled up, looking like he owns the hospital. Which, knowing him, he probably does.
Every nurse stared.
Valery stared harder.
She was in that bed, IVs everywhere, bald, skinny, swimming in that ugly pink gown, and she looked at me, then at Calder, then back at me.
Sloane Marie Vance, she said. Thin voice, sharp as ever. Who is that.
My boss, I said fast. Too fast.
Calder held out a coffee. Calder Thorne. I'm the guy keeping your sister out of prison.
Valery took the coffee with both hands. They shook a little. I like him.
Valery.
He brought coffee. He's tall. He looks at you like he wants to eat you alive. Approved.
God. Kill me.
Calder laughed. A real one. Not that cold CEO laugh from the office. An actual laugh.
She's blunt, he said.
She's drugged, I said.
I'm not drugged yet, Valery said. Thats at five. So tell me before they knock me out. Did you sleep with him for the money?
Calder choked on his coffee.
No, I said. Way too loud.
Will you? Valery asked.
VALERY.
She grinned. That stupid Vance grin. The one that got us through foster homes and eviction notices and three years of this hell hospital. Good. Cause he looks at you like Mom never did. Like you're worth keeping.
My chest cracked right open. Just split.
Calder went still next to me. Completely still.
The nurse came in at 0400 sharp. Valery Vance? Time.
Valery grabbed my hand. Her fingers were ice cold. "Hey. If I dont wake up—"
Stop.
If I dont wake up, she said louder, dont waste it. Be happy. Even if happy is scary and rich and probably illegal.
She looked right at Calder when she said it.
He stepped forward. Took Valery's other hand. No hesitation.
You will wake up, he said. Simple. Sure. Patel is the best. I paid him triple to keep his hands steady. You're fine.
Valery laughed. Going into brain surgery and she laughed. I really like him, Sloane.
They took her at 0403. Doors swung shut. Beep beep beep from the monitors fading out.
I just stood there staring at those doors like an i***t.
Then Calder's hand landed on the back of my neck. Warm. Heavy.
She'll be fine, he said.
You dont know that.
I know Patel has a ninety four percent success rate. I know Valery is tougher than both of us. I know you havent slept in thirty six hours.
He pushed me into the waiting room chairs. I sat cause my legs quit, not cause he told me to.
He sat too close. Thigh against mine. I should move. I didnt move.
Rule Three, I muttered.
No sleepovers, he said. We're not sleeping. We're waiting.
Thats the same thing.
Clause One A, he said. You break a rule, I add one.
I looked at him. I'm in yesterday's blouse, in a hospital at four AM, dead broke except for the forty three million dollars I stole, with a man who owns me for thirty days.
What’s the new rule, I asked.
He leaned in. Slow. Giving me time to stop him.
I didnt stop him.
Rule Five, he said, mouth almost on mine. "When I kiss you, you kiss me back.
Then he kissed me.
Not soft. Not sweet. Nothing careful about it. Three years of whatever the hell this is, snapping all at once under bad hospital lights with cold coffee going stale next to us.
I kissed him back. Hard.
Rule Two. Gone. No kissing on the mouth. Dead.
When we pulled apart I'm breathing like I ran a mile and his eyes are black and his fist is twisted in my blouse like he's holding himself back from taking me right there on those plastic chairs.
Rule Two, I whisper.
Broken, he says. My turn to add a rule.
"Calder—"
His phone rings. 0447 AM. CFO.
He answers pissed. What?
I watch his face change. Heat gone. CEO mask back on. Just like that.
Slow down. What do you mean leaked? Which board members? All of them?
He looks at me. And for the first time since he caught me with that pen in my hand, Calder Thorne looks scared.
He hangs up.
Someone sent the office security footage to the whole board, he says, flat. You. Me. The check. The contract. Everything after. All of it.
My stomach drops through the floor.
When?
Twenty minutes ago. Anonymous. Emergency board meeting at 07:00. They're voting to remove me as CEO. And they're sending your name to the US Attorney for wire fraud.
The surgery doors bang open. Patel walks out, green scrubs, mask down.
I shoot up so fast the room spins.
She made it, Patel says. Clean. She'll wake up in two hours. Full recovery expected.
Valery lives.
I break. Right there in the hallway at five AM. Ugly crying, shoulders shaking, three years of holding it all together just… gone.
Calder catches me before I hit the floor. Arms around me, tight, like he can block the board and the FBI and the whole damn world if he just holds hard enough.
Listen to me, he says into my hair. I'll fix this. I'll burn that board to the ground before they touch you.
They have video, I whisper. They have everything.
Let them, he says, voice ice and fire at the same time. You're mine, Sloane Vance. Contract or no contract. Nobody takes what's mine.
His phone rings again. Board. Miranda. Press. Keeps ringing and ringing.
He doesnt answer. He just holds me while my sister breathes on the other side of those doors, alive, and the empire that saved her starts burning down around us.
- Writer
