She cleared up the table and we concurred that we had no idea what happened at the warehouse earlier. The information we got was just to observe a business transaction and report back with who did what and who might be involved.

“We need to figure out who that driver was,” I said, settling into my seat and starting the car.

Reaper strapped in and gave me an unsettling look. “Let me tell you about what else I found out that I couldn’t talk about in the diner.”

​Chapter 15

Fallon

I stared through the back window into the beautiful oasis that had been carefully curated for us by the not-so-hot construction crew that came in over the past weekend. Kelly was disgruntled there weren’t more hotties available to work with their shirts off. Despite the lack of eye candy, I was enamored with our newly installed hot tub and almost completed natural pool.

“These guys really knocked it out of the park over the weekend.” I took a sip of my hot coffee, snuggled in my favorite new pink robe.

Kelly stepped up beside me in her own blue robe. “The waterfall by the pool is going to be epic.”

“It’ll be especially great for whoever lives here next.” A silent lament that not all good things last. School wouldn’t last forever, and Kelly would move on eventually.

She sighed longingly. “Can we just stay here for, like, ever? No men, just us besties until the end of time?”

“I wish,” I scoffed. “I bet Evans would drag me out of here kicking and screaming to the concrete jungle of New York. You might want to look into getting a cat.”

I turned my attention to my bag that I packed my laptop and books into, hating that my future felt so...predetermined. By a bunch of men in a boardroom. By my mother. If she was still alive, would I still be facing the same future?

I shoved off the what ifs. She wasn’t here anymore. She left it all to me.

As for the boardroom suits, they were just doing their jobs. All very corporate, but still their jobs. Everyone had a family to feed.

The meeting on Sunday morning went far too quickly. My path to leadership was laid out very bluntly–no mention of the shenanigans that Sylvia got up to when I was under her care, but I figured that was a conversation for a different time. I was to be taking on meetings, listening to my bodyguard, and expecting someone to ‘drop in’ to deliver paperwork and catch me up to speed.

The drop ins were also their way of micromanaging me and ensuring I wasn’t acting out of line.

The meeting also wasn’t just a meeting. It was an intervention.

“Remember how those stuffy men told me I needed to change my major to something more appropriate for an up-and-coming CEO?”