Page 139 of Ask Me Something

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Haylee was an absolute champ, getting into the town car all prepped and ready. She looked beautiful and relaxed, but when she gripped my hand, I instantly knew it was a show to keep her husband calm.

I offered her a reassuring smile.

While Josh was on the phone with his mother, she leaned over. “I’m kinda flipping out.”

Huh. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who’d ever faked my emotions to give a different impression from what I was actually feeling. “My go-to solution for that problem is off the table considering it would involve an alcoholic beverage.”

She giggled and then was in a fit of them, finally tensing when a contraction came.

It apparently passed, and Josh squeezed her hand. “Nigel is making the remainder of the calls. I did text Brian. He’ll meet us at the hospital.”

Haylee sighed. “Does that mean he’s retracting his resignation?”

Josh winked at me. “Oh, I think Sasha will make sure of it.”

* * *

I knewthe moment that Brian arrived in the waiting room, my body sensing his presence.

Our eyes met, and then he glanced at the clock. “What’s the latest?”

“They think within the next hour,” I responded quietly. “Do you have a minute?”

“Can we talk?”

Our simultaneous requests bounced off one another.

Nodding, I led him down the hall into the chapel. One look around the small room confirmed we were the only two people there.

I didn’t give him a chance to speak first. “Why did you resign, Brian?”

He sighed. “I screwed up with Vanessa and instead of doing as Josh had asked, I made it a lot worse.”

Blood pounded in my ears. “How did you screw up with her?”

He shifted uncomfortably which only heightened my growing anxiety about what he was going to tell me.

“Last week she kept calling, saying she was in Charlotte and wanted to get together for drinks or dinner. I blew her off, going so far as to claim I was traveling. Then she showed up at the office on Thursday night, waiting by my car. She came on to me, and I told her that I was involved with someone. She guessed it was you; I don’t know how. I wouldn’t confirm it, but it didn’t matter. I think she saw it on my face. The next morning, she took you off the account.”

I put my hands over my face. She’d known because of the way I’d reacted to her personal shots toward me.

“You have to believe nothing happened with her. The cameras proved that.”

“I do believe you, unequivocally.” I knew in my heart Brian would never lie about something like this. “But why would you need cameras to prove it?”

He raked a hand through his hair. “Josh and I spoke on Friday and we both agreed that once Michael Dobson knew about you being taken off, he’d fix things. He told me to have no contact with her and leave it alone until he could meet with him.”

“But you called her Saturday?”

His jaw clenched obviously unhappy that Josh revealed that much. “Unfortunately I did. I told her that she could make it right and if she didn’t we’d go to Dobson. I made it personal wanting so badly to be able to call you that night and tell you I’d made things right. Instead I tipped our hand and on Sunday all hell broke loose. She told the chairman that I’d come on to her. That we’d slept together the night we met for drinks in New York and that once you’d found out, you had a personal issue with her which is why she couldn’t work with you any longer.”

“Jesus.” I was shaking with rage.

“Josh was able to do some serious damage control before Monday to get both the hotel footage and the recording from outside the office building to show Michael that Vanessa had been lying.”

“But why did you resign?”

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