Page 95 of Tempt Me

I took the phone. “Hi, Billie, it’s Natalie.”

“Natalie,” Billie drawled. “I haven’t seen you since you made a fool of yourself at my party.”

I cringed. “I’m sorry about that. I was having a bad night.”

“Of course you were. Everyone could tell you had it bad for Jamila Jallow. Except for Jamila herself.” Her laugh was a merry tinkle, like seashell wind chimes.

“I still do. Which is why I have a question about your ex, Winslow.” I grimaced. She knew who her ex was.

“I’d rather not talk about him right now.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I was wondering if, um…if there were certain provisions to your divorce settlement? Specifically ones having to do with Jamilow. I understand he kept his stock and options?”

“Yes. He wasveryinsistent on that point. I wanted to split it down the middle, fair is fair and all. I wanted to continue to support Jamila myself. We’ve been good friends for years, since Stanford. I was her RA, you know, when she was a freshman. I was the first person she asked to be on the Jamilow board.”

“Really? And then you married Winslow.”

“Not my best decision as it turned out. He can be charming when he wants to be, you know. I let myself get swept away by the attentions of a younger man. Seems like it’s a pattern for me.” She chuckled.

I couldn’t let her get sidetracked by her guest. “Tell me about the Jamilow shares.”

“Right. He said he’d give me the equivalent in cash value, which turned out to be a bad deal for him. We set the value back in January, but the stock price has been dropping steadily since the PR flap, then precipitously this week when Moo-Lah launched their product. I guess it’s been a good thing for me, not so good for Jamila and Winslow, eh?”

“Uh-huh.” My mind spun. He’d held onto all of his stock and options and hadn’t asked to renegotiate despite the dropping price? What was his angle?

“He got the stock. I got all the cash and property—except for his condominium in Los Altos.” Her voice turned bitter. “It’s where he used to keep his mistress, but she left him too.”

“Why do you think—”

“She probably couldn’t stand it either. All he did for the past two years was talk about Jamila. Jamila this, Jamila that.”

Oh, no. I remembered all the time he spent in her office. Their easy banter. “You think…you think he’s in love with Jamila?”

“In love?” She laughed, sharp and cold. “He resents her. He never stopped talking about how she was—pardon my French—fucking up the company they’d built together. How much better he’d run it if only he could get control.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Get control? He said that?”

“Every goddamn day. Until I left him. Then I’m sure he said it to the mirror.”

“If he somehow found the cash to exercise his stock options, how much of Jamilow do you think he could control?”

“Oh.” She paused. “I hadn’t thought he’d actually follow through. If he exercised them all, he’d hold not quite forty percent. That’s the same amount Jamila kept for herself.”

Not quite enough to wrest control from her then. But—

“What if he had a partner who was also buying up shares while the price was low? Or if he had another source of income?” Like a bribe from Moo-Lah.

“As long as he kept it on the down-low, he could surpass her holdings or be strong enough to challenge Jamila as an activist shareholder.”

“He could vote her out,” I said. “Or execute a hostile takeover by Moo-Lah.”

My mother gasped.

Billie exclaimed, “The snake! Do you think that’s what he did?”

“I think he’s the source of the leak to Moo-Lah. I think he’s been driving the stock price down so he can amass more shares. Do you think he would do that to Jamila?”

“Ten years ago? Never. Now? I’m afraid so. He might be kind to her face, but behind her back, he’s…not a nice person.”