Page 50 of Three Bites

“I’m notfragile, Victoria. Tell me,” he said sternly.

“You did try therapy, right?” I asked. Theo nodded.

“It helped a lot but there are things I can’t just get over,” Theo shrugged.

“Therapy often has a conventional approach... what if I told you I had some ideas for a less conventional method? Would you be willing to try them?”

I was nervous because I didn’t want to make things worse and this was a big gamble but Theo looked intrigued at my proposition. He straightened in his seat, his eyes alert, now that he was offered a new road that wasn’t wallowing in self-pity.

“Let’s do it,” he said with a smile.

Chapter Twenty-four

The online shops are a wonderful thing. You can get anything and get it shipped to you the very next day. I made my selection carefully and bought not one outfit but several, in the hopes of my plans for Theo going well. Now that I was out from under Jonas’ thumb, I could pay for all of that myself but, at one point in my stay at Russet Manor, Tristan pulled me aside and presented me with a credit card in his name.

“I know you have your own money, especially with the new shares in the company... but I would like you to use my card when shopping,” Tristan said. His cheeks had a slight dusting of pink. Ah, so that’s how it was.

“Yeah? You want me to buy myself some pretty things?” I purred, caressing the credit card with my fingers. “Be your little sugar baby?”

“Theo and Matthias use my card as well!” Tristan protested.

“Yeah, because you like to provide and it makes you happy to see them use your money. But I think when I use this cardhappiness isn’t going to be the only thing you will experience, hmm?”

Tristan swallowed hard. His tongue darted out to moisten his lips as his eyes darkened at my teasing.

“Why don’t you try it and find out?”

Remembering that conversation, I added a few things for myself and sent three electronic receipts to Tristan’s email. Two of those were for beautiful but classy ruby earrings and a very special necklace. The other one… I grinned to myself, imagining Tristan's expression at the sight of my surprise.

Two days later, I dressed in a sharp suit, put on the ruby earings that were just delivered, and made the trip to attend my first company meeting as a big shareholder. I asked to borrow Matthias and it turned out to be a brilliant idea; the imposing man following behind me made a few of the men already waiting in the conference room swallow their comments when they saw me with my shadow.

When everyone — the board of directors, the shareholders, and the specialists invited to present their reports — had gathered, Will started the meeting. He made an announcement about the current share percentages and introduced me as the new shareholder.

The board of directors greeted me with reactions from enthusiasm to cold professionalism. Most of them remembered me from my previous work in the company and even those who didn’t like me had learned to respect me.

The shareholders, however...

After the standard summary of the company’s profits, various initiatives, and challenges, it came time for more detailed reports and proposed changes. When it was time for me to present my idea I could feel the sneering stares of the two of the shareholders boring into my back.

“Achieving business efficiency means maximizing resources, reducing costs, andincreasingproductivity. I would like to propose ways to improve the last metric. As we can see on the graph here…”

“Excuse me, but aren’t you just a shareholder?” One of the men who was a shareholder himself lifted his arm. His words didn’t sound like a vicious jab but polite confusion wasn’t much better. Especially when the two men who seemed to have a problem with me immediately followed the line of questioning.

“Yeah, what credentials do you have to present this?” A balding man fumed. Ah. It had to be Johnson, the eternal pain in my brother’s ass.

“Funny. You didn’t pose this question to the man who presented before me,” I said, holding his gaze as he fumed.

“You aren’t answering because you don’t have any qualifications, do you?” A man who looked no older than me asked snidely. “Honestly, Mister Clement, giving your sister nearly half of the company as a handout and now making her present research that isn’t hers? This isn’t a good look.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Will tensing, ready to intervene, and Matthias gritting his teeth as I quelled his urge to slug the man with a look. I could handle this myself. But before I could speak a laugh filled the room and I heard a quieter chuckle follow.

I transferred my gaze to the two men who I didn’t expect to backstab me. One of them was a long-time shareholder who I knew personally, Luis, and the other was someone who I met for the first time but who I had assumed to not be a dickhead from the way he looked interested when I started to speak.

“Is something funny?” l asked tersely.

“Hilarious, actually,” Luis said. “It shows who here had read the reports available to shareholders.” He turned to address the two dissidents. “If you read the deep-dive statistics fromtwo years ago you would know Miss Clement’s name. She has coordinated many of the improvement efforts in this company and has worked with our Big Data department as an expert in the field.”

“Well, I got shares just this year, so I couldn’t know that!” the young man protested stubbornly.

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