Page 50 of Executive Decision

Mum shook her head. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry.”

“Apologize to Davey,” I said. “I don’t owe him one. However, you do. It might help things for me.”

Mum nodded. “Does he know about Chandler?”

“He does now. But he still will not move on what he sees as a challenge to his authority. So, now I have no job, no money, and?—”

“Do not worry about the money,” Mum insisted. “I don’t want you to ever worry about the goddamn money. When the courts have had their say in a few months, you will again be a very wealthy woman. As for Davey, I can?—"

“As much as I appreciate you potentially intervening,” I said, “I think I need to take care of this one.”

Rather than wallow, I headed upstairs to research next steps. I already pulled all our board materials for the last five years. It wasn’t quite enough. All I had was public financials. I missed too much and needed more. I sifted through the papers Davey handed me for onboarding, then grabbed the full copy of my father’s will, drawn to the one person I knew could get under Davey’s skin better than anyone else.

Cal Markham. I ran my finger down the page. He got my father’s heirloom pocket watch—something Davey loathed—and then somethingmuchmore valuable.

“Thirty shares!” I covered my mouth.

Family shares were worth double non-family shares, but that was still a ten-percent ownership of the company.

Together, we could manage a third of the company. Instead of worrying about what Davey mightgrantme, I would play his game better than he could. If Davey didn’t believe in me, I had to. The information on where all the bodies were buried was right here in the company portal and I had the beginnings of what I thought might pressure Davey into doing the right thing.

19THE PLOT

Cal

“Sir, there is a call for you,”Susan, my assistant, said over the intercom. “Daphne Delphine.”

Confused, I said, “For me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Put her through. Hold my four.”

“Yes, sir. Here she is.”

“Daphne,” I said. “What do you need?”

She was tentative. “I need to talk to you about the will.”

“Is this about the pocket watch? If it means that much to Davey?—”

“No,” Daphne said. “Davey doesn’t want you to have the watch, but I don’t care about that. I know about the shares. How did you intend to manage them? I figure you will start up an LLC and grant them to some sort of manager, but I have something I’d like to propose.”

I didn’t realizesheknew, but was aware I shouldn’t have this conversation over the phone.

“Daphne, can we talk about this at another time?”

“Cal, after what you said at the gala?—”

She thought I fobbed her off.

I emphasized, “Off the record.”

“Oh… shit. Yeah. Sorry, I got ahead of myself.”

I chuckled. “It’s okay, but you’re not just dialing my cell. I’m free this evening if you wanted to meet up.”

“I don’t want to do this here,” Daphne said. “I’ve been combing through papers, and I have questions I think you can answer. I’m just a little worried about doing it at my place.”

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