Page 74 of Top Dog

“Then let me do it for you. For some reason, my father’s will is still sealed. And I have a feeling that when I demand you open it, you’re going to find something that contradicts the current status quo. Now, I’m not sure why you haven’t unsealed my father’s will, but I’m going to assume you’re not that incompetent of a lawyer and make the assumption that my uncle paid you off.”

Mr. Dashel gritted his teeth, and I watched his temple pulse.

“I’m here to ask you one simple question,” I said. “I want to know how to have Stefano removed as President of my family’s legitimate businesses.”

“Is that all?” he asked.

“A change needs to be made, Mr. Dashel. I will be asserting a more hands-on role in the family business that was left to me. I have properly grieved, my son is growing older,a nd I’m ready to instate a different direction for my family’s business to go in. One I can be proud of and pass down to my son.”

“As your legal counsel, I would advise you against such a move,” he said.

“Why? Because then you won’t get paid?” I asked.

“No. Because you lack the constitution to do it.”

My eyes hardened onto the man in front of me as he leaned forward again.

“It takes a certain kind of man to run a syndicate like your family, Miss Bianchi. And you don’t have that within you.”

“I want to remind you that you work for me, Mr. Dashel. My uncle pays you, but the seat he sits in is mine. And I know enough about the inner workings of this family to know that when my mother passed, all of this fell onto my shoulders. My uncle might currently be the head, but I’m the neck. And I turn the head any which way I choose. So the question now standing is this one: do you want the head turned your way, or not?”

The threats I was making churned my stomach. I sounded like my father. Like a man making a threat agai

nst another man’s life. This wasn’t how I saw my day turning out. And not how I wanted to run my father’s business. But if Mr. Dashel was going to play hardball, then I needed to play along with him. If I wanted to be taken seriously as a shark, then I had to act like one in these troubled waters.

“I can have you removed,” I said. “Permanently.”

I watched our family lawyer draw in a deep breath before he opened a drawer next to him. I braced myself to hit the floor, thinking he was going to pull a gun on me. But instead, he pulled out a series of folders and dropped them onto his desk. One by one. As if he was trying to get me to flinch or run out of the room crying like the little girl he thought I was.

“These six folders contain all of the legal proceedings that would have to take place in order to unseat Stefano,” he said. “It’s lengthy. The shorter route is to demand you have your father’s will opened. But if that will hands his business to your uncle, you’ll no longer have a leg to stand on. Even with these legal proceedings. It’s a game of Russian Roulette, Miss Bianchi. So it depends on which way you want to spin the wheel.”

“Tell me. Do you like working for my uncle?” I asked.

“I’m loyal to your family, Miss Bianchi.”

“Not the question I asked. But I enjoy how you and everyone else seem to have that phrase on repeat.”

“Stefano enjoys loyalty.”

“And I enjoy truth. So tell me, do you enjoy working for my uncle?”

Mr. Dashel’s face grew dim, telling me everything I needed to know.

“This business is mine, and I won’t allow Stefano to ram it into the ground simply because he didn’t believe in the direction my father was taking things.”

“And what direction was that, Miss Bianchi?”

I stood from my seat and dusted myself off before I smiled.

“That’ll be all,” I said as I stepped toward the door. “Get back to me as soon as you have the papers drawn up to get the process started.”

“Miss Bianchi?”

“Yes?”

I turned my head around and watched as Mr. Dashel stood from his desk.

“I was wrong about you.”

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