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Moments later, Taelor walks in with a cart stacked with paper. Then, she slams a packet in front of each of the eighteen people around the table, even Lexi.
Weston clears his throat and sits. “Thank you all for attending this emergency meeting, especially on a random Sunday afternoon. Appreciate that. I guess we should getstarted. Nice to see you, Lexi and Easton. I’m so glad you’re both here and well. I’m sure everyone else is too.”
He glares at our father. Weston used emotional warfare without apology.
“Exhibit one: the video,” Weston says. The screen lowers from behind him, and he plays it. “You’ve all seen it. But I have another one for you to watch.” He double clicks, and it’s a long-lens view of Lexi and me in Fiji, laughing and kissing on the beach.
We thought we were alone, but we weren’t. It’s not moments I wanted to share with the world, but as I watch us together, it’s hard to deny anything.
“And this one,” Weston says, playing another from us eating together in the diner in Texas. I was feeding her French fries. “There are countless interviews, accompanied with affidavits. Maybe we did have a stupid conversation, but look at the date. That night, Easton picked her up at her apartment and let her drive to The Garage, where they got to know each other better.”
I glance at my brother, knowing damn well that’s a lie, but he gives me a smirk.
“The future of this company hangs by a thread because you don’t believe their genuine marriage is real? Look at them,” Weston says. “Look. It’s not an act. They’re like this all the time. And it’s not up to you to decide if it’s real. Easton married, as he was supposed to, and kept his word to himself to marry for love. What else do you want?”
Weston makes eye contact with each person, ending with Derrick.
“Before I forget, Derrick should be fired for breaking into my brother’s office. I recovered some mysteriously deleted footage.”
“What?” my father exclaims. “Explain.”
“I did not,” Derrick denies.
“Thought you’d say that,” Weston says, pressing play on the following video.
It’s Derrick, after hours, sneaking into my office three weeks before I returned from overseas for the first time. And Taelor is helping him.
“What the fuck?” I hiss.
Taelor stands by the door and I glare at her. My nostrils flare and Lexi squeezes my hand three times to remind me she’s right there.
Weston seems disappointed. She was a great secretary, so I can only imagine what Derrick bribed her with if he became CEO. Probably a promotion.
My father is seething. “You sabotaged my son?”
“Before we get into that, please look at the packet before you. This was always a joke between them because their communication has been honest from the beginning. This fake-as-fuck contract is proof of that. Three hundred pages, poking fun at the ridiculous arrangement. Flip to the back page and read the fine print.”
Lexi reads it for the first time. She bursts into laughter, and then I do too.
By signing this contract, you recognize that this is a farce, and we should give each other a chance.
“Lexi, is that your signature at the bottom?”
“Yes,” she says, “it is.”
“Does everyone see the date and time of it?”
My father breathes in. “The night of the video.”
“It was blown out of proportion. So, can we stop meddling in my brother’s personal life and get back to business? I’m growing exhausted by the dramatics,” Weston states.
A few board members mumble to one another.
“Derrick, you’re fired,” my father says, standing and opening the door to the room. “Leave.”
“You can’t do this,” he grinds out. “You can’t fire me. The position was supposed to be mine.”
“Leave,” I say as Weston calls security.