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“Any points you would have gotten with me for doing that just now are more than outweighed by you going behind my back and talking to the one person I told you not to talk to,” I tell Malcolm. “Get her up here. She has five minutes from the time the elevator door opens.”
Malcolm’s smart enough not to say anything. He just walks past me and out the office door, closing it on his way.
I know what she’s going to say. It’s nothing new.
She’s going to tell me that if I don’t get the company out of Mulholland, she’s going to tell the board why I wanted to move it there. Appearances are everything. I don’t just mean in business.
The board’s already working on collecting evidence of mismanagement. They’re going to find it whether they know about Grace or not. The only difference is they’re going to work a lot faster once they have the full story.
There’s a knock on the door, and I can already feel the side of my mouth twitching.
“If you’re waiting for a red carpet, you’re in the wrong building,” I call out, and the door opens.
Marly shows herself in, but she doesn’t have her usual smirk. If anything, she’s hanging her head a little. She’s trying to get my sympathy before she even opens her mouth.
The one problem with Marly is she never got it through her head I’m not an idiot.
“Close the door and start talking,” I tell her. “Make it quick, too. I look forward to going back home and to bed so I can pretend this whole thing was a nightmare.”
“You’re so dramatic,” she says, her voice quiet. “You don’t have to be dramatic.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I tell her. “Now, if there’s nothing else…”
“Why do you have to do that?” Marly asks though I can barely hear her she’s speaking so softly.
“What was that?” I ask, just to prod at her.
“I don’t know if you understand this or not, but I had a lot invested in this company,” she says. “I don’t just mean stock options. I mean I cared about this business like it was my own. I still do, whether you believe it or not.”
“Can we just get to the pitch so I can turn it down and go home?” I ask, gritting my teeth.
“I cared about you,” she says. “Not inthatway, I mean, but as more than just your inside girl. We’ve been through a lot of things together, you and me,” she says. “I’ve never said this out loud, but I’ve always considered us to be close friends.”
“You’re appealing to the wrong emotion,” I tell her. “You’ve got a gun to my head. That’s what we’re talking about here. Only, you’re going to have to convince me to care whether or not you pull the trigger. Right now, it doesn’t look like there’s that much left you can do to me that’s not going to happen regardless.”
“You need to stop that,” she says. “Quit blaming other people for your mistakes. You know you’re the reason you’re in this mess. The board knew that without me having to tell them. You have to drop her, Zach. I don’t just mean the two of you should stay out of public places; I’m saying you need never to see that woman again. You need to stop the construction on the new headquarters. Forget you ever went to Mulholland and maybe begin nodding your head to a few things the board wants. You don’t have to lose this company, Zach. I know that you’ve carried the torch for this stranger forever, but you are blowing up a lifeIworked very hard to build. I’m not going to stand for it, Zach.”
“And there are the teeth,” I say, smiling.
“When I was working for you—from the moment Istartedworking for you, I’ve been the one doing a lot of the heavy lifting,” she says. “You grew into a brilliant mind of your own, but every once in a while, you get some idea in your head, and it doesn’t matter what I say or how loudly I say it, you’re going to do what you want. That’s what scares me.”
“I’m glad we can agree on that,” I tell her and start for the door.
“The problem is that they’re rookie mistakes. You fell into a company, and you had to learn under battlefield conditions. I get that, but it also means you have some blind spots no one else on your level has,” she says, stepping in my way. “You don’t know how much time I’ve spent over the years cleaning up after you. I tolerated it for a long time because when things started taking a nosedive, I was right there to tell you how to pull it out again. Maybe you didn’t always agree, but you’d at least hear me out when things started going bad. Why is the one thing that would solve everything the one thing youwon’tdo? You know I know where the skeletons are.”
“Your time was up a while ago, and I’m tired of being threatened by you,” I seethe.
“There are things I will take to my grave before I even think about them when it’s not you and me talking,” she says. “I can’t let this be one of those things anymore. Not unless you turn it around.”
I told the board I might be willing to discuss the relocation. I never said I was ready to change my mind about it.
“Go to the board, then,” I tell her.
“You’re willing to lose everything for this woman who, let’s face it, you never really knew in the first place?” she asks. “Are you doing this because you’re in love with her, or because you’re in love with the fantasy?”
“I’m not an idiot,” I snap. “I’m not calling it love at all yet.”
“Then what are you doing?” she asks. “You want to move the company there because she’s there and you have it in your head she can’t leave. If you’re not doing it for love, you must be crazy, and the board is doing the right thing wanting you gone.”