Page 39 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

They weren’t in the drawing room this time, but were assembled in the library where chairs were lined up in front of a table.

HB was seated behind the table, along with his attorney, and Harrison and Jayda, Felix and Kitty, Carter and Phyllis, Archie and his wife, Dalton and his wife, and the two additional couples that were also at the compound the night before.

Jayda looked over at Harrison. Although his legs were crossed and he appeared as cool as cool could get, he had to be worried.

He didn’t discuss it during the ride over to his father’s house, but by the amount of stress he released on her after hearing the news, she knew he was very concerned. He had a lot to lose.

Felix, on the other hand, looked stricken. But she didn’t know how much of that was guilt over what happened last night and the fact that his father and brother were nearly killed while he wasn’t even targeted, or greed. She kept her eyes especially on him.

Then his father spoke. And the entire room went still.

Although either Harrison or Felix would come out the winner, everybody in that room had a stake in the outcome.

Harrison explained that to her when she wondered why so many people were invited to the announcement.

Carter, Archie, and Dalton represented his various subsidiaries in addition to BCT and would stand to get shares should he become the winner.

The two couples with Felix represented Felix, who was his own brand and company, and would stand to get shares should Felix emerge victorious.

She didn’t understand why because Harrison didn’t delve that deep, but at least she understood that they all had a right to be there.

Including her, who would also gain shares by virtue of being his wife although, she reminded him, she wasn’t his wife yet.

But that, to Harrison, was a technicality.

Which warmed her heart despite all the craziness they had gone through since they’d been in Maine.

“The reason I asked all of you to attend this meeting is because two of you are my sons, and the rest of you are my sons’ representatives. Because this will be my last will and testament, I wanted the representatives to bear in-person witness to this proceeding. I am not dying.”

That was news to everybody else in the room. Except for Harrison and Jayda.

“You aren’t dying?” Felix blurted out as if he was disappointed.

“No, Felix, I am not. I am, as of right now, cancer free.”

Everybody started looking around and murmuring.

Since Harrison and Jayda already knew they said nothing.

But it wasn’t lost on Jayda that Felix didn’t even smile at the news that his own father wasn’t dying, whereas Harrison, when he heard the news, couldn’t contain his joy.

How was this even a contest, Jayda wondered.

But apparently it was. Because his father began with Felix. “You’re my younger son,” he said, “but you’ve been by my side through thick and thin. You visit me often. You check on me. You steal from me. You rob me blind.”

Wait, what ? Jayda and everybody else in that room were astonished. Especially Felix. Harrison was smiling.

But HB kept going. “You are so greedy that you’ll sell me to kidnappers if you thought you could get away with it.”

“That’s not fair, Father,” Felix said.

“Oh it’s very fair,” said HB. “But I believe sincerely that you will keep Bainbridge Oil as an industry leader. Just as every business venture you have is wildly successful. You won’t let me down in that respect.”

Felix smiled. “Thank you, Father.”

Then HB looked at Harrison. “Which brings me to my oldest son. My namesake. The man who couldn’t wait to get from beneath my shadow and do his own thing.

And he did it well if I may say so myself.

I inherited Bainbridge Oil and Gas from generations before me.

I gave Felix the money and the contacts and the wherewithal to make his fortune.

And Felix made great use of those tools.

But Harrison didn’t want a dime from me.

He made his millions from scratch. And I admire that.

When his mother was alive, he would check on me because he was checking on her.

But as soon as she left this earth, he left me in the dust and never looked back.

It’s understandable. We never really got along.

But sometimes being present, as Felix has been, is ninety-nine percent of it. ”

Felix smiled. “I agree, Father,” he said. “I couldn’t agree more!”

“But this is not one of those times,” said HB, and Jayda wanted to laugh. But she held it in.

“To make a long story short,” HB finally said, “I have selected Harrison Bainbridge the Fourth as the sole owner of Bainbridge Oil and Gas effective immediately.”

Jayda couldn’t contain her joy. She smiled grandly and looked at Harrison as Carter and Archie and Dalton cheered and clapped and patted him on the back.

Harrison exhaled. And he was smiling too.

But she could see it was more like a smile of relief than joy.

BCT, his baby, was going under if he didn’t get the much larger and far more profitable Bainbridge Oil in his portfolio.

“Thank you, Father,” Harrison said to HB.

But Felix and Kitty and the two couples with them were livid. “This doesn’t make any sense,” Felix complained. “Why would you give it to Harrison? He’s never here. He doesn’t do anything for you.”

“Neither do you. Unless I count your lying and cheating and stealing from me. Neither one of you have been model sons. One pretends to be. The other one doesn’t even bother. No. You both have your faults. But one thing tipped the scale in Harrison’s favor, and against you.”

“What?” Felix asked with anguish on his face.

“Harrison selected a smart woman to be his wife. A woman who, in the face of unrelenting danger, didn’t hide or scream or rely solely on Harrison to save the day. She did all she could to save it too. And in the process, she saved both my life and Harrison’s.”

Harrison took Jayda’s hand and squeezed it. Jayda had to fight back tears. Nobody had ever given her credit for anything major. But this man, this wonderful man she’d just met, was giving her more than she deserved. It was amazing to her.

But not to Felix. “That’s the reason?” he asked angrily. “I would have done the same thing had I been in that limo! That can’t be the main reason.”

“That’s the reason that tipped the scale in Harrison’s favor,” his father said again.

“Harrison chose a smart woman who will help him not just take from him. Which means she’ll help Bainbridge Oil.

He chose a sharp, independent woman. You chose a fool.

That says all I need to know about who is best positioned to take over my company.

The only reason it’s a contest at all is because I was angry with Harrison.

Unfair? Yes. Because he did nothing wrong.

But he deserted me. The anger was there. ”

“This is some bullshit!” Felix said angrily himself as he got up to leave, with Kitty and the two couples getting up too.

“I’m no fool,” Kitty said as they all headed for the exit doors.

“Not so fast,” Harrison said as two men entered the library, closed the double doors behind them, and then stood on either side of those doors.

They were two plainclothes detectives that had arrived with Harrison.

Everyone assumed they were Harrison’s security detail given what happened last night, and he hadn’t bothered to dissuade them of their assumption.

But Felix could smell a pig a mile away, and the fear Jayda and Harrison saw in his eyes betrayed him. “What do you mean not so fast?” he asked less-assuredly as he stared at the two detectives.

“There’s a movie we need to see,” Harrison responded.

“A movie at a time like this?” Kitty was incredulous as she, Felix, and the two couples with them turned back around and faced Harrison. Felix might have smelled a pig, but Kitty was clueless. “What kind of movie?”

“The best kind,” Harrison said as he nodded to William, his father’s house manager who stood behind HB and the attorney. William, in turn, pressed a remote control in his hand. A huge screen across the room dropped down from its rolled-up position, and then he pressed Play.

HB was surprised that his house manager had agreed to participate in this sideshow when he had no idea what was going on either, but he knew Harrison was not the kind of man to play games. He didn’t intervene.

They all watched what appeared to be video from an outdoors camera that showed Jayda on her e-bike pedaling through an alley. A faded-blue van with heavily tinted windows and a busted front driver side light was seen in that alley.

Felix frowned. “What is this? Is this a joke? Your fiancée rides a bicycle?”

“Yes I do,” Jayda said proudly.

But they all were glued to the screen as Jayda gave the driver of that van a middle finger gesture and kept on riding.

The van’s driver could be heard attempting to start the van, but its engine wouldn’t turn over.

Jayda could be seen looking back at the van, and giving it another middle finger gesture, before she rode out of the frame.

The driver could then be seen getting out of the van to look under the hood. But what shocked the room was when the passenger door of that van opened and Phyllis Davenshaw, Carter Davenshaw’s wife, got out of that van.

They all looked at Phyllis. Including a stunned Carter. “What are you doing in some alley?” he asked his wife. Phyllis slumped down in her chair.

But it was what she said on the video that stunned them all.

“Why won’t it start?” she angrily asked the driver.

“I don’t know! What do I know about a fucking van?”

“But we’ve got to get that bitch! You didn’t finish the job with Harrison and that’s why I had to show up. We can’t let her get away!”