Page 4

Chapter

Two

K elby sat at her dad’s bedside. He’d been taken to Emory Decatur Hospital, the closest facility to Hawthorne.

She bemoaned the fact that the new Hawthorne regional hospital, halfway between Decatur and Gainesville, would not open for another few weeks.

That would have been more convenient, having Dad closer to the ranch.

Chance would now take on their father’s responsibilities at Blackstone Ranch.

She only hoped it wouldn’t be a permanent change.

It had been yesterday since she’d even brushed her teeth.

After talking to Chance, Kelby had thrown several shirts and pairs of jeans, along with bras and underwear, into her carryon suitcase, shoving toiletries into a bag.

She’d driven to the hospital, well above the speed limit, and arrived just a little before midnight.

Chance had told her on the phone that Dad was in ICU, and she’d headed there, finding out where Jim Blackstone was located at the nurse’s station.

It had been eerie, going down the silent hospital halls, the only noise being the steady beep of machines monitoring patients.

When she entered her father’s room, Chance had been sitting at the bedside, staring at Dad in the bed.

She’d gone to Chance, wrapping herself around him, tears finally spilling down her cheeks.

Her brother had told her more than he’d mentioned on the phone.

How he’d come across Dad in a horse stall, lying on the hay, his mouth twisted, his body curled in an unusual way.

Not knowing how long Jim Blackstone had lain there, Chance quickly found a ranch hand, and they loaded Dad into the back seat of Chance’s truck.

Tammy Carruthers, their longtime housekeeper and the only mother figure Kelby had ever known, had come along, Dad’s head cradled in her lap.

Chance said he’d driven as if the Devil had been chasing him, dashing into the emergency room and shouting for help.

The doctors had ruled it to be a stroke.

Ironically, Kelby’s mom had a stroke when delivering her daughter and had died two days after giving birth.

Jim Blackstone had never remarried, raising his Irish twins on his own, with the help and support of Tammy, who’d managed the household and raised the two Blackstone children as if they were her own.

She glanced over at Chance, sleeping in the chair on the other side of the bed.

Standing, she retrieved her bag and slipped into the restroom a few feet away, brushing her teeth and running a comb through her long, raven hair.

She returned to the room and pulled her phone from her pocket, ready to send an email to her boss.

Because her dad’s condition was so serious, she would need to take a leave of absence from work.

The timing couldn’t have been better, with the Bax scandal breaking last night.

Being away from work would help Wyndham & Warren put some distance between the company and her.

Before she could open her work email account to request the LOA, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She’d kept the ringer off to avoid hearing the numerous texts.

Her boss’s name came across the screen, and Kelby stepped outside the room.

“Hey, Reginald,” she said. “I was about to send you an email, requesting a leave of absence.”

“A dreadful business,” he said in his posh British accent. “Journalists were hanging about the moment I arrived this morning. This is a terrible situation, Kelby. Simply dreadful. How on earth could you have been wed to such a worthless scoundrel?”

“It was a long time ago,” she said. “We divorced five years ago. I couldn’t have told you where Baxley Porter was until the news hit last night. I know it still reflects on?—”

“Reflects is not the word I would use,” he said crisply. “Wyndham & Warren is an established company with a very specific brand. We simply cannot have any scandal associated with us, and that includes one of our high-profile employees.”

A sinking feeling filled her. “What are you saying? Are you firing me?”

“No, no, no,” Reginald said quickly. “That would be illegal. What we would prefer you to do is resign.”

She took in his words, thinking how unfair it was after all these years that Bax was still having a negative impact on her life. Determination filled her. Kelby liked her job. She was not going to slink away, all because of something Bax had done.

“I was about to call you to tell you that I wouldn’t be in the office today,” she said, trying to hold herself together.

“My father had a stroke last night, and I’ve gone up to Decatur to be with him.

I was hoping to take an LOA from the company so that if he makes it, I can care for him.

Then I could return, say in a couple of months.

I’m certain by then that this situation regarding my former spouse will have blown over. ”

“That will not do,” her boss said flatly. “These things never blow over. We simply cannot have you associated with us. Think of it, Kelby. You, through our social media campaigns, represent our brand. Our brand ! It’s unthinkable to have your troubles associated with Wyndham & Warren.”

“And what if I don’t wish to resign?” she countered, her tone sharp. “I have plenty of vacation and sick days I could use up.”

“We will pay you for those, as well as give you a glowing reference,” her boss said. “But we need you to resign, effective immediately. I want to be able to tell those journalists that you no longer work here and that I have no idea where you are.”

Hurt swelled inside her. The past five years had been good ones.

She’d grown as a professional and put in great work with a therapist, finally finding herself again.

Now, everything she had done was lost. Yes, she could sue for unlawful termination, but Wyndham & Warren had deep pockets.

They could find the right attorneys and make certain she never worked again, as well as keep delaying trial dates until her savings dried up.

If she rejected Reginald’s offer now, she could effectively be killing her own career.

“All right,” she agreed. “But I want to be paid for those unused days. And I’d like a severance package, as well as copies of any reference letter you might send out.”

Reginald sniffed. “I see you wish to play hardball. You have us in a bind, Kelby, because of your past association with this drug-addled murderer.”

He named a figure, which was far more than she would have expected.

“But that is if you do not speak of your time at Wyndham & Warren. Ever. You will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement. You may list us as part of your previous experience, but we reserve the right not to pass along any recommendations regarding your employment for a six-month period.”

She could see the company’s lawyers had already told him what to say. Most likely, one or more of them sat across from him now, listening on speakerphone, passing him notes as to how to continue the conversation.

“As I told you, I’m at my father’s bedside. It may very well be his deathbed. Either let me sign electronically or send a courier to the hospital with the documents to be signed.”

“It can be done electronically,” Reginald said brusquely.

“I will forward them to your business email account. Once you return these digital copies, you will no longer have access to your work email account. Already, you do not possess work privileges anymore, so do not try to access the employee website or your created content.”

Kelby wanted to protest, wishing she had access to copies of campaigns she’d created, but she didn’t want to push Reginald too much. She knew her assistant was sharp and told her soon-to-be-former boss that was who should take over her position.

“I will have my lawyer look over the paperwork once you send the email,” she said coolly. Of course, she didn’t have a lawyer, not since she’d divorced Bax in Florida.

Silence. Then Reginald said, “This offer is only good for twenty-four hours, Kelby. If I do not have the signed documents by this time tomorrow morning, your employment will be terminated. We will find just cause for this termination. There will be no excellent reference. No package. You will be out of a job. Period. And if you choose to sue Wyndham & Warren, I can assure you that the case will never see the light of day.”

“I understand,” she said through gritted teeth, not bothering to tell Reginald goodbye as she ended the call.

Slipping back into the room, she saw Chance stirring. Slowly, his eyes came open. His gaze met hers.

“What’s wrong?”

He had always been able to read her moods.

They weren’t actual twins, but they were close in age.

Chance’s birthday was September fifteenth, missing the September first cutoff to start public school.

With Kelby being born eleven months to the day later, she and Chance had been in the same class at school.

Because of that, they had been close growing up, sharing experiences and friends in their small town.

She shrugged. “I just got off the phone with my boss. Five years, down the drain.”

He frowned. “They’re firing you? Over the Bax situation?”

Nodding, she said, “Pretty much. They know how to frame things and control the narrative. Either I sign the NDA—or I’m toast.”

Briefly, Kelby revealed her conversation with Reginald, ending with, “I have no choice. I don’t have the money or willpower to fight them in court. They’d probably drag it out and delay, again and again. I need to be here. With Dad and you. So, I’ll sign whatever.”

“Not without someone looking it over,” he said firmly.

“Who? I know you and Dad still use Isaiah Smith, but he’s getting long in the tooth, as Tammy would say. He probably wouldn’t even understand e-doc signing, much less an NDA.”

“I agree. Isaiah is talking about retiring soon. In the meantime, let me see if Sawyer Montgomery would read through them for you.”