Page 77 of Merry Fake Bride

Ryan immediately rises and plants both hands on the table next to me and stares. “What took you so long?”

“Sorry,” I reply. “I left my teleporter at home. Does someone want to explain to me what is going on?”

“The bakery!” Erin throws her hands in the air and sags backward. “They’re going after the land rights. The companylawyers received a call from her lawyer a few hours ago, and now this project is in jeopardy once more.”

My heart skips a beat. Devon has a good lawyer if they move this quickly.

“So how do we stop it?” Trent looks between everyone as if they’re hiding the answer from him. “How do we cut this down before it hits the papers?”

“We can’t,” Donald replies grimly. “With the money she’s got and the underhanded way we acquired those rights, she’s got a good case.”

“Whose side are you on?” Ryan barks across the table, slamming one hand down. “I don’t care howunderhandedit was back then. The point is that the bakery is on our land and I want that fucking building turned to dust.”

“We can wrap them up in a legal battle. It’ll take a few years, but we’ll wear them down eventually,” Trent offers. “And we could question every single detail?—”

“No,” Ryan cuts in. “We’ve wasted enough time. I want you to dig into her finances and find out where the hell she suddenly got the money to pursue this. You told me the daughter was even worse off than the parents!”

“She is,” Erin insists. “I don’t understand. We even raised the parents’ insurance to really bleed out the last of their savings.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

I knew this company was responsible for several underhanded tactics, but it never crossed my mind that anyone here had the kind of connections that can mess with someone’s health insurance.

Erin suddenly changes in my eyes, from a cold woman focused on feeding her family to just another greedy, cruel snake in this nest.

“Do you have nothing to say?” Ryan’s head whips around to face me and our eyes meet. “You’re the one who’s been chomping to get this deal passed and now we’ve hit another wall and you’re silent.”

“What do you want me to do?” I tilt my head. “It sounds like she has a perfectly legal claim on the land her bakery stands on and her lawyer is pursuing it. There’s nothing for us to do but let the lawyers duke it out.”

“Are you serious?” Ryan’s face changes hue as his frustration builds. “Did you forget our little talk about how muchmoneywe’re hemorrhaging while waiting for this to clear? I’m not delaying this a moment longer.”

Tension throbs through my skull while I lean forward. “So what are you going to do?”

“What can we do?” Donald asks. “Short of something like the old days.”

“Maybe that’s what we need.” Ryan starts nodding and straightens up. “We dig in and find out who her backer is. There’s no way she got approved for a loan. We made sure of that. She must have someone with money helping her. A friend or an ex or something. And while we look, I want a smear campaign started. Everything from her home life, her personal life, and her school life. Make her look like a bully, find out what she was up to in L.A. I want reviews crashing that bakery. Food poisoning. Toothpicks left in cakes. Rotten fruit. Rude customerservice. Hell…” His eyes begin to glow with greed. “They’ve won awards. I want to call into question the legitimacy of those?—”

“No.” I cut him off with a single, quiet word that silences the murmurs of agreement from the others around the table. All eyes turn to me.

“No?” Ryan lowers his hand. “What do you mean, no?”

“We’re not attacking their reputation. We’re not destroying their livelihood. We’re not smearing anyone, understand?”

“But Kairo?—”

“No.” I lower my tone and glare at him. “Enough of this, you hear me? Destroying their reputation with false allegations means they won’t ever be able to rebuild if we win this lawsuit. We do this properly and by the book, or do you want the negative press of the gigantic company destroying the sweet bakery to be the headline at New Year's? Since all you care about is money and appearance, then think of it this way—if we take this to court and fight it, then yes, we might win, and we’ll win fairly. But we might lose, and honestly…”

I stand slowly. “I think court is where this deserves to be fought.”

“What are you going to do?” Erin asks eagerly. She hungers for information, expecting some cruel plan to fall from my lips, but nothing of the sort exists inside me.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Several voices clash together.

“Yes. Nothing. You said it yourself, the bakery is within its rights to fight and overturn what was a bullied deal in the first place. If they win, and they will, we will absorb the loss, just as we havedone countless times over the years. We arenotin the business of destroying lives anymore, you hear me?”

An uncertain silence follows and gradually, each pair of eyes flicks to Ryan. I follow suit. Ryan glares at me with dark anger. “You can’t be serious.”