Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
And so for now...
“Sure, Dad.”
He decided to play along.
“But I’m afraid this is all a misunder—”
“I’ve already read Ms. Dunn’s statement.”
Cyrus forgot about playing it cool the moment he heard this. “She’s lying, Dad! She’s nobody! You shouldn’t even be listening—”
Henry could only shake his head, unable to believe he had been so damn blind all these years. “Stop making it worse for yourself.” He had raised a monster...and he hadn’t even noticed until it was too late.
“I’m not! All I’m saying is that we don’t need to bend over backwards for someone like her. This is our company—”
“No, son. It isn’t, and it never was.”
Cyrus could only laugh weakly. “What do you mean it’s not? Whose else could it be but—”
“Mine.”
Cyrus’s head snapped to the door. He hadn’t even heard it open, and now, standing by the doorway of all people—
Lyrius Havington, the world’s biggest killjoy.
“Get out,” Cyrus growled, “if you don’t want to lose—”
“He’s your uncle,” Henry thundered, “so show him some respect!”
Kyara couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and her ex-boyfriend seemed to feel the same way, if his slack jaw was anything to go by.
Lyrius...was Cyrus’s uncle?
He had told her earlier that he had a plan, and that all he needed from her was to trust him, and so this...this was it? He was Cyrus’s uncle, and as she continued listening to Henry, all the missing puzzle pieces started falling into place, and she came to realize just how the rumor mills got everything completely wrong.
You never met your grandfather, and maybe that’s a good thing.
Lyrius crossed the room while his older half-brother was still speaking, and he could feel his nephew’s eyes watching him as he took his place behind Kyara’s chair and placed his hands on her shoulders.
It was a claim of ownership, and everyone in the room knew it.
He was a selfish and unpleasant man. He didn’t marry my mother because she was the hired help. He wanted to marry Lyrius’s mother because of her money, but when her parents asked him to sign a prenup, he dumped her instead. Then he took me in, groomed me to inherit Wallace International, and when he realized I had no head for business but Lyrius did...
The older man’s face contorted with a painful grimace. He was shameless enough to call for Lyrius on his deathbed. Asked him to help me with the company, and Lyrius agreed under one condition. That our relationship never become public because it would hurt his grandparents if they were to know of it.
Once Henry was done speaking, the door opened on cue, with Lara walking in to read out loud Cyrus’s list of violations in his three years of employment history.
“Internal Investigation Report, Wallace International,” Lara read, and her voice had gone into the brisk professional register she used for client briefings. “Subject: Cyrus Henry Wallace, Senior Associate, Accounting.”
Cyrus made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Bullshit!”
“Compiled by Office of the General Counsel in coordination with Human Resources, with the cooperation of the office of the Chief Executive Officer.”
“I’m being framed, Dad! Can’t you see what’s happening?
Lara turned to the next page as if she hadn’t heard anything.
Kristine Campbell, terminated without cause...
Kyara paled as she realized who it was Lara was talking about. Kristine...was the reason Cyrus had been in such a good mood last year.
Pearl Villar...
Hilda Penn...
The list went on and on. Kyara couldn’t believe she had been so blind all these years. And while Cyrus contested them all—
Item three: Collusion with Didi Peyton, Senior Associate, Marketing, in the unauthorized appropriation of company funds for an unsanctioned trip to Las Vegas.
Item four: Embezzlement
It was only when Lara talked about Cyrus stealing company funds that he went berserk, lunging toward Kyara without warning—
Oh God, help!
Her eyes automatically squeezed shut.
But nothing happened.
Instead, she heard a loud, hard sound—like someone’s fist connecting with another person’s face—and when she opened her eyes, it was just in time to see Cyrus falling to the floor as Lyrius knocked him out cold.
Everything had happened so, so fast, and Kyara could only watch in stunned silence when everyone, Cyrus’s dad himself included, seemed to take everything in stride. It was as if they had a meeting about this beforehand, and everything—including Cyrus being bodily carried out on a stretcher, which somehow just happened to be immediately available—was going according to plan.
But surely...that couldn’t be so.
Right?
She turned her gaze to Lyrius and the company’s CEO. They didn’t resemble each other at all, and maybe that was why no one had ever expected them to be half-brothers. No one would have suspected such a thing, and that was why the rumors...
“Do you need anything before I go?”
Lara’s voice drew her out of her thoughts, and Kyara could only shake her head. “I’m...I’m good, and...” She managed a wobbly smile for the other woman. “I know you have a hand in this.”