Chapter 3

Three days later, the Everline Group due-diligence meeting.

The air in the conference room was so heavy it was hard to breathe.

Everline's investor representative sat at the far end of the long table, a voice recorder lying beside him.

Paige stood in front of the projector, a fine layer of sweat already beading on her forehead.

"As for our revenue growth in the third quarter, we relied mainly on... on expanding into new channels."

She stumbled through the words on the slides, her eyes darting again and again toward Fred.

The man across from her stopped what he was doing and flipped open the file in front of him.

"Miss Sullivan, I asked about the sequential drop in your core profit margin, not for you to read me a press release."

He looked up, his gaze sharp on Paige.

"There are three clear gaps in the financial model your company submitted. Can you explain them?"

Paige lost her composure completely. She looked to Fred for help.

Fred cleared his throat and tried to smooth it over.

"Paige is just short on experience. The overall direction is sound."

He made the claim without a trace of hesitation, then turned to me.

"Celeste, pull up the core figures for the third quarter and walk them through it."

His tone was the same habitual one he always used to give orders.

As if I were still the dutiful wife ready at any moment to cover his losses and clean up his messes.

I sat in my chair without so much as reaching to open the file in front of me.

"Mr. Harding, haven't you got one thing confused?" I picked up my coffee and took a small sip.

"You handed the Everline account over to Miss Sullivan in full three days ago."

Fred's expression shifted. He lowered his voice and warned me.

"Celeste, this is no time to throw a tantrum. Do you not know how important this funding is to the company?"

"I do." I set the cup down.

"But I'm under no obligation to wipe the backside of someone who can't even read a report."

Right on cue, the man across the table closed his file.

"Mr. Harding, it seems your company has serious problems with internal management."

He stood.

"Everline's money isn't here for you people to play house with. If the core team can't reach a consensus, there's no point continuing this due diligence."

Fred finally panicked. He shot to his feet.

"Please, give me one more day. I'll submit the complete data."

He turned and fixed his eyes on me, a trace of pleading and anger in them.

"Celeste, I'm begging you, just hand over the data first. Once we're home, hit me, scream at me, whatever you want."

I looked at that false face of his and felt nothing but disgust.

"Sorry, Mr. Harding. My team has already completed its own independent accounting."

I stood and picked up my handbag.

"From now on, this funding round has nothing to do with you."