Lahat ng Kabanata ng She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Kabanata 371 - Kabanata 380

(Chase)"Stop reading.""I've finished.""How much of it?""It's four lines. Page nine."Our general counsel goes quiet on the other end of the phone, which is how she swears."Tell me what you think you read.""Somebody moved money into an account for a subsidiary that told this board it wouldn't need any until the autumn.""That could be a dozen things.""It could be two things, and one of them is a filing error.""Chase.""Nobody funds a thing three months early for the fun of it. They've pulled the closing forward."The pack's open on my desk and my thumb hasn't come off page nine."You're recused.""I'm aware.""Then you understand you can't know that.""But I do know it. That's the problem with knowing things. There's no button.""Logistics is supposed to be lifted out of your copy before it leaves the floor.""Then somebody started their weekend early.""Somebody's going to have a lot of free time in the near future.""No, they're not."I close the pack."It's four lines in a d

(Natasha)"So they've increased the offer. We're recommending she takes it.""Which part of the offer?"The man leading it has a nice voice and he knows it."The money she’s guaranteed to receive on the day the deal is signed.""That's the money she was always going to get."There are eight copies of their presentation on the table, bound, with a name printed on the front of each one.They sent a car for Fran as promised.Nobody even offered to validate my parking, and I'm not going to be the woman who mentions it.I’ll pay the damn fee.Fran's at the head of the table.Her husband's beside her in a good jacket, phone face up on the wood.I talk to her, because she's the only person in this room who's paying anyone."They're buying your company with two lots of money. There's what they hand you the day you sign. Then there's a second lot they promise you later, if the business does well enough.""I know that part.""They've increased the upfront amount. The second lot is exactly the s

(Natasha)"You didn't write what I asked.""No."Fran's read both pages twice while standing up and she's still holding them at arm's length like they might go off.Through the window behind her there's a man walking backward across the yard with his arms up, bringing a truck in."'It is my advice that you do not accept this offer as it stands,'" she reads out."That's not being behind it at all." She sounds flabbergasted."No. It’s not.""I asked you for one page saying we all agree.""You've got two saying we don't."She turns to the second sheet."You copied them in on it.""I copied in everyone who was in that room.""Why would you do that?""Because if I only say it to you it's just my opinion. In writing, emailed to all eight people who'd rather I kept my mouth shut, it's on the record. In two years, when they're deciding whether you hit a target that nobody ever wrote down, they'll remember somebody was taking notes."Fran puts the pages face down on the desk.Their presentatio

(Mason)"I already said no, lets not waste each other’s time more than you already have.""Hear me out.""It's late, Warren. I've got a quarterly close that's actively hostile and a daughter who thinks three in the morning is a party. But go on.""Priya," he says. "She used to work for your company. Take her back. Quietly, so it reads like your idea and not a rescue. That's one salary off Natasha's books, and she keeps the one person she can't run that place without."I put my pen down.Maya's photo is propped against my monitor where I can look at it every time I miss her.I don't have the energy left over to be embarrassed about wishing I was home changing diapers rather than at work.As far as rescue plans go, it’s not a terrible one.He's obviously thought it through, trying to find a way that won’t step on Natasha’s toes too hard.And one that keeps his own hands clean."No.""Mason-""I know you’re trying to help and it’s not too intrusive as far as your plans usually go, but I’

(Elias)"And the daughter. Lily. As instructed.""Yes.""And the boy. Elijah Myles.""Yes."Pemberton turns the page."And Miss Kelly.""Yes. Are you going to argue with me about any of it?""No.""Well." I sign where he's put the little sticker. "This has been extremely disappointing."Chase is by the window with his hands in his pockets, pretending to be somewhere else.“And you, boy. Nothing to say?”"You expected a fight," he says."I expected somebody in this room to have an opinion. I've assembled this family with my own hands and now the paperwork goes through like a grocery order.""Congratulations. That must mean you've become reasonable.""Don't be foul."Pemberton squares the pages and slides them into his case, and I let him get almost all the way to comfortable."Now. The other thing."He stops."I want the boy to have some of it now.""Now," Pemberton says."While I'm alive. While I can watch what he does with it. What earthly use is money to me after I've been put in th