Chapter 4 - The Price of a Signature|
Edmund Ward arrived at Duly's office before noon on Monday and refused the coffee Lyall offered.
He had worn a mourning expression at the wedding whenever anyone mentioned Naomi's grandmother.
Today he looked only inconvenienced.
“Your wife has hired an attorney.”
Duly stood beside the window.
“I received the letter.”
“Then make her dismiss the woman.”
Duly turned slowly.
Edmund seemed to remember whose office he had entered.
He adjusted his cuffs.
“We have a closing on Wednesday.”
Ward Freight owned warehouses and trucking contracts that Moretti Holdings had wanted for years.
Edmund owned seventy-two percent of the company.
Naomi owned the remaining twenty-eight, inherited directly from her grandmother.
The company's governing agreement required approval from holders of at least seventy-five percent for the proposed sale of its principal assets.
The lender financing the purchase also required Naomi to sign before its own closing officer.
Edmund had spent months describing his daughter's consent as a formality.
The marriage had been his guarantee that she would remain cooperative.
“Delay it,” Duly said.
“We cannot simply delay it.”
“Apparently we can.”
Edmund's mouth tightened.
“You were meant to make her feel secure.”
The sentence stayed in the room.
Duly thought of the chair beside the bridal bed, where Naomi's evening bag still rested.
He had not noticed it until he went back for the ring.
She had unpacked enough to expect him.
“Leave,” he said.
Edmund hesitated, then obeyed.
Across the state, Naomi sat in Mara's office with the same transaction spread before her.
Her grandmother had built Ward Freight with her husband before either man currently fighting over it had held a position there.
Naomi remembered visits to the dispatch office, the smell of burnt coffee, and Ruth Ward bringing extra sandwiches because someone always forgot lunch.
She had thought the shares were a keepsake with occasional dividend checks attached.
Mara explained the voting provisions without making her feel foolish for not knowing them.
Then she showed her the separate guarantee tucked behind the proposed voting agreement.
“They also want you to pledge your shares against existing company debt.”
“Debt I didn't create.”
“Yes.”
Naomi read the paragraph again.
Her father had called this a wedding gift.
At three, Mara received a request from Duly's attorney for a private meeting.
Naomi stared at the message.
Part of her wanted to see him.
That was the humiliating thing she had not admitted to June.
She wanted an explanation good enough to make the woman in the bridal suite disappear.
She wanted to have misunderstood.
Instead, she remembered how quickly he had left when Serena's name appeared.
“Not today,” she said.
Mara typed the answer.
Duly called his attorney as soon as the refusal reached him.
“Tell her I'll come alone.”
“She has declined a meeting.”
“Then tell me where she is.”
The attorney paused.
“I don't have that information.”
Duly ended the call before he said something that would look worse written down.
Lyall stood near the door.
“Find her,” Duly ordered.
“To do what?”
“Bring her home.”
Lyall remained still.
He had carried out uglier instructions with fewer questions, and both men knew it.
“She has a lawyer saying she left voluntarily.”
“She is my wife.”
“That is what makes this your marriage.”
Lyall glanced at the letter on the desk.
“It doesn't make it a retrieval.”
Duly's face hardened.
For a moment, the old answer was there, waiting to become an order.
Then his gaze dropped to the ring.
“No one touches her,” he said.
At Mara's office, Naomi signed a written refusal of the proposed transaction and requested the underlying company records.
Her hand shook when she reached the last letter of her name.
She signed anyway.
Mara sent the notice while Naomi was still sitting beside her.
May you like
The Wednesday closing stopped being inevitable.
For the first time in Naomi's life, an entire room of powerful men would have to rearrange their plans because she had said no.
