Made in Manhattan

Edith waited until the laughter faded before continuing. “The search for the next CEO has been a slow, deliberate one, as I know I speak for everyone on this stage when I say we’ve wanted to find the right fit. We’re still not quite there, but we have found someone perfectly suited to fill the position while we continue our search.”

Wait, whaaaaaat?

Edith smiled brightly, shifting the microphone from one hand to the other, and Violet thought she saw her hand shake just a little. “And so, on behalf of myself and the entire Rhodes International leadership team, I’d like to congratulate our new acting CEO: Mr. Keith Schultz.”

Violet didn’t move a single muscle as all the blood seemed to drain from her face. In fact, she felt completely boneless as she stood there, frozen, trying to figure out if she’d just heard what she’d thought she’d heard.

“Keith?” Ashley said, echoing Violet’s disbelief. Luckily her added eww was drowned out by the applause from the rest of the room as a beaming Keith walked across the stage, taking the microphone from Edith.

Violet spared him only the briefest of glances before looking at a wooden Cain, who stood as still as Violet herself.

He’d known, she realized. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was feeling, but she knew it wasn’t surprise.

What the hell had happened?

She turned her attention back to Keith, wanting to demand he justify his presence, to explain this turn of events. But he was too busy going on and on about the great honor, his grand vision…

“I did have one small regret upon learning the news, however,” Keith was saying. “I’ve been privy to the fact that Edith’s and Bernard’s fondest wish was to keep the company in the family.”

Violet glanced again at Cain, and this time she saw the faintest of flinches. Edith’s was less subtle.

Keith was still wearing his smarmy smile. “Some of you may know that in addition to being blessed with the discovery of Mr. Stone here, Edith has had a surrogate granddaughter the past few years, a woman she’s told me herself she loves as much as her own flesh and blood.”

Violet looked in surprise at Edith, who smiled back with a slight nod.

“Violet, would you join me up here for a moment?” Keith asked, and she noticed he had to scan the crowd for her.

Cain, on the other hand, had immediately known where she was.

“Gross,” Ashley was muttering. “But you have to get up there, sweetie.”

Violet let her friend gently nudge her toward the stairs at the side of the stage, though it wasn’t Ashley who helped her navigate up the steps on shaky legs, nor was it Keith.

It was Cain. He extended a hand, which Violet took without hesitation, holding his dark gaze as she made her way up the steps.

For an awful, heartbreaking moment, she could read him. And he looked tortured.

“Wonderful, wonderful,” Keith was saying, shooing the other board members out of Violet’s way. Only when Keith reached for her other hand, did Violet tear her eyes away from Cain’s.

His fingers tightened for a fraction of a second, as though not wanting to let her go, then he dropped her hand and his mask back into place.

Keith pulled her forward again, until she was forced to stand center stage with him, all eyes on her.

“I can’t magically make Rhodes blood flow through my veins to keep the company in the family,” Keith said, with a laugh at his own “joke,” “but I can do the next best thing. Edith, if you’d hold this a moment, please,” he said, handing her the microphone.

Before Violet could comprehend what he was doing, Keith dropped to his knee and pulled a velvet box out of the inner pocket of his tux jacket.

The crowd gasped in delight. Violet gasped in horror. Wide-eyed, her gaze cut to her right to see an equally aghast Ashley standing there with her hand over her chest.

Violet could read Ashley’s lips. “He wouldn’t.”

They were about to find out he would.

“Violet, my love,” Keith said, dragging Violet’s stunned attention back to him.

My love? Since when?

“For the past several years, you’ve been my rock. My companion. My best friend. I didn’t realize until recently just how lost I am without you, didn’t fully comprehend that what I felt for you wasn’t just gratitude, or affection, but it was, in fact, the sort of undying love that only comes around once in a lifetime. As I start this new journey in my professional life, it seems only fitting that I begin a new personal journey as well. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife and keeping this great company in the family?”

Oh. My. God.

Of all the underhanded, slimy, manipulative…

“Darling?” Keith prompted, his face adoring as he looked up at her.

Everyone was looking at her, she realized in horror. It was quite possibly her nightmare proposal. The setting was wrong, the timing was wrong, the audience was wrong, the man was wrong.