“Whatever I want?” I say slyly.
“Whatever you want,” he repeats. “With one exception.”
I don’t even need to ask what that is, so I just smile and say, “You don’t have to worry about that.” I conveniently ignore the last two days of indiscretions. I’m glad he said that as there is something else that needs deciding but that won’t be up to me to discuss without permission, so I say nothing for now.
CK comes into the bedroom and announces our visitors. “Good. Get Sebastian as well and if Vivienne is here, please ask her to leave,” I order. He nods, wondering what is going on but goes anyway.
“Nice to have you back,” Devon says, coming over to hug me tightly. “I was worried,” he adds quietly.
“So was I,” I agree and again I repeat the wards story, so everyone is up to speed.
“So, what is this meeting about?” Scott asks.
“Please sit.” I motion Devon, Scott, and Lincoln to the sofa. Nico stands in the far corner behind me and Cade in the opposite corner in front of me, already clearly in sync with one another and I find it quite sweet. CK stands next to Sebastian, who is lounging in the doorway of his bedroom and Cole is standing next to me by the coffee table, but a little bit away, so I have the attention of the whole room on me. I sit on the coffee table and begin. “I have come to some decisions about this life I am leading. My life. It is getting confusing and distracting and between running the company, my Queenly duties, and allocating you all onto days of the week, it is getting ridiculous. Something has to give.” I pause and I sense the mounting concern that I am going to turn around and sack everyone off.
I look at Devon and his face drops, but I smile reassuringly at him, “With your agreement, I’m stepping down as CEO at Saxon. I just can’t give it any more attention and to be fair, I am done. I will remain your partner with my shares, but I will no longer have anything to do with the running of the company. It is yours, my love.”
Devon stares at me like I have grown another head or two. “No,” he says. “We do it together or not at all.”
“Devon…” I start.
“Let me finish,” he snaps at me to the amusement of everyone in the room, except me.
“We built that place together. It is ours. If you go, I go. The last year has been so hectic and everything has changed, everyone has changed. I refuse your offer of CEO as I no longer want to be CFO. All or nothing, Kitten.”
“Dev. You don’t have to resign just because I am.”
“I’m not. I will also keep my shares; we will just have to appoint new management.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he says with finality.
“Right, then. I had assumed as much but wanted to make sure. We’re out. Now I do hope that you will agree with my next decision.” I turn to look at Scott, who isn’t looking best pleased that we have bowed out. “Scott. You have been the best assistant that I could ever have hoped for. You have done your job far better than I could have anticipated and to be frank, I think that you have single-handedly run the company in my stead for nearly six months now. I cannot think of anyone else better suited to take over than you.”
“Agreed,” Devon says straightaway, having already known my intention.
“I beg your pardon?” he says in shock. “I am not qualified to run a billion-dollar empire.”
“What do you think you have been doing the last six months? Even before that I only turned up after you had done most of the work. You are more than qualified, and I trust you to carry on doing a great job. You are one of us now. One of mine. I want to keep it in the family and there is no one better to hand it to. You can think it over, but I hope that you say yes.”
He thinks it over. He knows everything I have said is true. His false modesty is touching but he knows he could do this standing on his head, seeing as he has been. “You really want to do this?”
“Yes.”
“Then I agree. I will look after it like it’s my own, I can assure you I will go above and beyond,” he says.
“I know you will.” I smile at him.
“Thank you, Liv. Mr. Savant. It is a great honor that you have given me this opportunity to…”
“Oh, can it, Scott. And it’s Devon, please,” Devon says. “We are family now.”
He looks pleased as punch and says, “I will get the contracts drawn up. Oh, wait, no, I suppose a third party should be involved.”
“I’ll do it,” Sebastian says. “I know a thing or two about ironclad agreements.”
“Thank you, Sebastian.” I turn now to Lincoln, who looks back at me as if he can’t quite fathom what I am going to say to him.