Chapter Twelve
SEBASTIAN
“Where have you been?” Lauren asks, standing at her desk as I approach my office.
“I’ve been busy,” I say, frowning at her tone. Lauren knew I was coming in late today, and a glance at my watch confirms it’s not even eleven. She almost seems worried. “What’s wrong?”
Without replying, she turns away from me and walks into my office ahead of me.
“Talk,” I demand, closing the door behind me.
“I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but the board is meeting.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you call me?” Why the hell would the board be meeting when the next scheduled meeting isn’t for another month.
“I tried,” she says with a stern look as I pull out my phone. Dead.Fuck.I must have forgotten to put it on charge last night, and I hadn’t even paid attention to the battery before I left. The drive from my parents’ house is three times as long as the drive from my penthouse.
“It’s not just that, Sebastian. I think it has to do with Vincent. There’s been talk around the office this morning…”
“Talk about what?”
“That you assaulted him.”Shit.“Look, I don’t know what really happened, but I know as well as you do that he’s been gunning for your job since the day you were appointed CEO. So if he has anything to support a claim of assault… it might be enough,” she says with a wince.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Get everything you can on Vincent from Holly in HR. I’m going to pay the board a visit.” Lauren nods and rushes out of my office. If anyone can do this, it’s her.
I’ve only seen a few documents from Vincent’s files, but there has to be more where they came from, especially with how he treats the employees.
All eleven heads swing my way when I open our main conference room door. The board members are seated around the long table, the chairman taking up the head of the table, except for Vincent, who’s standing. And by the sour look on his face, I’ve just interrupted whatever the fuck nonsense he likely called this emergency meeting to spew.
“Sebastian, what are you doing? You weren’t invited to attend this meeting,” Vincent sputters.
“Don’t you think the CEO should be privy to board meetings?” I ask. I attend ninety-nine percent of board meetings. I even attended board meetings with my father when he was still CEO.
“Not after what you—” Vincent starts, but he’s interrupted.
“Not when the topic of interest concernsyou, Mr. Reed,” Rodger Harmon, the Chairman, says in a deep voice whilst also throwing a warning look to Vincent.
“So I don’t have the right to defend myself against baseless claims?”
Vincent bristles at that, but before he can respond, Rodger steps in. “We’ve heard Mr. Woods’ claim, but with such a serious accusation, it’s only fair that we hear your turn of the events. We respected your father’s succession plan, Sebastian, but if Mr. Woods’ claim proves to have sufficient evidence to support it, it could be grounds for dismissal.” He gives me a pointed stare, but I don’t let anything he’s said break my confident façade.
“On Monday, May 9th,atapproximately three p.m., Mr. Woods claims that you barged into his office, interrupting a meeting, and proceeded to start an argument, which in turn, led to you…” He looks down at his notes. “Grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the desk. Mr. Woods also claims that you threatened him and how he felt worried for his life.”
Slimy bastard.I knew he wanted more control of the company, but I didn’t realise he’d stoop this low, although it shouldn’t surprise me.
“There was an urgent client matter that needed discussing, which was time-sensitive and took precedence over the meeting taking place. The matter didn’t take more than a few minutes to resolve, and I’ll admit, I may have raised my voice at one point during our discussion, but I never laid a finger on him. You won’t find any proof of that because it never happened. Nor did Ithreatenhim.”
If Vincent wanted to twist the truth, so could I. The reality is, I did put my hands on him. Though not in the way he’s tried to make out, though it’s enough to put me in big shit and potentially lose my fucking job. I never should’ve confronted him at work, but in the heat of the moment, I didn’t think. And it’s not like I can reveal the real reason for my being in Vincent’s office the other day to the board. We may use company assets to run ourillegalbusiness but in no other way is it connected to Reed Shipping. And the board certainly has nothing to do with it.
“What reason would he have to lie?” Another board member asks with creased brows.
“I can’t answer that. But there’s a lot to gain with me gone and a rather prominent position to fill,” I say, staring right at Vincent while he narrows his beady eyes at me.