Possessive Fake Husband

“I’m fine. You okay?”

“Good. I’m good. Fuck, I hope I didn’t ruin it. I can’t read him.”

I smile and put my hand on his. “You’re doing fine. Just trust me, okay?”

“I trust you.”

Shaun comes back a minute later, trailed by Klara. She slides into the seat next to Shaun and the two of them look at us.

“So,” Shaun says. “I talked with my boss here.”

Klara rolls her eyes. “Good one.”

“And she says she’s willing to take the risk.”

“Wait—are you serious?” I blurt out.

Shaun laughs and glances at Klara. She grins back at him and leans toward me. “Sweetie, you’re family,” she says. “And I won’t pretend like the Divas franchise hasn’t been very, very good to us. Truth is, we have the capital lying around, and I believe in you two.”

I shake my head in disbelief and Josh lets out a laugh. “I can’t say how happy I am to hear that,” he says. “I just want you both to know how seriously I’m taking all this. We’re going to make this merger happen, and we’re going to make this company a huge success.”

“I believe in you two,” Shaun says. “And I know Klara does too.”

“I really do,” she agrees. “Now I want to go inside and sit on the couch and close my eyes for like a half hour while I have the chance.” She scoots back out from the seat and stretches. “Naptime is sacred time.”

“Thank you.” I jump to my feet and hug Klara. “Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me,” she says and laughs. “It’s just business. If we thought this wasn’t a good investment, we wouldn’t do it.”

“Even still, thank you.”

She smiles and heads back inside. “You guys hammer it out. Don’t talk to me until the baby is awake.”

Shaun grins and leans back in his seat. “So,” he says. “Who should I make the check out to?”

Josh just laughs and puts an arm around me. I lean my head on his shoulder and finally feel like things are coming together, like we have a chance at making any of this right.24JoshI stand in front of the board of Cork Electric and I stare at the exact same faces as the last time.

It’s like Groundhog Day, like I’m reliving the same moment. It’s déjà vu, but even worse.

Seb stands as I bring the board to order.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he asks. “We voted on the merger once already. You can’t just bring us back to vote on the same thing again. Nothing will change.”

“Something already did change, Seb,” Elizabeth says, then looks at me. “Do you want to tell him?”

I laugh and shrug. “Go ahead.”

“There was a major financial shift in the company yesterday,” she says. “I’m sure you got the email?”

Seb opens his mouth then shuts it again. Everyone knows Seb plays golf all day on Tuesdays, and so there’s no way he saw that email.

Which was why we planned for it to go out then.

“I didn’t,” he says, face turning red. “What happened?”

“We got a new investor,” Elizabeth says. “And that investor changes the makeup of the board.”

“Excuse me?” Seb sinks back down into his seat.

“I don’t see how that works,” Alfie Khan says. “I thought new members had to be voted on.”

“Yes, they definitely do,” Larry says. “You all voted on me.”

“Well, not always,” I say. “When a new member is brought on, yes, the board has to vote. But when an investor buys a large stake in the company, at a certain percentage they’re automatically added to the board, regardless of a vote. And our investor met that criteria.”

“How in the hell?” Seb growls. “How is that possible?”

“I sold most of my shares,” Elizabeth says.

“Then you should be off the board!” Seb gesticulates wildly.

“Except she was voted on,” I correct. “And she didn’t sell all of her shares. Just most of them.”

Seb glares at us then shakes his head. “This is wild. This… this is illegal.”

“It’s all in the charter,” I say.

Seb looks around the table, searching for help. Nobody speaks up at first. Janet Tierce is on her phone, frowning at her screen, eyes squinting. She looks up and laughs. “He’s right,” she says. “Look at this.”

She slides her phone over to Seb. He frowns, puts on his glasses, and looks at it. “You have the charter on your phone?”

“In my email,” she says and shrugs. “Read it.”

He grumbles but he reads. As he does so, he gets more and more agitated, until he slides the phone back and looks at me. “Fine,” he says. “Elizabeth stays. And this new investor is now a member. Who is this mystery man?”

“My wife,” I say.

Maggie stands from her seat and smiles at everyone. She gives them a little wave. “Hello. It’ll be nice to join you all.”

Rupert Guava laughs, his head thrown back in glee.