“So I announce my replacement with the hopes you will give him the support and respect you’ve always accorded me.”
Him? Who? Cassie’s stomach churned and twisted painfully.
“I’m excited to welcome my son, Spencer, home from Europe. He’s excited and ready to tackle all the growth and changes sure to come.” Christopher gestured to the door and began clapping as Cassie’s brother walked into the room.
Spencer, looking tan from his time abroad, stepped up and said a few brief words, but nothing that happened next registered.
Blindsided. Devastated. Hurt. Every one of those words described her after the stunt her father had just pulled. And the sad thing was, he didn’t even know it. When it came to Spencer, her father saw potential if only he helped him. And because Christopher was old-school, if his choice was between his daughter and his son, the male heir won out. Cassie’s qualifications, her dedication, her drive … none of it mattered.
The day, which had started with such promise, took a nosedive, and she decided she had no desire to sit around and pretend she was happy about their new chairman who understood squat about running his own life, let alone a multimedia company. So as the board members rose from their seats to shake Spencer’s hand, Cassie stood, and not meeting anyone’s gaze, she walked out the door.
* * *
The Ark was a bar not far from the office. She called her best friend, Amanda, to meet her after work for some good old-fashioned commiseration. In a few days, she’d have to pull herself together for the meeting with Derek West, but right now she was all about wallowing in her misery.
The bar was filled with people who came by on their way home from the office, but Cassie had arrived early and snagged a high table and chairs. She always kept a casual set of clothes at the office, and she’d changed before heading out. Since Amanda worked in an easygoing ad agency, she was dressed similarly in jeans and a long-sleeve tee shirt when she arrived.
“I got here as soon as I could,” Amanda said, sliding into the tall chair and hanging her purse over the side closest to the wall.
“I appreciate it. What do you want?” Cassie asked as she signaled for a busy waitress. “I waited for you, and now I’m beyond ready for a drink.”
“A white wine spritzer,” Amanda said to the woman who walked over.
“A whiskey on the rocks for me, and please put both on my tab.” She waved away Amanda’s open-mouthed, obvious objection. She’d needed this meeting. The least she could do was treat.
“That bad a day you need hard liquor?” Amanda asked, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.
“Worse.”
Cassie’s grandfather had introduced her to whiskey when she’d turned twenty. No, she hadn’t been legal, but he had been dying. And as he’d explained, she needed to learn to drink with the men if she was going to hold her own. At the time, Cassie thought he was being ridiculous, but over the years, sharing a whiskey with the board members had enabled them to look at her as less delicate and more as one of them. Ridiculous but true.
Today she felt like she needed something strong—to remind her she was tough despite what had occurred earlier.
“So spill. I’m here. What happened? Last time we spoke, you were flying high.”
“Yes, well, that’s the problem with assumptions.”
The waitress delivered their drinks, and Cassie waited until she could take a long sip and feel the burn down her chest before she said the words out loud.
“My father turned everything over to Spencer.”
Amanda blinked. “It’s not April Fools.”
“And I’m not joking.”
“What. The. Fuck?” Amanda had known Cassie since they’d met abroad, in Prague, during their junior year of college. They’d gotten close and stayed friends through business school for Cassie and Amanda working her way up in advertising. She was from the Midwest, and she’d come home with Cassie for some holidays, which meant she’d met Spencer.
Had been hit on by Spencer. Had seen her brother in action more than once. In other words, her reaction was justified by experience.
“My father started to expound on Storms Consolidated being a family business, and how important it was to keep it in the family, and I was so sure—” Cassie’s voice caught unexpectedly, and she ducked her head, hating the emotional reaction to the announcement.
Amanda reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It’s a minor setback. Your brother will screw up in no time, and the company will be yours.”
“Not how I want to get it. I earned my place. Spencer hasn’t worked a day in his life. I’ll be lucky if there’s a company left when Spencer’s done running it. What was my father thinking?” Cassie finished the drink, knowing that one glass was all she was up to tonight.
“Listen to me. You can still carry on with your plan to bring the company into this century. You can work around your brother and … I don’t know. Outlast him.”
“Well, I definitely intend to take the meeting with Derek West and continue the upward trend with the tech side.”