Page 54 of Battle with a Billionaire

The voices gave way to the clopping of Sierra’s heels. A second later, she pushed into the conference room and crossed to him, planting a kiss on his cheek. “I saw you on the news, and you did great.”

“I wish I didn’t have to do it at all. This is ridiculous.”

“But you faced it. And it couldn’t have looked better with Julia believing you.”

“Tell that to the lady who would have left me,” Grant said, waving a finger at the news.

“Who cares? She’s an idiot. Julia didn’t leave you. She stood by you, and now people will believe in you more.”

Grant heaved a sigh as he wondered if Julia stood by him because she was contractually obligated or if she would have if their marriage wasn’t dictated by duty.

“Quit with the long face, it’s over. We move forward from here. Which, by the way, I think it would be great if you addressed the troops. Give them a little pep talk to rally them for the final push here.” Kathryn pumped a fist in the air.

He felt like doing nothing less than giving them a pep talk, but he’d done it plenty of times at Harrington Global, and he knew the importance of a morale boost. “Fine.”

“Go, Daddy!” Sierra said with a grin.

After Kathryn gathered everyone, he gave them a short, but impactful speech about pushing through difficult times and prevailing. A round of applause met his final statements before he returned to the conference room to watch the latest round of numbers before he called it a night and headed home.

He snatched his phone from the table where he’d left it as he sat down. His notifications told him he’d missed a call from Julia. He cursed under his breath.

“What?” Sierra asked as she perused her social media feed.

“I missed a call from Julia. Can you believe the timing?” He pressed his phone to his ear as he waited to connect to his voicemail.

“Grant, call me. I think I know who may be behind everything that’s been happening.”

His heart skipped a beat as he pulled the phone away and stared at the display as though it held the answers to all his questions.

“Something wrong?”

“Julia says she may know who’s behind all this. She wants me to call her back.”

“Well, call!” Sierra shouted with a stamp on the floor.

“I’m calling, Sierra, calm down.” He found Julia’s name in his contacts and pressed the call button. The line trilled a few times before it went to voicemail. “Voicemail. Hey, Juls, looks like we keep missing each other, but I’ll see you when I get home. We can talk then.”

“Voicemail? She drops a bombshell like that then doesn’t pick up?”

“I’m sure she’s busy. Or she’s driving. Either way, we’ll talk to her when we get home.”

Sierra heaved a sigh as she slumped into a chair. “I guess. Did you see that Harrington Globals’s stock is up again? Honestly, I’m starting to think you should leave Julia as the CEO even if you lose the race.”

“Thank you for that vote of confidence, Sierra.”

“What?” she said with a shrug. “I’m just saying. Plus, it ties her to us for way longer.”

“Ties her to us? I don’t want her tied, Sierra.”

“Then maybe you ought to tell her that, Daddy.”

“It’s not that simple,” Grant said, flicking his gaze to the table in front of him.

“Whatever.”

The shrill ring of Grant’s cell phone split the silence between them.

“Maybe that’s Julia,” Sierra said as he pulled it from his pocket.

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