Page 103 of The Unwanted Wife

Nathan

"He’s got it wrong. I wasn’t selling off the company; I was saving it."

Knox tosses his head. "You’re going to deny you met with the Whittingtons on their turf yesterday?"

He’s right. After leaving her place, I called up Toren Whittington, their CEO, and arranged to meet him. "Doesn’t mean my actions are detrimental to the company." I’m seated on one end of the rectangular table in a conference room of the 7A Club. The table has four chairs at the center of each side.

Quentin raised an eyebrow at one of the staff and secured the room for us. Impressive, considering the club is frequented by the those who wield the kind of power that can change the fate of nations. He wears authority like he was born into it, which he was. He was a Rear Admiral in the Royal Marines before he took early retirement. He’s used to commanding men who, while trained to follow orders, did not always do so with readiness, as I know from experience.

"So why did you meet them?" He scowls at me. He’s foregone the chair and is standing at the midpoint of the table between Knox and me. A neutral zone to indicate he’s not taking any sides, but he’s remained standing in order to show he’s the one in charge. Man’s canny as fuck.

"I was staving off a hostile takeover."

Knox snorts. "Fucking lies, he?—"

Quentin holds up his hand. Knox seems like he’s going to defy him, but to my surprise, he lapses. Though his gaze promises all kinds of retribution. I hold his gaze and cross my arms over my chest. I’m not backing down, either.

"If you’d bothered to check the movements of stocks before you came, you’d see that our other rivals, the Madisons, began buying up stock from the five percent owned by our non-family, minority shareholders over the last week. While that, in itself, is not a threat, if they’d succeeded in buying up the entire five percent, it would’ve given them a seat on the board, which would have made things very difficult for us. It's why I approached the Whittingtons."

"Why would you do that?" Quentin frowns.

"They own five percent of our group.”

“Not possible. Arthur hates them.” Knox scoffs. "There’s a family feud with them."

"—because a Whittington and a Davenport fought over a Madison woman generations ago. They settled it with us selling five percent of the company to the Whittingtons. The Madisons were left out, which is why they’re hungry to get a portion of the company. Not that selling a stake in the company to the Whittingtons back then helped,” I widen my stance. “The hate between the Davenports and the Whittingtons never died down. All of this is, of course, a well-kept company secret. Until now."

"The fuck?" Knox narrows his gaze on me.

"How do you know this?" There’s an almost admiring note in Quentin’s voice.

"Research into family history, one of my favorite pastimes.”

"You mean, you had an investigator look into it?" He smirks.

When I don’t reply, Knox jumps up and slams both of his hands on the table. A glass of water tips over, rolls to the edge, then thumps against the carpeted floor. Not one of the three of us react.

"You didn’t think I’d join the company, no matter that you’re blood family, without due diligence, did you?" I drawl.

His nostrils flare.

"It’s what anyone would do in his position," Quentin murmurs.

"Is that what you did?" Knox rounds on him. "Did you investigate us before you accepted Arthur’s offer of becoming the CEO of the info-communication division?"

Quentin smiles slowly. "I didn’t need to; I already knew Arthur couldn’t be trusted. But did I ask to look at the books of the info-comm companies before I accepted the proposal? You bet I did."

"Motherfucker," he growls.

"Now that we have that out of the way"—Quentin turns to me—"let me get this right. You found out the Madisons were buying up shares in the Davenport Group, so you approached the Whittingtons?”

“I sold them five percent of my shares.” When I agreed to take over as interim CEO of the group, Arthur transferred nine percent of his shares to me, bringing down his stake to forty-two percent. It made me the second largest shareholder in the group, after him.

“You what?” Knox explodes.

“As of this morning, the Whittington Group owns ten percent of the Davenport Group, giving us the capital to buy back the Madisons’ shares.”

“The Madisons sold back the shares?” Knox asks in a disbelieving voice.

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