Page 94 of Fifth Avenue Devil

I stop him short with a gesture. "Tell me how I can possibly forgive you after what you've done? What kind of grand plan do you have for that?"

"Give me two days," he says. He grabs my wrist, imploring. "Please. Two days to make things right."

"Two days? What could you possibly do in two days that would erase all the damage you've caused?"

"I will put you back in the CEO position. I’ll give you enough money to cover the rest of the embezzled funds. Then if you're not satisfied, I'll never bother you again. Let me set the record straight about you with everyone that matters."

My heart races in my chest. As much as I despise him for what he's done, I can't deny that I want my job back. It's what I've been fighting for, after all. But can I trust him?

Thirty-Six

Annalise

The stench of betrayal hangs in the air as we stalk into the Gellar Industries boardroom, a dank space with a long wood conference table in the middle of the room. There are large windows that should show off the Manhattan skyline. But the windows are dirty and the view is dull.

The room is full of rich men and women who are all, to a man, bored and ready to get out of here. When the board members see Nate, then clock me right behind him, it’s clear that they don’t know what’s about to happen.

It’s funny, because I don’t either.

I can feel my heart pounding in my chest as I sit down at the polished oak conference table. My mother and father are here, at the far end. Familiar faces fill out the rest of the table. I’ve known many of these people since I was a child.

"Annalise, dear," my mother begins. Her voice sounds painfully saccharine and extremely condescending. "Are you sure about this?"

"If you need to talk, sweetheart—" my father adds.

Nate cuts them off with a sharp gesture. "Enough."

As Nate addresses the room, I sit demurely. Trying to pretend that I’m not so anxious that I’m worried about my heart.

“So. When we met last week, I told you that over twenty million was missing from the company. And Mr. Gellar was happy enough to jump up and tell us that the only answer was to remove his daughter as CEO. Everyone remembers that, right?”

The room is silent. The board members look at each other, trying to communicate with their eyes.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Let me tell you what’s about to happen in this room.” Nate paces the floor. “The unethical business practices of this board have gone unchecked for far too long. I think we should all talk about it.”

He opens a laptop and projects damning documents onto the wall behind him. As I watch, emails, financial records, and transcripts all pop up on the screen. It looks like the FTC’s wet dream, from what I can see. I can feel the tension in the room mounting. A palpable energy crackles like static electricity.

"Mr. Thompson!" Nate yells, singling out one man in particular. "Did you honestly think your insider trading would go unnoticed?" He presses a button and several graphs pop up. “You got a tip here… and one here… should I continue?”

“No…” The man squirms in his seat, his face turning an alarming shade of red.

"Very well. Let’s move on to Ms. Patel.” Nate smiles widely. "Embezzling funds from the ballet company's charity foundation? Despicable."

“I… I did not!” Amrita Patel stutters. “It’s not what it looks like. I swear!”

Nate opens his briefcase, flips through the file folders, and tosses one to her. “There you go. There is all the evidence. You did a shitty job of covering it up, by the way.”

Amrita’s mouth drops open. She looks at the file folder for a second. Then she reaches out a shaky hand and draws it toward herself. She opens it, muttering, “Shit.”

Nate goes around the table, pulling file folders from his briefcase and putting them in front of each of the board members. Most of them look at what’s inside for a moment before closing the folder silently. A couple of people don’t even check what’s inside.

I think that means that they already know their darkest secrets have been exposed.

“Well, that’s everybody. Everybody except Archer and Monique.” Nate smiles, showing all his teeth like a fucking shark. “I don’t want you two to feel left out.”

My mom stands up. “I don’t need to listen to this.”

“Sit the fuck down.” Nate makes a down gesture. My mom glares at him and then turns to walk out of the room.

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