Page 75 of Inevitable Inheritance

Inspiration struck.

Taylor turned and reentered the office that was hers now. “We make that room a boardroom, and we keep this the office. I want a boardroom table that is identical to the desk,” she told the advisors before her.

Todd nodded, but Charlie still looked concerned.

“I got this Charlie,” she said, patting the older man’s arm as she made her way over to her new desk and sat down. “Now what are we up to today?”

Both men smiled and got their phones out, ready to start the day.

Chapter Nineteen

By the following Friday,Taylor was spent. She was so gung ho to get everything back in shape at Preston Corp. that she was going full steam ahead, clocking in early in the morning and staying until late into the night, with little rest in between returns. She had also worked straight through the weekend—the repair work and near collapse of Preston Corp. was deep. Derrick texted her throughout the day to check in and came by the office to make sure she was eating. Taylor wasn’t sure if it was for her sake or so that Nan didn’t kill him.

He had been staying at his penthouse. Taylor hated it, but she couldn’t deny that she missed him. They had spent each day together at a lunch that Derrick insisted Taylor put all work on hold for. They texted and had FaceTime calls while not staying together, but Taylor still missed him. She was trying to keep her distance, even limiting their lunches to be at the office so there were other eyes to keep her from going into la-la land with her thoughts, which often seemed to get jumbled when she was alone with him. She had gotten her hands on the decree, but the legal jargon was so thick that Taylor was having a hard time deciphering it. She needed more time to discover loopholes, but that was proving impossible. Until then, she was pushing full steam ahead to get the stage set for changes to happen at Preston Corp., changes that were contingent, of course, on her marriage.

That morning Derrick had FaceTimed Taylor to let her know he wasn’t going to be having lunch with her because he was heading to the East Coast for a meeting. And now she was missing his persistent, and at times annoying, reminders that she take care of herself, but she wasn’t about to admit it to anybody. Especially since without him there she hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, and now it was 2 p.m. Now she was hungry, tired from her sixteen-hour days with little sleep in between ,had a headache from all the reports and samples she had coming her way, frustrated by her lack of knowledge and the disarray of the corporation, and mad because she totally and completely missed Derrick. And she realized he was the one who had her keeping it together every day. On top of it all, she really had to pee.

But she couldn’t really blame her feelings on hunger and bathroom neglect, she had been that way since the morning. Andeveryonehad noticed.

“Boy, you’re tense,” Nan had told her as she ripped apart a bunch of bananas before leaving for the office. Taylor had smiled. “I’m just fine,” she said through her teeth and scooted off with her security team.

When they came up on traffic, and the paparazzi mauled the car like they did every day, Henry commented, “Everything okay, Ms. Preston? You seem tense.”

And once she was in the office, her meeting with the new designers had needed revision. The young design assistant had assured her, “No worries, Ms. Preston. I will get all these changes in. We will make this less stress-inducing for you.”

And that was pretty much how the day went, with each and every person cluing into her extreme tension and no one being afraid to comment on it. So when Derrick called in the afternoon to check in on her, the fuse was just about out on Taylor’s patience.

“How is your day going?”

“Fine. Why?” she snapped.

“Whoa, somebody’s tense.”

Kaboom!

“So what if I am goddamn tense! I am tired and angry and frustrated and hungry and …”missing you, but I won’t say that because it sounds stupid even in my head. “And have had about enough of everyone telling me I am fucking tense. IknowI’m fucking tense! Okay? I have a lot going on!”

Silence met her at the other end, and Taylor heaved out a breath and was about to apologize when Derrick finally spoke. “Okaaaay. Well, I am coming back tonight because this meeting has turned into a bunch of bullshit. So, I could take you out to dinner. We should talk about—”

“No.”

Everyone had been trying to subtly throw her pending marriage into almost every conversation. The paparazzi shouted requests for a date, the new Facebook page was loaded with needs on dress details, and of course Charlie and Todd were on her like a second skin about the decree.

“Come on, Taylor, we have—”

“No, I don’t have to do anything,” she said, which sounded like a temper tantrum even to her, so she added, “and I really don’t have any time. I am knee-deep in paperwork.” This was totally true, but that was probably a forever kind of thing. At that moment she was saved as Todd walked into her office, “and my favorite person just came into the room,” she sneered.

With a heavy sigh, Derrick went on, “Okay, well tell Todd I said hi, and we can talk when I get home. You need to relax.”

“I will relax when I am damn good and ready!” Taylor said, slamming the phone down and realizing that she was making absolutely no sense whatsoever. Todd had been there to witness it all and was probably smirking that stupid little smirk at her now, but she refused to look at him.

Taylor reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “What do you want, Todd?” She was met with silence. When she looked, up, Todd was sitting in the chair opposite her desk and was regarding her silently.

“Well?”

“Nice ring, Taylor,” he complimented calmly, and Taylor glanced at her ring.

“Thank you,” she answered curtly. She didn’t like where this was headed.

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