Page 88 of The Suit

I was expecting something like ‘Steinbrenner refused to sell me the Yankees,’again, or ‘the Commissioner has banned me from all stadiums,’ but I was not expecting him to say his beloved grandpa.

“What?”

He looked me square in the eye. “He’s demoted me, Nancy’s taking over the company.”

A flurry of questions flew round my head, but he continued before I managed to get to any of them.

“I had breakfast with Dylan this morning; she told me.”

“But how did she know before you?”

“Lauren told her.”

I rolled my fingers together in a gesture to continue, because he seemed to be assuming I’d understand any of this, which I didn’t.

“According to Lauren, Nancy and Grandpa had needed her to sign some new paperwork for the Healthcare division. She represents healthcare on the board, but Dylan said that Lauren told her that normally when any paperwork needs signing, it’s couriered over with sticky tabs for where to sign, something I can confirm. But yesterday when she signed, Nancy personally brought it to her.” His eyebrows shot up and his pupils flared. “Nancy. Nancy doesnotrun errands.”

Of all Penn’s sisters, Nancy was the one I knew the least. She was ten years older than us, and mostly appeared to be chained to her desk. When their dad had died, Nancy had stepped up. Penn said she’d always planned to go to law school before starting at the business, but instead went straight into the firm and learned from the ground up. However, the wrench in the works had been Penn, who was always supposed to take over from his father and had been groomed for the role since childhood. While Penn did that, she’d become her grandfather’s right-hand woman, and it was no secret she’d wanted the job as much as Penn didn’t. She unofficially lived in the office, was efficient to the point where she could major in it, and outsourced anything that wasn’t the best use of her time. Namely visiting her sister for signatures on paperwork.

“Then what happened?”

“Lauren said that on the paperwork she noticed a change in the order of the board’s names, and Nancy was trying to cover it up. Nancy’s name was printed under grandpa’s when it used to be mine.”

Whoa. That was big news.

“Was it put to the board?”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t need to be. Grandpa owns seventy-five percent of the company; the rest of it is split among the four of us and my mom. He can name whomever he wants to.”

“Have you spoken to Nancy to confirm? You and I both know Lauren and Dylan love to gossip; it might not be true.”

He shook his head. “It is, I can feel it. It’s why they’ve been acting so fucking secretive. I’ve tried to get ahold of Saffron too, but she’s conveniently on vacation with limited cell service.”

I frowned; the fact that Saffron, Penn’s middle sister, was both on vacation and unreachable, did add a level of suspicion to his claims, especially as Saffron worked almost as hard as Nancy. “What are you going to do?”

He slowly sipped at his coffee, swirling it like it was an expensive brandy and the only thing he was missing was a cigar, a club chair, and a firing squad.

“I don’t know,” he gritted out.

“Maybe this is a good thing?”

“How so?”

“You don’t want it anyway, right?”

He smashed his fist on the desk and stood up. “I’ve busted my fucking ass for them. Since I was ten, all I’ve been told is exactly what my future held for me as head of this fucking business. And for what? So they can dismiss me at the final hurdle? I’m supposed to take over in a few months. What a fucking waste of my time and life this has been. Now what am I going to do?”

He stopped pacing and stood in front of me, his nostrils flaring as he glared down. I’d known Penn since we were eighteen, and I’d never seen him so angry. It wasn’t just anger either; there was a decent amount of hurt in his eyes too. I got up and pulled him into me, wrapping him in a hug just as he started sobbing.

“I’m sorry, buddy.” I patted his back. “It’ll be okay, we’ll figure it out together. Have you told Murray?”

He shook his head, and I hoped that didn’t mean he was also wiping a runny nose on my shoulder, seeing as this shirt was brand new.

“Okay, let’s go and find him. He’ll know what to do.” I released him and stepped back. “Don’t worry, we’re in this together.”

“Thanks, Raferty.” He looked around, noticing Cody for the first time. “Sorry, dude, are you guys busy? Hey, Code, can you hack into my sister’s emails?”

“Yes,” Cody replied at the same time I said, “No.”

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