Page 95 of A Ticking Time Boss

“Seconded,” Victor says.

The voice I hear then is familiar. Achingly so. “I agree,” Carter says. “But I’m not ready to give up before then.”

Freddie walks around the room and comes to sit next to Tristan. He takes his wife’s hand absently and continues the conversation. “We could still sell it without a loss. Rosen Investing has made their interests clear.”

Carter sighs. “I know. Jacob Finch has been in contact. I’m keeping as much as I can intact, to keep the sale value high, just in case.”

Which means he’s keeping the profitable areas afloat. The ones a vulture fund like Rosen will strip and sell, dismantling the entire organization until there’s only a lonely reporter left in a newsroom to cover all story beats and subscribers facing ever-higher prices. Driving it into bankruptcy and skipping away into the sunset with the profitable corpse.

The exact thing he’d promised he wouldn’t do, would never do. But they’re discussing it like it’s a possibility.

More than a possibility.

A likelihood.

A sickness claws its way up my throat. Carter hadn’t told me everything, it seems. Only what I wanted to hear, back when he convinced me he wasn’t like this. Anger rushes through me. At him, and at me, for thinking this would be an exception.

That he would be an exception.

“Audrey,” Summer calls. “Come join us.”

I force my feet to move. Carter looks over his shoulder, eyes meeting mine, and there’s an apology there. He knows I overheard. I sit down next to him on wooden legs, focusing on the drink in my hand.

Victor had called stealing another man’s date diabolical, but it’s not. This is. They’re considering stripping this city of one of its oldest and finest newspapers.

I’d defended Carter and his executive team’s vision to Declan over lunch, just yesterday.

“Audrey,” Carter whispers at my side. His hand reaches for my leg, as if to rest it there. I cross them out of his reach.

“I know I’ve already thanked you all for coming,” Tristan says. He has a hand on Freddie’s shoulder, but the smile on his face gives me pause. Something’s happening, and I wish I could take it in, but all I hear are Carter’s words on repeat. It’s a possibility.

He’d told me it wasn’t.

“You’re getting your vows renewed, too,” Carter guesses. “Is this a new trend?” His voice is as charming as ever, dry and joking, and the others laugh.

I wonder if they can hear the tension beneath it too.

“Not quite,” Freddie says. “We just wanted to… ah shoot, now this is a big thing. I suppose it is, but we just wanted to tell you that, if all goes well, the Conways will go from three to four in a few months.”

“Oh my God,” Cecilia whispers.

Summer bounds out of her chair to wrap her arms around Freddie. “You’re pregnant!”

Freddie laughs. “Yes.”

In the flurry of excitement and hugs, masculine claps on the back and Tristan’s proud smile, I feel like a sudden imposter. Not alienated from them… but from the man at my side.

We don’t talk about it until we leave Tristan’s. Carter is quiet by my side. That’s unusual, like he’s testing the waters. But when the car rolls through Midtown, I speak up.

“Could we go to Queens first, please?”

“Audrey,” he says quietly.

“I’d prefer to sleep at home tonight.” Alone, I think, though I don’t add it. My chest feels tight. Like I’m about to cry, and I don’t know why. Because of my own foolishness, perhaps, or for the dream that cracked at his words. The future I’d imagined.

“You won’t let me explain myself,” he murmurs, “or our business plan?”

“I thought I had. Many times before, and gotten the truth.”

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