Page 110 of Seren

“Time’s up,” I said.

“I beg your pardon?” he asked, his brows drawn in puzzlement.

“No need to beg yet, Martine,” Saint chimed in. “There will be plenty of time for that.”

“Boys, I’m at a loss. What’s going on?” he asked, his eyes shooting among us.

“I’ve decided I want the company,” I said.

“Come again?” Martine said, clearly caught off guard by my words.

“I’d like to sign the papers to put fifty-one percent of Grayson Industries into my name.”

“But…I thought…what about football?”

“Saint will step in for me while I’m away, and then when I’m home, I’ll take the helm like my father always wanted.”

“Knock, knock,” Arthur, my father’s lawyer, said as he stepped into the doorway. “Am I interrupting?”

“Not at all. You’re right on time,” I said, as Sawyer stood to offer his chair to him. “I was just breaking the news to Martine that I will be taking my seat at Grayson Industries.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Arthur said as he sat down in the chair beside me. “It’s what your father always wanted.”

“So, when is all this happening?” Martine asked.

“Well, today if you’d like?” Arthur said, glancing to me for confirmation.

“Absolutely,” I said with a shit-eating grin.

Arthur slipped his laptop out of his briefcase and opened it.

“Wait,” Martine said.

We all looked at him.

“I’m gonna need my lawyer to look over any documents,” he said.

“Oh, that’ll be unnecessary,” Arthur said. “There’s nothing for you to do. It’s all Seren.”

I looked at Martine. “All me.”

“But—”

“What’s wrong, Martine? You seem unhappy with my decision,” I said.

“Oh…no…it’s just…”

“It’s just, what? The stipulation in my mother’s will said my fifty-one percent of Grayson Industries would go toyouif I’d yet to accept it by my nineteenth birthday and something were to happen to her.”

“What?” he said, acting as if he hadn’t made her add that addendum to her will.

“I’ve seen her will,” I said. “I didn’t want to lose my chance given that my nineteenth birthday is in a couple of weeks.”

There was another knock on the door.

We all turned our attention to it. My buddy Clay, the cop who’d fucked with Grace and her friends, stood there in his uniform with two more uniformed cops behind him. “You’re just in time,” I said with a grin.

“Martine Giovani, we have a warrant to search your office,” Clay said, holding up the warrant.

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