Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
I furrowed my brow. “What are you insinuating?”
“Emmett, it’s well known in the business community that not everyone who is hired for positions is actually qualified for them.”
Anger flared through my chest.
Don’t react.
Just. Don’t. React.
“I think she was extremely qualified, but that’s not what the important part of this conversation is. I’m willing to take the loss for this Racks deal, but I know that going forward with the Fixer Brothers, we can find other avenues of branding and marketing that will be phenomenal. Trust me on this.”
Cutmore sniffed, looking down at his desk and tapping a pen on its surface.
“Your father wouldn’t be proud of your direction this year, Emmett.”
A chill ran through me where hot rage had been before.
For a moment, I was numb. Frozen in place, in disbelief about what I’d just heard.
A tightness wound itself around my chest, like my heart itself was being constricted.
“My dad,” I finally managed to say, not knowing how to even finish the statement.
Something wasn’t right.
Something that had been wrong for far too long, actually.
“Your father—”
“Don’t ever speak to me about my father again,” I heard myself say, like it was coming from somewhere deep within.
His eyes widened. “Emmett?”
My throat was tight. Part of me was in disbelief that I was even able to talk like this to him, but I was watching myself do it. Unable to stop myself, really.
All I could think about was my father. The love he had for me, and for this company. How could it feel like it was ages ago, when it had only been two years? How could Cutmore have taken over this office and made such a familiar place into something so hostile?
“Don’t ever tell me what Dad would or wouldn’t be proud of,” I said.
Because he hated you, too, after how you changed over the years.
How you became this monster.
Focused on only profit. Committed to tearing other communities down.
“I think you’re out of line,” he said, narrowing his gaze at me. “And I think that’s something that could be reflected in your performance evaluation.”
“You’ve wanted me gone since the moment Dad died, haven’t you?” I asked.
My throat was constricted and tight. I was saying things now that I usually wouldn’t even have let myself think inside the walls of this office building.
But something had been kicked loose inside me.
And I was pretty sure there was no going back now.
“You’re not what your father was, but you’ve always been a dutiful worker,” Cutmore said, shifting on his leather seat. “But I’m not sure that’s what’s being demonstrated here today.”
“And you’re not what my father was, either,” I said. “I—I can’t work for someone who is bigoted, Cutmore.”
He puffed out a laugh. “Bigoted,” he said, as if it were a joke.
“Homophobic,” I said pointedly. “And hostile to anyone who isn’t like you.”
There was nothing left for me to hide, now. A stray tear fell down my cheek that had been threatening ever since he’d brought up my dad.
“There will be serious repercussions for what you’re saying to me,” he said, but he made no attempt to deny what I’d called him. Deny what he was.
I swallowed past the tightness in my throat.
“I’ll have my resignation letter ready within the hour,” I said. “I won’t work here anymore. And I do feel that I deserve better.”
Cutmore just laughed again
But I felt it deep in my bones.
Storm had told me that I deserved better. I knew I did. But I’d been so dead set on keeping myself in the company that Dad helped build that I hadn’t realized that that company barely even existed anymore.
This was no longer my dad’s legacy. It was nothing he would have wanted.
Nothing I wanted, either.
“Career suicide,” Cutmore said, giving me a beady glance as I stood up and walked toward the office doors.
“Maybe,” I said. “But staying here would be far worse.”
My hand was shaking as I pushed out through the doors of his office. Panic settled under my skin, but beyond it, there was some deeper, truer feeling.
Relief.
Like I was flying.
Deep, total relief, on a level I hadn’t felt before.
“Yikes,” Landry said casually as I swung by his office and peeked my head in. “From how you look, I’m guessing the meeting didn’t go well? Cutmore give you a bunch of scut work as punishment?”
“It’s over,” I said.
He cocked his head to one side. “What?”
“Landry, if I were to start my own marketing company,” I said, “Go off on my own, and build something from the ground up… would you follow me?”
Landry grimaced. “Meeting go that badly? Even you are fantasizing about quitting? I’ve never heard you say that.”
I swallowed. “Not fantasizing about it. I already did it.”
Landry watched me for a moment. “No shit.”
“No shit,” I said.
I held out my hands, showing him that they were still shaking.