Carly tossed another chocolate candy in her mouth. “Remember what Jesus told Peter?”
She’d heard the story a million times. “Feed my sheep,” Jesus had said. Three times, the same number of times Peter had denied Him. “I’m fresh out of sheep, girl. I do feed a few cows every day, though.”
“My point is, God’s given you a platform, whether you like it or not. Get over the fact you made mistakes. Repent and move on. It’s not about you anyway. It’s about bringing God glory. Ask Him how He wants you to feed His sheep. I bet He has an answer.”
Her words echoed in Hanna’s ears. “It’s not about you anyway.” Oh yeah. How true was that? She’d gone through so many emotions because of what was going on with her. When had she made it less about God and more about herself?
The moment she’d heard Will’s interview, that’s when. Her thought hadn’t been about how God would look, even though that was how she portrayed it to those she confided in.
No, her anger had been for herself. How could he humiliate her?
The price of her selfishness was astonishing. Her career, her future, her family’s reputation, her testimony, Will…they’d all been her victims.
Well, maybe not Will. He’d made his bed.
Carly grabbed her Diet Coke. “You know, Will called me the other day.”
Hanna snapped her hand back from the bag of M&M’s she’d been reaching for. “No he didn’t.”
“Yup.” She took a swig then set the can back on the coaster. “We had an interesting conversation.”
The candy forgotten, Hanna sank back on the couch, her pulse flying. “What did he say? What did you say?”
“He wanted to know why you left. I may have, uh, said a few things my momma would have washed my mouth out with soap for. Totally regretted it later, especially now talking about gentle answers and all, but let’s just say, I let the man have it.”
“Carly—”
“What? He deserved it.”
True. He was a swindler and a manipulator. But why did her heart still hurt so much? Why did she want to cry over losing him instead of, like last time, yell at the thought of ever having to see him again?
Nothing made sense.
Carly leaned forward and looked into her eyes. Her mouth flopped open. “Oh. My. Goodness. You’re still in love with him, aren’t you? After all he’s done?”
Hanna fell back, her head cushioned by the polyester pillow. “I’m so stupid. I know he isn’t good for me. Every logical reason to despise him is right in front of my face. But I just can’t stop thinking about him. Wondering what he’s doing. How he’s doing. My crazy heart wants nothing more than to hop on that bumpy plane and fly back to Nashville. Ugh.”
A throw pillow caught her in the gut. “I can’t believe you’d let this guy get to you again. He’s bad for you, Hanna.”
She grabbed the fluffy weapon and stuffed it under her head. “I know, I know. Something just doesn’t feel right about all this.” She pressed her fists to her eyes. “I’m so confused.”
A ding sounded from Carly’s phone, but her friend just clicked off the volume.
“Aren’t you going to check it?”
“It’s just a Facebook message. It can wait.”
That girl and her social media. Hanna used to be the same way…until the obscene number of messages she kept getting, most of them cruel, almost drove her over the edge. Deleting her whole account had been the best thing she’d ever done for her sanity at the time. “Go on. You know you’re dying to read it. I’m fine.” She popped another M&M. “I’ve got chocolate.”
“Since you insist.” Whipping out her phone faster than a bird catches a fish, Carly tapped the screen.
Silence followed.
Carly’s face went pale. “Uh, you need to read this, Hanna.” She held the phone out.
“No. Whatever it is, I don’t even want to know.” She’d sworn to herself she wouldn’t get sucked into the drama this time. Wouldn’t spend hours and hours printing off e-mails and clipping horrible magazine articles. In fact, she hadn’t even checked her e-mail once since she’d been home.
While she wouldn’t run and hide, she wouldn’t dive into the muck on purpose either.
“It’s not about you. Well, not all about you anyway. A friend messaged me a link.”
Carly shoved the phone into Hanna’s hand, leaving her no choice. “Fine.”
She skimmed the headline.
FOSTER AND JONES CEO FIRED AFTER FIANCÉE TATTLES.
What? She didn’t tattle on anyone. She ran her finger up the screen to read more.
Yesterday, we released the story that Holy Hanna Knight had accused her fiancé, William Preston, reality TV star and CEO of the skincare giant Foster and Jones, of accounting fraud. Last night, the board of F&J met and voted unanimously to oust William Preston as CEO, and appointed CFO Doug Perry as interim CEO until a permanent decision can be made.
Details of the allegations have not been released. Stay tuned on this developing story.
Bile rose in her stomach, threatening to purge the chocolate she’d just inhaled. “This can’t be. Doug said Will was already fired, and I never talked to any reporter.”
“Well, evidently you did.”
“I only told you, my dad, and—”
Two people came to mind. Doug Perry himself—and that way-too-nice guy she’d shared a taxicab with. “I—I have to call Will.”
Carly reached out and grabbed her hand. “Honey, you can’t. You need to just leave it alone. He can sort through his own problems. He’s the one who committed fraud, remember?”
Ignoring her, she grabbed her own cell from the end table and pushed the numbers she knew by heart.
With each ring of the phone, her heart raced faster. What would she say to the man whose dreams she’d just crushed?
Hot anger poured over William as he stood, ringing phone in hand, looking at the caller ID.
How dare she call him right now.
Not only had Hanna left in his lowest moment, without a word of explanation, she might as well have spit in his eyes by telling such a ridiculous story.
Did she really think that of him?
Or did she make it all up, stringing him along all this time, planning her moment of revenge?
He clicked the IGNORE button on his phone and threw it on the black leather couch.
“William, you’ve got to talk to her sometime.”
He turned to face his dad, who, even though his presence was pointless now, refused to leave. “It’s no use. She got what she wanted. I am humiliated and ruined. Nothing she can say will change that.”
The board meeting the night before flashed in his mind, complete with Doug’s fake humble acceptance of Will’s job.
The promise of a full SEC investigation loomed.
He could end up in jail, just like Greg would.
“Listen, why don’t you come back to New Jersey for a little while? Clear your thoughts. Let your mom worry over you for old times’ sake.”
Will snorted. “What? No more lectures on how I need to buck up and face it like a man?”
“Sometimes a man has to learn that he can’t go through it alone.”
He rested a hand on the clear floor-to-ceiling window of the condo he fully planned on putting up for sale immediately. He had a meeting with a realtor in a few hours, in fact. “Sometimes a man has to know when he’s beaten. She won. I lost. End of story.”
“It isn’t a game, Will. There is no winning or losing. Right now, I’d say you’re both pretty pathetic.”
Leave it to ol’ pops to cheer a guy up. The nameless faces on the street below beckoned to him. He needed to escape. Being nameless sounded great right now. “I think I’ll go for a walk. Feel free to head back home to Mom. There isn’t much that can be done here to help anything.”
“By the way, I talked with Greg this morning.”
He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. Just great. The last thing he needed was to be a
ssociated with that tainted ex-CEO any more than the media was already linking them on their own. “What did he want?”
“Expressed his empathy.”
William turned away from the window. “He still saying he’s innocent?”
“I wish you’d talk to him, Will. You already know what I think.”
He did. And the more Will mulled it over, the more it made sense.
Doug had been itching to complete his climb of the corporate ladder for years. But Greg had been named CEO all those years ago. The board felt he had more operations knowledge than Doug.
And when they made the unprecedented choice to name Will to the position at such a young age, the man had made no secret of the fact he was ticked.
Something had always felt slimy about the guy.
“There’s no proof. And now that I’m not in the office anymore and don’t have access to documents, there never will be.”
His dad lifted a piece of paper. Will hadn’t noticed him holding it before. “Speaking of, I was wondering where you got this from.”
William frowned and took the paper. It looked to be a page out of the quarterly sales forecast, but the numbers, even though missing a few pages, didn’t look like the ones he’d seen. “Where did you find this?” He’d given back all paper documents related to Foster and Jones early this morning, hoping that it showed cooperation and goodwill on his part. No doubt it wouldn’t be long before the SEC came and searched his place anyway. They wouldn’t find anything, that he knew for darn sure.
“In your office. It was on the floor behind the door.”
Strange. He tossed it back on the glass coffee table. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over with anyway. Lock up if you leave.”
He strode out of the room, ignoring his father’s pleas for him to listen.
Listening would get him nowhere. Being a good guy had gotten him nowhere, too.
All he had was a broken heart, a ruined career, and a stupid condo that felt colder than Northern Minnesota in a blizzard.
CHAPTER FORTY
Hanna dug the shovel into the last bit of snow on the porch and flung the white fluffy stuff to the side, where it fluttered to rest with the other foot of snow she’d shoveled.
Couldn’t it be June yet?
Not possible according to her calendar that had just flipped over to March.
What a dreary, dreary winter. They’d had more snow this year than the last five years combined.
The temperature was the only thing she missed about Nashville. She’d give almost anything to be able to walk around with only a light jacket again.
The rumbling of an engine sounded in the distance. Probably her dad back from his trip into the nearby town of Virginia. Their snowblower had finally bitten the dust after years of trusty service, and he wanted to get a new one before the next snow.
She turned to greet him but, instead, found an oversized black SUV pulling into their long driveway. She squinted but couldn’t make out the driver through tinted windows.
Eyeing the rifle propped against the front door, she stood straighter, trying to ignore the fact that she looked like the biggest country bumpkin in the world with her snow pants and her dad’s way-too-big-for-her flannel jacket on. Not to mention the hat with oversized earflaps.
Crud. She’d forgotten about the hat.
The SUV parked in the spot her dad had plowed earlier, and a man in khakis and a large black wool coat stepped out.
Recognition hit her like a snowball in the face.
Harrison. William’s dad.
She’d only have been more surprised if Elvis himself had stepped out of that truck.
She took a few steps forward. “Mr. Preston. What are you doing here?”
The older man, his sprinkled gray hair poking out from under a black stocking cap, walked toward her with a determined stride, stopping a few feet away. “I was hoping we could talk.”
She wanted to say no, but the man had always been nothing but kind to her. He’d welcomed her into his home and his family so freely, she could do nothing other than offer him the same courtesy. “Sure. Let’s go inside where it’s not so cold.”
He nodded and followed her up the front walk. “I’d appreciate that. I thought Jersey was cold, but I do believe you all have a leg up on us in that department.”
She smiled as she opened the door. “At least it’s about five degrees right now. It could be much worse.”
Her former future father-in-law stepped inside and tugged off his tan leather gloves and black hat, leaving static-filled hair sticking up all over. The man always looked so pressed and neat. It was hard not to snicker at his crazy hat hair.
“Five degrees is as worse as I’d like to see it, thanks.”
She motioned him to have a seat on the sofa. “Would you like something to drink?”
He nodded. “Anything warm would be great.”
“I have coffee, hot chocolate, or hot tea. Take your pleasure.”
Crinkles formed around his eyes as he smiled and winked. “I’ll take whatever you’re having.”
“Hot chocolate it is.” She walked to the kitchen and put the teakettle on the stove to warm the water.
She turned to get the chocolate out of the pantry but almost screamed when she found Harrison standing in the kitchen, leaning against the island. Her hand fluttered to her chest. “Goodness. I didn’t hear you walk in.”
He just smiled. “Sorry about that.”
After grabbing the chocolate, she took out two coffee cups. “So, I’m surprised the cold affects you so much. Jersey gets their fair share of snow and cold.”
“We’re actually from LA originally. We lived there while William was growing up. We didn’t move out East until his junior year of high school. It’s been over sixteen years now and I’m still not used to the cold.”
The teakettle started to sing, so she fixed their drinks and handed him a cup. “Okay, let’s stop skirting around with small talk about the weather.”
“Nothing small about this weather, girl.”
She smirked. “True. But seriously. Will and I are done. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
“I’m not here about you and Will—not as a couple, that is.”
The hot sweet liquid slid down her throat, warming her stomach. “Then what are you here for?”
“You heard about Will’s job?”
She clutched the cup to keep from dropping it. “I’m sorry about that. I—I know it looks like I outed him, but I promise, it wasn’t my intent. I don’t know if it was—” Should she tell him about Doug’s visit? No. Not yet. No use dragging him into it just yet. “I shared a cab with a guy to the airport. He happened to be on my same flight. I didn’t mention names, but it was late and I was upset. I may have let it slip that my fiancé was involved in accounting fraud. But I swear I didn’t say who.”
He stood up straighter, the friendly glint on his face gone, replaced by a serious, lawyer-like expression. “But Will says you didn’t know anything about his being accused of fraud. He hadn’t told you yet.” Unbuttoning his jacket, he took a folder out he’d kept hidden, laid it on the tiled island, and slid it across to her. “I think this might have been part of what you saw. What I want to know is, where’d you find it, and where’s the rest of the report?”
She opened the folder to find—
One of the papers Doug had let her look at. Those stupid papers she almost wished she had never given in and looked at. “Where did you find this?” She was sure Doug had taken them all when he left.
“It was on the floor behind the door. Will keeps it open all the time and rarely looks behind it.”
That’s right. She’d thrown the papers. Doug must have missed a sheet.
She took her mug and walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. “Doug. Doug stopped by and said he thought I should see the report. That I should know the truth about Will. I thought he’d already been fired until the news last week.”
Harrison
took the bench across the table. “What I’m trying to figure out is how this paper made you think Will was committing fraud?”
Hanna frowned. “What do you mean? Everyone knew the company was struggling. I’m no business expert, but there’s no way those numbers could have been accurate.”
“I don’t know what numbers you saw, but Foster and Jones was still showing a steep decline in profits for the current quarter.”
That made no sense. “But Doug said—” The moment the name slipped from her lips, understanding dawned. “He lied.”
Harrison reached over the table and covered her hand with his. “We need your help, Hanna.”
“No. I don’t know what you have in mind, but I’m sorry. The answer is no, regardless. I’m done with this mess. I have to put my life back together, and every time I step back into it, every time I try to make it better, it just gets exponentially worse. I can’t. Do you understand?”
He tapped the folder on the table. “What I understand is that you’re a chicken.”
She straightened her back. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re a chicken. This seems impossible, and instead of doing the right thing, you run away like someone has cut off your head.”
“Maybe I am like a chicken. My head is about to be chopped off, and I’m running away to preserve it.”
Setting the folder down, Harrison folded his arms and leaned forward to look her in the eye. “Hanna, I’m far from perfect myself. I’ve messed up a lot, but right now, I’m a father seeing my son hurting and on the verge of giving up on his life. I won’t let that happen. I don’t think God wants me to let that happen. If you can sit here and tell me that God’s okay with you washing your hands of this mess you and Will both made and not dealing with the consequences, then fine. I’ll be on my way, and you can keep holed up here, licking your wounds and feeling sorry for yourself. But if you want a chance to see the truth, to see the real William Preston, and to right a whole boatload of wrongs, then I’ve got a plane ticket with your name on it, headed out at eight tonight.”
Emotions warred in her heart.
The Engagement Plot Page 23