Читать книгу Pregnant By The Rival Ceo - Karen Booth - Страница 9

Two

Adam’s fiancée, Melanie, pointed to the dog-eared pages of bridal magazines spread out on the dining table in Adam’s penthouse apartment. “Anna? What do you think? Black or eggplant?”

Bridesmaid’s dresses. Talking about the dress she’d have to wear for Adam and Melanie’s January wedding felt like a speed bump. Anna’d been trying to broach the subject of Jacob and Miami for nearly the entire week, but Adam kept putting her off.

“Do you have a preference?” Melanie asked.

Anna shook her head, setting down her dessert spoon. The chocolate mousse Melanie had served with dinner was delicious, and perfect, just like Adam and Melanie’s life—a well-matched couple giddily in love, wedding a few months down the road. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

“Classic black A-line or strapless dark purple?”

Anna choked back a sigh. She was happy for Adam and Melanie, really she was, but their wedding had taken over Langford family life. It was the only thing their mother, Evelyn, wanted to talk about. Just to make things especially fun for Anna, her mother usually added a comment about how her first project after the wedding was helping Anna find the right guy. January couldn’t come—and go—soon enough.

She loved her brother dearly. Melanie had become a close friend. It was just that it was painful to watch them reach a milestone Anna was skeptical she’d ever reach. At twenty-eight, being hopelessly single in a city full of men who didn’t have eyes for women with lofty aspirations, there wasn’t much else to think. Most men were intimidated by her family and the job she’d already ascended to at LangTel. It wasn’t going to get any less daunting for them if and when she took over as CEO.

“The black, I guess,” Anna said. “But you should pick what you want. Don’t worry about me. It’s your big day, not mine.”

“No, I want you to be happy. I think we’ll go with the black.” Melanie smiled warmly.

Anna really did adore her future sister-in-law. These days, Melanie was the only thing that made being around Adam tolerable, which was so sad. Adam had once been her ally. Now it was as if she had a grizzly bear for a brother and a boss—she never knew what would set him off, and most days, it seemed as if everything did.

She’d assumed she and Adam would lean on each other after their father passed away, but instead, Adam had withdrawn. He’d holed up in Dad’s big corner office and become distant. The tougher things got, the more Adam shut her out. She’d been exercising patience. Everyone dealt with death differently. If only he’d trust her with more responsibility, she could lighten his workload and remind him that she was well equipped to take over.

Melanie took Adam’s hand across the sleek ebony table, her stunning Harry Winston engagement ring glinting. “I still can’t believe we’re getting married. I pinch myself every morning.”

“Just wait until we have kids,” Adam quipped. “Then things will really get surreal.”

“You’re already talking about children?” Anna tried to squelch the extreme surprise in her voice.

“We are,” Melanie answered. “Two of my sisters had trouble getting pregnant. If we’re going to have kids, I don’t want to risk waiting too long.”

Anna nodded. She’d worried about how long she would have to wait. Her friends from college were having kids, some their second or third. On an intellectual level, she knew she had time, but after her dad had died, emotion had taken over reasoning, and she panicked.

Feeling alone while watching Adam move forward with his life, Anna decided she wasn’t about to wait for a man to show up in hers. She’d looked into artificial insemination. It was a just-in-case sort of thing—a fact-finding mission. Hopefully, she’d find love and a partner and none of it would be necessary, but at that moment when she’d felt powerless, taking action was the only comfort she could get.

Unfortunately, the visit to the clinic brought a devastating problem to light—a tangle of scar tissue from her appendectomy, literally choking off her chances of conception unless she had surgery. If she didn’t fix the problem and she did become pregnant, carrying a baby to term was unlikely. With things crazy at work, Anna hadn’t done a thing about it, although she planned to. Some day.

“We aren’t going to have to try, Mel.” Adam leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. “If I have my way, you’ll be pregnant by the end of the honeymoon.”

Melanie laughed quietly. “Did Adam tell you about Fiji?” she asked Anna. “Two weeks in a private villa on the beach with a chef and an on-call masseuse, all while the rest of New York is dealing with gray snow and cold. I can’t wait.”

Fiji. In January. Anna took a cleansing breath. She hated these feelings of envy. She wanted to squash them like a bug.

“We need to talk about that, because we’re going to be away for a full two weeks,” Adam said to Anna. “If you think that’s too long a stretch for you to be in charge at LangTel, you need to tell me now.”

Anna blew out an exasperated breath. “I can’t believe you think there’s a chance I can’t handle it.”

Adam fetched a bottle of beer from the fridge and returned to the table. “What about Australia? What if something like that happens when I’m gone? We’re still sorting out that mess.”

“First off, we’re not sorting out that mess, I am. And you asked me to make those changes. I was following orders.”

“If you’re going to be CEO, you have to think for yourself.” He took a sip of his beer and pointed at her with the neck of the bottle. “There will be no orders to follow.”

How she hated it when he talked down to her like that, as if she didn’t know as much about business, when she absolutely did. “And I will do that once you finally hand over the reins.” Anna tightened her hands into balls. She was so tired of her dynamic with Adam, constantly at war.

Melanie buried her nose in a bridal magazine. Surely this wasn’t a comfortable conversation to sit in on.

“When you’re ready and not a day sooner,” Adam barked. “You know we’re in a delicate position. The company stock is fluctuating like crazy. I keep hearing rumblings about somebody, somewhere, wanting to take over the company.”

She’d heard those same rumors, but had ignored them, hoping they were conjecture and nothing more. “Adam, change brings instability. I think you’re making excuses, when the truth is that you suddenly have zero confidence in me.”

“You don’t make it easy when you make mistakes. Half of the board members are old guard. They do not want to see a woman take over the company, no matter what they might say to your face. We have to find the right time.”

Anna felt as though she was listening to her father speak. Was there something about working out of that office that made a person completely unreasonable? “You mean I have to wait until you decide it’s the right time.”

“You have no idea the amount of pressure I’m under. People expect huge things from me and from LangTel. I can’t let what Dad started be anything less than amazing.”

Anna kept her thoughts to herself. Adam was struggling with their father’s death even more than she was. He might not realize it, but she was sure his iron grip on LangTel had more to do with holding on to the memory of their dad than anything else. Tears stung Anna’s eyes just thinking about her father, but she wouldn’t cry. Not now.

“I can do this. I thought you believed in me.”

“I do, but frankly, you haven’t dazzled me like I thought you would.”

“Then let me dazzle you. I have an idea for an acquisition after the conference in Miami. That’s what I’ve been trying to talk to you all week about.”

“I don’t want to spend our entire evening talking shop. Send me the details in an email and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

“No. You keep blowing me off. Plus, I’m starting to think this isn’t a discussion for the office.”

“Why not?”

You might get mad enough to set off the sprinkler system. “Because it has to do with Jacob Lin. I’m interested in a company called Sunny Side, and he’s the majority investor.”

Adam’s jaw dropped and quickly froze in place. “I don’t care if Jacob Lin is selling the Empire State Building for a dollar. We’re not doing business with him. End of discussion.”

That last bit was so like her dad, and such a guy thing to do, attempting to do away with an uncomfortable subject with male posturing. It insulted every brain cell in her head, which meant it was time to forge ahead. She wasn’t about to wait for another time. It might never come. “The company makes micro solar panels for cell phones, phones that will never, ever need an electrical charge.”

“Sounds amazing,” Melanie chimed in from behind the shield of her magazine.

Adam shook his head, just as stubborn as Anna had imagined he’d be. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Yes, it does,” Anna said. “We’re talking about a revolution in our industry. Imagine the possibilities. Every person who ever wandered around an airport looking for an outlet will never see a reason to buy a phone other than ours.”

“Think of the safety aspects. Or the possibilities for remote places,” Melanie added. “The public relations upside could be huge.”

“Not to mention the financial upside,” Anna said.

Adam kneaded his forehead. “Are you two in cahoots or something? I don’t care if Jacob has invested in a cell phone that will make dinner and do your taxes. He and I tried to work together once and it was impossible. The man doesn’t know how to work with other people.”

Her conversation with Jacob was fresh in her mind, what he’d said about the end of his friendship with Adam. What if things had been different and they had remained friends? “Funny, but he says the same thing about you.”

Adam turned and narrowed his focus, his eyes launching daggers at Anna. “You spoke to him about this?”

“Actually, I met with him. I told him that LangTel is interested in Sunny Side.”

“I can’t believe you would do that.”

“Come on, Adam.” Anna leaned forward, hoping to plead with her eyes. “We would be passing up a huge opportunity. Just take a minute and look past your history with Jacob for the good of LangTel. You’ll see that I’m right.”

Adam stood up from the table. “I can’t listen to this anymore. I’m going to answer emails and take a shower.” He leaned down and kissed the top of Melanie’s head. “Good night.”

“That’s it?” Anna asked, bolting out of her seat, her chair scraping loudly on the hardwood floors. “The almighty Adam passes down his decree and I’m supposed to live with it, even when my idea could make billions for the company he won’t hand over because he’s so concerned with its success?”

“Look, I call the shots. I’m CEO.”

Anna felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “You’ve reminded me of that every day since you took over.”

“Good. Because I don’t want to talk about this ever again. And I don’t want you to speak to Jacob Lin ever again, either.” He started down the hall, but turned and doubled back, raising a finger in the air as if he’d just had the greatest idea. “In fact, I forbid it.”

“Excuse me?” She remained frozen, beyond stunned. “You forbid it?”

“Yes, Anna. I forbid it. You are my employee and I am forbidding you to talk to him. He’s dangerous and I don’t trust him. At all.”