The Pretend Boyfriend novel Chapter 49

"No, I won't, Brian. I won't deny your brilliance, your ruthlessness, your business acumen and your innovation."

"It comes with the I.Q. of 190." Brian is also aware that it comes with genetics. The brilliance might have skipped his father, but it certainly is present in his uncle and cousins.

"But you also have the emotional quotient of a petulant teenager. You are an overgrown club boy who is as irresponsible to yourself as you are to others around you. I was just waiting for a day like this when you'd drag the entire Morton name - an empire I've worked so hard to build - into the mud. Not everyone outside this family will be so forgiving of your transgressions."

"So you've decided I'm guilty."

"I've decided that your sins have come back to haunt you ... and this family. I cut your father off, but I didn't do it with you because I thought you deserved a chance. And you are trying to fuck it up every chance you get. You've gone too far this time."

"I didn't rape that woman."

"But you're not sure." His uncle's voice turns cunning. "You can't fool me. You think that you can just waltz through this life on sex and booze and drugs - "

"I only do recreational drugs, never the hard stuff, and you know that."

"Hasn't stopped you from trying them in college, until I threatened to cut you out of my will."

"You're not going to use that on me again, because it won't work. I don't care about your money."

"You certainly did care about it then. And you're going to care about it again when I take Vanguard away from you."

Brian's mouth twitches.

Ah yes, that little caveat. The one that he had to sign even before Vanguard was incepted five years ago when he was just out of college. The one that gives his uncle the absolute power as Chairman of the Morton group to take Vanguard away from its President and CEO, no matter what that President and CEO has done to grow the company by leaps and bounds.

"So why don't you?" he challenges.

"Take Vanguard away from you?"

"Yeah."

"Don't try me, Brian. I really will do it. You think that just because you delivered a third of the clients and have won a couple of Clio awards - "

"I've won exactly twelve."

" - that you are indispensable. No one is indispensable to any company. Not even you. And when you become more of a liability than an asset to us, I can just hire some hotshot from New York to take over your place."

Brian grips the receiver. He's going to say something he will regret in the heat of the moment, and now is the time to count till ten or whatever it is that stress management advocates do.

One.

Two.

"How soon do you need the information?"

"As soon as possible."

The court case would not be so soon, but Sam reckons Brian can do with the break. She is supposed to meet him for drinks anyway, but he called to say he would be late.

"The rats are leaving the ship, and the captain is about to be thrown to the sharks," he says ruefully.

"Hang on in there. Things will get better."

"They can't get much worse, or I might as well tie a noose around my neck and spare them the cost of a public hanging." He sounds so tired over the phone that a pang fleets into her chest. "You wouldn't believe how many reporters have tried to get through Claudia today. If I didn't know better, I'd think I'm morphing into Kim Kardashian."

"That bad, huh?"

"I can see them lining up on the streets outside my window. They're waiting for me to come out. I'll give them the slip by wearing a wig and fat suit."

"There's always the back door."

"Nope. Last time I checked, they're camped out there too."

She has decided not to tell him about the PI. He would just stop her, or at least complicate matters.