Ruby Red 3 - A Romance for All Time (Complete)

Chapter 14

Ali leaned forward to match Jack's stare. His dark black pupils dilated, giving Ali a strange lump in her throat. A faint pull of a distant time when Jack was first dating her, long before things disintegrated. A whiff of... interest. Ali swallowed. And then as swiftly as it appeared, the look was gone. Replaced by ice.

"Seems a few things have been languishing in dad's absence. I set things back on track."

Jack's move was so sudden, shooting to his feet and towering over her, Ali recoiled despite herself.

"You did what," he roared.

"Alexandria," her mother cried. "How could you?"

"You had no right." Jack's voice had lost all illusions of honey, replaced by a hard-edge Ali did not appreciate. She rose to meet his stance.

"I have every right. It's my family's company."

"That I control."

Anger fissured through Ali. Stepping closer to Jack, she spat at him, "Last time I checked, my father controlled his company."

Jack's face relaxed at that. It made a shiver scream up Ali's spine, replacing the adrenaline high from a moment ago. What did she not know?

"Oh, Alexandria," he practically laughed maniacally. "You should really pay more attention to the family business you claim to care so much about." Then Jack shifted to raise his pale eyes at her mother. "Would you like to enlighten your daughter, or shall I?"

The shiver spread into Ali's chest. Rounding on her mother, Ali caught the panic in the other woman's expression before her mask of indifference fell into place. "Mother?" Ali hated how weak it came out, like a plea.

"Well, you see when your father ... fell ... ill," Lynn's eyes were darting around the room landing on every object but her daughter. "The board had to hold an emergency meeting."

"What meeting?"

Jack pounced. "You weren't invited."

The betrayal manifested in a stabbing pain in her stomach. Inside Ali wanted to slap Jack and scream at her mother. Instead, she doubled down on the armour she had used in the past to hide her pain, her disappointment.

Lynn was still talking, her voice calm and cool like she was talking to the housekeeper about next week's dinner menu. "It was an emergency. We needed to make a call. With Jack, myself and Spencer we had a majority to pass the resolution."

There were five board members. Daniel Stinson, Lynn Stinson and herself ensured the family was always in control. Spencer was a lawyer and a long-time family friend. He offered solid, conservative advice, a sound voice amid Stinson chaos. When Ali married Jack, he was added to the board as well. It was supposed to be another vote in Daniel Stinson's corner.

Ali swivelled between her placid looking mother and a now preening Jack. "What resolution?"

"We voted to make Jack Chairman of the Board. Temporarily."

And there it was. The thing Ali didn't want to hear. Her knees wobbled slightly. Jack Blackhorne was in control of her family. Completely. In her mother's home. Running the company. Replacing her father.

"It's what your father would have wanted." Lynn continued. "Jack is the best man for the job."

"Best man indeed," spilled out of Ali's mouth. It always came down to that in this household.

Suddenly the formal room was too close, too hot, too stuffy. Ali felt heat creeping up her neck, something, some emotion bubbling up, trying to escape. She could not let them see.