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“You fired Tony.”
“So we get the shares back?”
Rob shrugged. “Not quite that simple. I’ll figure it out. We’ll get some of them.”
“Let’s get together this afternoon. I’ll lay out the MLB plan for you, get you feeling comfortable with it…”
Rob nodded and went to the door. He was halfway out before he turned back and actually smiled. “It’s good to have you back, man.”
It was good to be back. Even without Adam, maybe especially without Adam, I knew this was where I belonged now. I was still figuring out everything else in my life, but at Cody Technology I knew what needed to be done. Adam’s absence was painful, but maybe it was actually a good thing. I missed something that had never been true, a man who lied to me my entire life and made me feel worthless enough that I’d had to run to the other side of the world to find my own value.
“Pamela.” I buzzed the desk outside through the intercom.
“Yes, sir?” Her voice was professional and brisk, and I couldn’t help the smile that lifted my lips when I heard it. I stood and walked around the desk, opening my office door.
“It feels weird to talk through the intercom when you’re right here,” I said.
Pamela smiled, but Rob’s secretary stared with wide eyes and practically cringed when I walked out of my office.
“Get all the photos of Adam Cody taken out of the lobbies of the buildings, please.”
Her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose. Then her features cleared and she rose from her desk. “A word?” she suggested, pointing back into my office.
I raised an eyebrow at her but waved her into my office, where she stood and faced me behind the closed door.
“I won’t do that, sir.”
“Call me Oliver.”
“Oliver. I won’t take the pictures down.”
“I think you will.” I liked Pamela, but I didn’t like this, and my voice was icier than I’d meant it to be.
“Adam Cody cofounded this company. In honor of his memory, the least we can do is keep his picture up as a reminder of his contributions and his legacy.”
“Adam Cody was a fraud.”
She crossed her arms. “I won’t do it without a valid reason.”
“I could fire you,” I reminded her, though she knew I had no intention of doing so. “I could ask someone else. Rob’s secretary would just follow orders. Maybe I need a new secretary.”
“You told me you wanted a right hand. And here I am. Your father—”
“He was not my father,” I interrupted, my mood darkening considerably.
She took a step forward and looked up at me, her eyes blazing. “Adam Cody raised you. He fed you, he clothed you, he sent you to school every day and paid your medical bills. I didn’t live in your house, so I don’t know, but I’m going to take a wild guess that maybe he and Sonja held you when you cried, told you stories at bedtime, and kissed you good night. They probably calmed you when you were scared and taught you how to be a strong, capable leader. They instilled enough confidence in you—arrogance, maybe—to stand here today and order me to erase their memories. And I’m not going to do it.” Then in a softer voice she added, “I knew him, too, Oliver. For a long time.”
“It isn’t your call,” I said in a whisper, trying to push down the memories her words had brought surging back. My mother bending over me to kiss my forehead, my father teaching me to swim.
“Adam Cody was good to people here,” she said, her voice even and low. “You were not the only one to whom he acted as a father.”
I felt my eyes widen slightly as I wondered what the hell she was talking about. Her eyes had welled up and her face had reddened. There was something she wasn’t telling me.
“Fine. I’ll take care of it later,” I told her.
With a curt nod, she spun on her heel and left my office. And I sat down to think about what kind of man Adam Cody really was, the fury inside me draining until all I felt was the simmering sadness that had lived in me for the last few months. I still hated him.
But God, I missed him.
