Page 176 of Love Unspoken

"What about your folks?"

"COVID."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Both of them?"

"Yeah. They're not experiencing too many symptoms, but they're testing positive, so they're out of commission."

Gemma had planned to spend Thanksgiving with Basil as her family was spread out this year and were not getting together until Christmas.

"Yes, of course. Come on over. Dad will be excited to see you both."

After that conversation, I texted Lucas again and wished him good luck with his board meeting. I knew this was going to be a tough one, what with Hugh planning a coup. The fact that Lucas seemed to not give a shit about his job as CEO had first worried me, and then I'd realized that he'd finally decided that he was more than his job. There was more to his life than running LPC. It was probably a lesson I should learn from him, as my identity was so closely tied to being an academic.

I called Jax and asked him what he was doing for Thanksgiving. He apparently was not going to see his parents because he'd had a blowout with his father, and the situation with his family was tense. So, I invited him over as well.

It was going to be a full house for the holidays, I thought gleefully.

Thanksgiving was one of my favorite holidays. The food, obviously, was the draw, but so was everything else. The family coming together, watching the football game, eating the leftovers until you were sick of turkey and gravy.

Last year, I went to New York to be with my dad while Lucas stayed in Charleston. For Christmas, Lucas and I had Christmas Eve at my old place and Christmas Day at Lucas's family home. Dad had been more than uncomfortable with the Covington setup, though he had liked Rena very much. I was glad that this year he would enjoy some warm weather, the beach, and no stuffy Covingtons around the table for Christmas.

I looked at the time and felt tension seep back into me. Lucas's board meeting had begun.

I got ready quickly, determined to be in his office when he came out of the boardroom, no matter how the vote on his leadership at LPC turned out. Rena had told me not to worry, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want Lucas to lose the job he'd worked so hard for. A part of me couldn't shake the feeling that this was happening because of me. He blamed Hugh and Kath, but I still felt responsible, and that made me even more determined to be there to support him.

THIRTY

LUCAS

The LPC boardroom was a grand, imposing chamber and a constant reminder of the weight of the family name that bore down on my shoulders. The walls, paneled in rich, dark oak, seemed to have absorbed the echoes of decades—each conversation, every decision carved into the very essence of the company, shaping it into the powerhouse it was today.

A long, polished mahogany table commanded the room, its surface gleaming under the muted light. High-backed leather chairs encircled it, creaking under the strain of the legacy they supported. At the far end, tall windows stood sentinel over Charleston's historic district.

The tension in the air was thicker than the humidity outside. It clung to the edges of the room, curling around the corners like smoke. This wasn't just your everyday board meeting—it was a battlefield. And everyone in the room knew it.

Gene Lombardi, our General Counsel, sat to my left. I knew his expression was neutral as he reviewed his notes. We'd worked to make sure legally Hugh would not be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat or anywhere else.

The man of the hour who used to be like a father to me sat across from me with a confident smirk, his fingers drumming lightly, revealing his impatience, on the table. Kath sat next to him, she tried to look like she was under control, but she was nervous as fuck. You just had to see how she gripped the edge of the table just a little too tightly. As the CFO, she didn't have a vote but was present at board meetings.

Grandma was seated to my right and was reading through some documents, her reading glasses perched on her nose.

The other three board members—Arthur Jenkins, Marjorie Kane, and Michael Donovan—were seated around the table, their expressions going from anxious to unreadable.

Diedra, my Executive Assistant, sat at the far end of the room. She was the only one with an open laptop as she would be taking the minutes. I had warned her that there may be fireworks today and she told me it was high time. She never liked Hugh or Kath. When I'd asked her once why she disliked Kath, she'd simply said, "She's not authentic."

As the meeting's owner, I looked around the room and kicked us off. "Let's get started. We have a full agenda today. Diedra, can you walk us through it?"

Diedra spoke without inflection. "We have three agenda items. First, we have a motion that Mr. Bellamy wants to propose; after that, Kath will run us through the year-to-date financials; and finally, we will discuss the annual kickoff meetings in January."

"The floor is yours, Hugh," I remarked.

Hugh straightened, his sneer growing into a full-blown smile as he glanced around the table. He clearly thought he had this in the bag, that today would be the day he finally ousted me from the company. He probably spent the entire morning imagining Kath in my chair, but what he didn't know—what he couldn't have known—was that his scheme was already dead in the water. Hugh underestimated Grandma and me—and worse than that, he overestimated himself.

"Yes, thank you, Lucas," Hugh began, his voice dripping with false politeness. "I'd like to propose a motion to remove Lucas Covington from his position as CEO of LPC, effective immediately."

Diedra's fingers flew over the keyboard, recording every word.

I leaned back in my chair as I watched Hugh with cold, calculated detachment. "And your reasoning for this motion, Hugh?"