Defiant Mistress, Ruthless Millionaire(23)

       

As soon as Callie reached her office, though, she knew something was  terribly wrong. Adam Palmer waited for her by her desk. Callie had  barely seen him since his marriage, but those times she had he'd been  relaxed and happy in a way she'd never seen before. Now, though, tension  vibrated through every line in his body, and her smile of welcome  quickly faded from her face.

"Callie, come with me to the boardroom."

There was a coolness to his voice that made her stomach clench in  fright. That and the realisation his words had not been couched as a  request, but as a command.

"Adam, what's wrong?"

"We'll discuss it there," was all he'd say and Callie was left to follow his rigid back along the carpeted hallway.

From every empty office they passed she heard phones shrilling  unanswered. Where was everyone? The boardroom door, normally open, was  firmly closed and a buzz of angry voices echoed through the wooden  barrier.

Silence ensued as Adam pushed open the door.

"She's here."

Two words, yet they made her suddenly feel as if she were walking a plank over shark-infested waters.

"Sit down, please, Callie," he directed.

Callie did as she was told, her eyes skimming over the assembly of  senior executives ranging opposite her. At either end of the table sat  Irene and Bruce Palmer. Twelve sets of accusing eyes bored into her,  making her fidget on her chair.

Adam took charge of the proceedings immediately.

"Is it true that during the time you were with Josh Tremont you entered into a personal relationship with him?"

Callie's eyes flew to Irene. What the heck? Irene had told her to do  whatever it took, and she had-at great personal cost. Was she now to be  denounced for it?

"I did, but I-"

"And is it true that you passed on information to Palmer Enterprises  that enabled us to win the Flinders contract over Tremont Corporation."  Adam's tone was relentless.

"I did what I was sent in there to do."

"The information you gave to my mother two weeks ago, who gave it to you?"

"Josh did, but-"

"Did he put you up to this? Did you do it deliberately?" one of the other executives interrupted before she could finish.

"Do you have any idea what this has cost us?" another shouted from across the polished expanse of mahogany.

"I don't know what you're talking about. What the heck is going on?"

Callie turned to Bruce and his grey features and aged expression shocked her to her core.

"The information you gave to Irene was a setup, Callie. We're going to  lose millions-maybe everything." Bruce's voice cracked on the last  couple of words.

Callie swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. The  information was false? They were losing millions? Palmers wasn't in a  position to lose millions, not after losing so much business to Tremont  Corporation already. She'd believed that the Flinders deal, together  with the latest information she had, would give them the boost they'd  needed. To get them back on par with Tremont Corporation. But instead  she'd dragged them into a quagmire.

Realisation dawned with damning finality. Josh had set her up. He'd set  her up to take the Palmers down. To make them take the fall he'd been  engineering all along.

Black spots swam before her eyes and her chest constricted on a breath that simply could not be taken. Her eyes flew to Irene.

"But you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, to hurt Palmers. I was  doing what you asked me to do. I uncovered the mole here, who was  feeding information to Josh Tremont. I brought you the Flinders  information."

"The results, unfortunately, speak for themselves," Adam said. "I'm  sorry, Callie, but you know the process. Pending a full investigation,  you're being stood down from your job."

Nothing in his voice betrayed the camaraderie they used to share. No  hint of what had been a strong friendship, before she'd started to even  work for his mother, remained.

Callie's eyes flew back and forth across the table, settling on Irene.  Silently, she beseeched the older woman to support her, to tell them  they were wrong. To make it clear that she would never deliberately do  anything to hurt the family.

"Irene?" she implored.

Irene wouldn't meet Callie's eyes and Callie knew in that instant she'd  not only been set up by Josh, she'd been the fall guy for Irene Palmer  at the same time. What a fool she'd been to think she mattered to  anyone. She was little more than collateral damage in a power play she'd  never stood a chance of understanding. All these years she'd believed  she was worth something to Irene, worth something to Palmers, yet all  along she'd been expendable. Groomed to do a job and discarded when she  was no longer useful.                       
       
           



       

Her devastation was complete. And to think that she'd wanted to protect  Irene from the proof of her husband's infidelity. How naive could she  have been? If the cool derision on Irene's face right now was any  indicator, she probably had known about Bruce's affair all along.

Adam motioned to someone outside the boardroom. The blur of blue that denoted one of the security team materialised beside her.

"Callie, I'm sorry. But we have to do it this way." Adam followed her  and the security guard out of the boardroom, his voice tinged with  genuine regret. "If there was anything else I could do-"

"You could believe me, Adam. You could believe that I am the innocent party here," she pleaded.

"I do believe you, Callie. And, trust me, I'll find a way to get to the  bottom of this. At the very least I'll make sure you get a strong  reference."

Callie looked back into the boardroom-at the accusation painted on many  of the faces there, at the distance she now knew lay between herself and  the woman she'd considered a mentor and friend.

"Good luck with that," she said bitterly.

In a state of numbed resignation, Callie allowed herself to be escorted  from the building and down to the parking garage to her car, and as she  drove out into the bustle of Auckland, she knew her life would never be  the same again.

A burst of rage bloomed inside. Rage at Irene for letting her take the  fall for what she'd been asked-no, had been expected-to do. Irene had  manipulated her just as effectively as Josh Tremont had. She'd trusted  both of them, and in doing so it had allowed each to play her like a  puppet in a sideshow.

She hadn't even been given an opportunity to present her side of the  story. The unfairness of it all settled like a ball of lead in her  stomach. She'd sacrificed her relationship with Josh to protect them, to  protect Irene and Bruce, and ultimately Adam and everyone who worked at  Palmers. Yet she'd failed spectacularly.

She tried to rationalise the fact that if Palmers hadn't been so hungry  and hell-bent on getting ahead of Tremont Corporation, in a competition  that had become decidedly unhealthy, they'd have taken the time to  thoroughly and carefully analyse Josh's notes and see for themselves the  pitfall they'd rushed headlong into. Their greed had overrun their good  sense, but, ultimately, she was responsible. She was the one who'd  given them the information, no matter how fallacious it had turned out  to be. Information that had been given to her in confidentiality.  Whatever Josh's intentions had been when he'd made those notes, she and  only she had been the one to abuse them. She had made the conscious  decision to pass the information across to Palmers.

It was a frightening thought. She'd become so determined to be accepted,  on being part of a whole, she'd compromised her own integrity. First  with Josh and then with Irene. Yes, they'd used her, but she'd let them.  And that was the most galling of all.

It was time to stand on her own two feet. To stand up for what she  believed in and what was right. No more being a pawn in the hands of  others.

Somehow, some way, she was going to undo the harm she'd done. And she would start with Josh Tremont.





Twelve


"I must see him."

He heard her voice as he crossed the lobby. Callie tapped her foot  impatiently on the tiles where she stood at the visitor check-in area of  the Tremont Tower.

"Ms Lee, Mr Tremont made it quite clear that you are not permitted on  the premises." The security guard behind the desk held firm on his  stance.

"C'mon, Ted, please. I need to talk to him. Get him on the phone for me."

"That won't be necessary."

She visibly flinched at the tone of his voice. Good, he thought. She had  no right to be here and if his speech was enough to rattle her then  she'd be gone all the sooner.

"Thank you, Ted. I'll take care of Ms Lee. It should only take a few minutes."

Josh wrapped his fingers around the top of Callie's bare arm, ignoring  the warmth of her soft skin beneath his touch and the reminder of how  soft her skin was all over her body. He staunchly reminded himself that  this encounter was unfortunate, but unavoidably necessary. Clearly, she  hadn't understood him when he'd sent her away.