Page 207 of Lau Ahi
To her credit Faith stayed extremely calm and Mr. Miller was taking all of this in silently. He, like Pappy, was a living advertisement of where their offspring had gotten their height and build. Mr. Miller was just as impressively built as his son and his style was the same impeccably styled custom suit that every man in theConsortiumfavored.Except for Slickback Sr. and Jr. across from us.
“This family business means everything to me and what you need to do is lower your tone when you’re speaking to me. You need to understand that the rules are very clear. I was the next one in line and nothing was amended. My marriage contract states that my heirs will sit in the seat and Pappy stepped up overseeing it when I left. The only thing you could do is try to challenge me for the position.”
“That would need the vote of the elders to agree to.” James had his jaw clenched as he listened to his sister. I could tell he was pissed that he wasn’t going to just walk into this position of power like he thought he would.
Mr. Miller was nodding his head in agreement clearing showing whose sign he was on. “Yes, it would.”
Theo didn’t bother to bridle his anger and he slammed his hand down on the conference table angrily. Mr. Miller andPappy both looked like they were ready to beat him the way his father obviously never did. It wasn’t overt in their mannerisms but almost a silent agreement in the smallest shift of their eyes that told they were on edge.
“How can she just waltz back in here like everything is cool and retake what she didn’t earn?”
“Blame your father. I’m here to be impartial, James. You know what you need to do. TheConsortiumis about money and connections. You have time to show what you can bring to the table. Right now your enterprises are shut down and you aren’t bringing anything in.”
“What does Faith have? What has she even been doing for the last twenty years?”
“Her marriage brought the Nakoas on board. That’s still a contribution in our eyes since she is a Nakoa and part of their board. Her son’s marriage brought on the Averys who themselves are the owners of a multinational, billion-dollar corporation. So again, what is it that you have?”
“So you think that we’re supposed to compete with two multi-billion dollar companies? How is that fair?” James snarled up at everyone at our side of the table with eyes filled with betrayal.
“You’ve got time. Everything stays into place for six months after a… change in leadership.” Mr. Miller’s voice cracked slightly and he cleared his throat, giving him time to gather himself. He couldn’t look at me. I was the visual reminder of everything everyone had lost. “The bylaws can’t be changed so we have to go with what we’ve always done.”
“It’s been four months already, that only leaves us two months to get everything squared away.”
Mr. Miller was staring at Theo looking every inch a menace like Yacouba. “Is that supposed to mean something to me? I can read a calendar.”
Theo ignored the obvious slight he’d given to someone very important in the same organization he wanted to join and continued to plea his case. “Nah, we should get a full six months. Truncating it won’t give us a fair shot.”
“Why are we supposed to make exemptions about you?” Pappy was eerily calm probably having catalogued the disrespect to bring up at a later date.
“Shut up this doesn’t involve you.”
“It does involve him.” Mr. Miller’s voice was now colder than before and he seemed to lose his patience.
James looked as confused as I felt. “What are you talking about? You’re not even blood.”
“But it does, right Hakeem?” Faith smiled looking at the side of the table that had been quiet all this time.
“You’re right.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” James was looking around at everyone and he could feel the same way I could that they were about to drop a bomb on us all.
Hakeem sat up from where he had been quietly sitting at one end of the conference table. He pulled out papers and slid them across the table to his cousins. “Pappy has every right to be here because his father’s family were the Lincolns. We had his genealogy and his DNA run to ensure the information you hold in your hand is accurate. And it is.”
James and Theo were scanning the paperwork as quickly as possible without saying a word but they didn’t have to. Their faces grew tighter with each line and now I wanted to know what they were reading.
“This is bullshit!” Theo tossed the papers on the table coming dangerously close to them hitting Pappy. Pappy’s chest heaved every ounce of his energy going into keeping himself seated.
“What does all of this mean?” James couldn’t make sense of whatever was on the paper but judging by Hakeem’s words it was something about DNA testing.
“It means that this Hawaiian muthafucka is trying to claim that he’s from one of the freed people from Evergreen.”
James' face tightened as he looked across the table at Pappy and I was seconds away from becoming Pappy and Faith’s personal ???? (warrior) to protect them from the obvious threat seated across the table.
“Which means there’s nothing you can do to unseat your sister or Mr. Nakoa unless they decide they no longer want the positions. Unless you all come up with a better partnership that you bring to the table.” Mr. Miller’s words crushed everything they were trying to achieve.
“Unless we form a partnership with the Avery girl.”
How did I get brought into this? “Pardon me?”
