Eighty employees followed in lockstep.
Once we cleared the banquet hall, I told them to go home and wait for further word. Then I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.
"Miss Delgado."
"Put the Henson Group contract on hold. I have a better deal to discuss with you."
If this place didn't want me, plenty of others would. Wherever I took these eighty people, companies would be fighting to have us.
"Oh?" Doreen Delgado's voice drifted through the line, tinged with amusement. "What's this? Judging by your tone, are you looking to stray? Run into this big sister's arms?"
She'd come all the way from Grandview to find me. When she learned I was married, she'd been quietly hoping for a divorce ever since—using the contract as an excuse to stay close.
I was about to respond when footsteps sounded behind me.
"I'll send you the details."
I hung up. I'd assumed it was Marlene chasing after me, but it turned out to be Miles Sullivan.
"Jacob!"
"Now do you see how powerful a first love can be? No matter how much you sacrifice for Marlene, she's still wrapped around my finger."
Miles sauntered toward me, his smirk stretching so wide it practically touched his ears. The smugness rolled off him in waves.