Read Online Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 by Claudia Hall Christian - Free Book Online Page A

no reason to…” Sam said.
    “ I’m not staying here,”
the first man said. “We’ve already taken positions at Mortensen.
They begged us to go there. We start tomorrow. We came here out of
respect for you, Sam, and Jake. We wanted to give you a chance to
apologize.”
    “ I’m sorry to hear it,”
Sam said.
    “ You realize that means
you need to sell back your Lipson shares,” Aden said. “Go from an
owner to an employee.”
    “ Your children won’t be
able to continue at the Marlowe school,” Valerie said.
    “ We’re getting such big
raises that we can easily afford to pay the Marlowe School
tuition,” the second man said.
    “ I’ll be happy to put your
girls on the waiting list,” Valerie said. “There are more than two
hundred children waiting to get into the Marlowe school. Employees’
children get first priority and the spaces are limited. If you’re
not an employee, you’re at the back of the line.”
    “ That’s outrageous,” the
first man said. “Jake will never go for that.”
    “ Jake’s not involved at
the school anymore,” Valerie said. “I’m the Marlowe-Lipson
representative at my mother’s school. I took over for him at the
beginning of the year. And trust me; your children go straight to
the back of the waiting list.”
    “ You can’t do that!” the
second angry man said.
    “ It’s a private school,”
Valerie said. “The school can set its own rules. This happens to be
the rule. I’m sure your girls will do fine at home this
summer.”
    The men looked at Valerie and at each
other.
    “ Why don’t you give it
some time?” Sam asked. “These kind of things blow over. You can
always…”
    “ We’re out of here,” the
first man said. “You can’t disrespect my family and expect me to
stay.”
    “ I assume you brought your
ownership shares,” Aden said.
    “ You’ll take a personal
check?” Sam asked.
    The men held up their shares to Lipson
Construction. Without saying another word, Sam took out his
checkbook. Aden went around the desk to use the phone. Tres Sierra,
the CFO, came in to manage the transaction. Within minutes, the men
had Sam’s personal check for their shares. They stood in front of
Aden and Valerie.
    “ It doesn’t have to be
like this,” Sam said.
    “ There’s no solution,” the
first man said. “Tell Jake we said ‘good-bye’.”
    The men stormed out of the office.
    “ Well…” Valerie raised her
eyebrows. “That was interesting.”
    “ Good riddance,” Tres
said. “Those guys are a cancer. There’s rumbling that they were
trying to vote out Aden at the end of the year.”
    “ Wonder where the third
Dad is?” Aden asked.
    “ He called while you guys
were talking,” Tres said. “He said, and I quote, ‘No daughter of
mine is going to treat another person like that. We’ll handle this
at home.’”
    “ It’s the end of the
dynamic trio?” Aden asked. “Not likely.”
    “ Oh, you never know,”
Valerie said.
    “ Will you take it down
now?” Sam asked.
    “ Sure, Dad,” Valerie said.
“But it’s already gone viral.”
    “ What does that mean?” Sam
asked.
    “ Other people like the
video so much they made their own copies. Even if Val takes the
video down, it will be reposted by someone else,” Tres said. “God,
I’m so sorry about Noelle.”
    “ She’s had to deal with
those girls since she was little,” Aden said. “The girls are egged
on by their mothers. They take out their frustration at me on her.
I can’t say I’m sorry they and their horrible children are out of
our lives.”
    Sam put his hand on Aden’s shoulder. He
nodded to Valerie.
    “ Wait,” Aden said. “Before
you delete it, can we…”
    Valerie played the video. The men laughed
and insisted on playing the video again. When the video was done,
Valerie deleted it from her YouTube stream. She hugged her father
good-bye and followed Aden out to the parking lot.
    “ Well, that’s that,” Tres
said.
    “ I hope so,” Sam