Five Exotic Fantasies: Love in Reverse, Book 3 (42 page)

Coco finished writing and glanced around the room again. The majority of the partners were either frowning or looking startled, clearly unaware of Peter’s behaviour. However, Jack Lawson and a couple of others stared stonily at the table.
They know
, she thought. Had they known about what had happened to her? Had Peter boasted about it to them at the time?

Felix looked at his iPad and straightened it again. “I also have it on good authority that, some time ago, you seduced a very young secretary in your office.”

Coco’s heart nearly bounced out of her chest and along the table. Her pencil slipped on the paper, and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from exclaiming out loud. She glanced up, straight into the eyes of Rob Drake. He looked startled, and then his eyes filled with pity as he obviously recognised in her expression the confirmation that Felix was indeed talking about her. Coco dropped her gaze again, hoping she didn’t pass out. What else was Felix going to say?

“The young lady was seventeen,” he continued, “just out of secretarial school. She’d never had a sexual partner and was innocent where men were concerned. There is no suggestion of rape, but it seems clear to me that the idea to sleep together was yours, and you used your age and your position of authority to charm and seduce this young woman into doing something that she later regretted.”

Coco felt sick. Her chest heaved, and she didn’t dare look up in case Peter was glaring at her. Her hand shook slightly on the paper, and she gripped the pencil harder to try to stop it.

“After the incident,” Felix continued, “as an incentive to keep quiet, you also offered her promotion, which she took because she needed the money. I personally believe she now regrets not speaking up at the time. I wish she had done so because this kind of behaviour by men should not be seen to be acceptable. However, I understand her reasons for keeping silent, and I applaud her courage in finally coming forward and confessing what happened.”

Tears came into Coco’s eyes and she swallowed down the lump in her throat. Glancing up quickly, she saw several pairs of eyes on her, including Christopher’s, and knew it was obvious that she was the secretary who Felix was talking about. Their expressions held sympathy and pity, and she lowered her gaze again, feeling a strange weight lift off her chest at the thought that it was finally out in the open.

Felix cleared his throat. “As I said, your behaviour toward women at this firm has been far from exemplary. However, the purpose of this investigation was to discover the truth behind the claim made by Miss De Langen that you made unwanted sexual advances toward her in the office. And after much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are innocent of this allegation.”

Chapter Fifty-One

Felix was unable to avoid a dramatic pause at the end of his findings. He was, after all, a performer, and it came naturally to him to play up to the audience, especially when he’d led them down a particular path and they were expecting a different outcome.

Part of his pause, however, was due to the sweep of relief he felt at finally having come to a decision. He’d wrangled with himself all weekend—especially after Coco’s little confession—his personal dislike of Dell and the man’s frankly disgusting behaviour toward women vying with his natural urge to do things right and proper.

Plus, of course, he knew that in finding Dell innocent, he’d destroyed any future chance of a relationship with Coco. She sat next to him, stiff-backed and oozing resentment, anger rolling off her in waves. She’d made her confession to him hoping it would help him conclude that Dell was guilty. No matter what evidence he put forward to the contrary, she would see it as a betrayal of her confidence, and she would take it personally, believing that firstly he didn’t care about her enough to give her the punishment she felt Dell deserved for what he’d done to her, and secondly that Felix had been coerced by Christopher and the other partners to find Dell innocent. She was smart, but Dell had done a lot of damage with that one brief seduction, and she was too emotionally invested to put her feelings aside and look at the case dispassionately.

Felix had gone through all this in the night, having slept hardly at all, wanting to put his better self aside and throw the book at Dell for what he’d done to her, for what he’d done to all these women. He despised the man and wanted him to suffer, but even in spite of the fact that Felix knew he’d fallen in love with Coco and he could quite easily have beaten Dell to a pulp for seducing her, he couldn’t go against his belief that the truth was more important than anything else, even more so than his own happiness.

Still, that hadn’t stopped him sowing the seeds of Dell’s gross misbehaviour to the other partners. He certainly wasn’t going to let the man get away with it completely, and he was hanging onto the hope that now it had come to light, the partners would deal with the man appropriately and bring about some small form of justice.

But for now, he had to concentrate on the matter at hand, and he shut out the thought of the only woman he’d loved since Lindsey died—and drew his professionalism around him like a cloak, focussing instead on the man sitting opposite him, who looked as surprised as everyone else at his announcement.

“There are several reasons that I believe Miss De Langen’s accusations to be false,” he continued. “Firstly, several other secretaries—as well as Miss Stark—corroborated Mr. Dell’s claim that he did not approach Sasha directly that evening to ask for help, but merely put the request to the whole room. Miss De Langen then said she couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, but the fact that she changed her story suggested to me it was possible there were other areas where she wasn’t telling the truth.

“Another piece of evidence she used as proof for Mr. Dell’s guilt was that he asked her to retype a file that had already been sent to him in a suitable format for use at court. She claimed Mr. Dell had deleted this file—however, unknown to Mr. Dell, I asked the firm’s IT expert to run an analysis of his machine and found no evidence that he had deleted any such file, and no evidence that he had received an email containing such a file in the first place.”

Dell looked both indignant and relieved, and Felix hid a smile.

He smoothed down his tie, thinking about the final point. He’d wondered whether to raise the last issue, unwilling to spread rumours about Sasha’s private life, but he sincerely believed she had lied to him and that Dell had not made unwanted advances to her. And even though Dell’s behaviour repulsed him, he believed it didn’t warrant a woman spreading lies about him and maybe even ruining his career, and therefore she hadn’t earned the right to ask him to keep what she’d told him a secret.

“The last point, the one that has given me most concern, is that Miss De Langen told Miss Stark and me when we visited her at her house that the reason she couldn’t possibly have been the one to initiate the contact with Mr. Dell was because she is gay.”

There was a general gasp around the table. Dell just gave a humourless snort.

“I’ve struggled with this,” Felix continued, “because of course it’s something that’s very difficult to disprove. Sasha doesn’t appear to have any friends at the firm, and nobody has heard her talk about any partner, male or female. But my instincts tell me she is lying. Two other secretaries have said they’ve watched her talk to Mr. Dell and, whilst they agree she doesn’t particularly dress to attract attention, they said her manner has been mildly flirtatious, and if they were pushed they would say they thought she was attracted to him.

“Therefore, it is my conclusion that Mr. Dell did not make sexual advances to Miss De Langen. The most he was probably guilty of was perhaps flirting with her and making her think she stood a chance, especially considering his track record with women at the firm.” He was unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, and he was relieved to see Christopher’s mouth lift in a brief smile. “But that in itself isn’t a crime, and I don’t believe Mr. Dell was sexually interested in Sasha.”

Peter Dell blew out a long, slow breath. The other partners began murmuring amongst themselves. Christopher McAllister said, “So what recourse would you suggest for the way forward, Felix?”

“I would suggest that Miss De Langen be given an official warning and given the option of moving to another department or branch, or resigning.”

“And for Mr. Dell?”

Felix met Christopher’s eyes. He still couldn’t read anything in them. Was Christopher annoyed at his findings, or relieved? “In this particular case, I don’t believe Mr. Dell has done anything wrong. However, his past behaviour proves to me that his attitude toward the women in this firm needs to be addressed.” Should he stop there? Christopher’s eyes gleamed, and Felix decided to take the chance. “To be honest, I believe the Wellington branch to be failing in projecting the image that McAllister Dell as a whole should present to the public if it wishes to stay one of the most successful New Zealand law businesses: that of a forward-thinking, modern law firm that puts the needs of its customers first, and I believe Mr. Dell’s leadership at the branch is probably the main influence behind this stagnation.”

The three partners who had obviously been aware of Dell’s relationships with the secretaries glared at him, but the others looked interested, and Felix thought they were probably well aware of the failure of the branch to meet its overheads. “What would you suggest to rectify this?” asked one of the slightly younger men.

“A radical overhaul,” Felix said. “Either a redecoration of the offices or a move to a new building. A slash in the expense accounts. A complete renovation of the secretarial system to keep things as digital as possible. And someone at the helm who’s prepared to accept that women form half of the population and therefore should represent as near that percentage as possible at the higher levels.” A couple of the partners nodded, and he let out the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding.

“Do you have anyone in mind to carry out these renovations?” Jack’s voice dripped with sarcasm, as if he expected Felix to put himself forward for the role.

Felix nodded. “I believe Rob Drake would make an excellent partner and business manager for the firm.” Rob looked startled. “He’s astute and forward thinking, flexible and motivated. I also think Miss Stark would be an excellent choice to carry out the move to digital.” It wasn’t false praise, nor an attempt to get back into her good books—he was aware that bird had long since flown. But it was the truth. She was smart and not averse to technology, and he knew instinctively she’d enjoy taking on the task.

Christopher nodded. “Thank you, Felix. If I may now ask everyone who isn’t a partner to leave the room, we’ll discuss the situation and let you know our thoughts.”

Felix picked up his iPad and headed for the door. He held it open for Rob, and then for Coco, who walked past without looking up at him.

He closed the door behind him. “Coco, wait.” She ignored him and walked off. He strode past Rob to her and caught her arm. “Please.”

She stopped and turned to him, eyes blazing, twin spots of scarlet on her cheekbones. “Let me go.”

He released her arm. “Don’t be angry with me.”

“I don’t believe you,” she snapped. “He deserved to be punished, and you’ve practically said I and all the women he treated like shit deserved it.”

He caught her arm again and manoeuvred her into the smaller boardroom next door, casting an apologetic glance at Rob, who just nodded and closed the door behind them. She ripped her arm away, but to his relief she remained in the room, even though her eyes blazed.

“That’s bullshit,” he said. “Nobody thinks that at all.”

“You don’t know that.” Now she looked upset and close to tears. “They all know you were talking about me, and now they think I asked for it—either that or I’m weak because I didn’t complain. You’ve undermined the reputation I spent years building up.”

“Coco, for God’s sake.”
Please don’t let that be true.
“One or two of them might be sympathetic to Dell but the majority had no idea what was going on, I could tell by their faces.”

She looked into his eyes, hurt glimmering in their depths. “I really thought you had feelings for me.”

“I do. You know I do. But this wasn’t about us. I couldn’t find Dell guilty just because I was in love with his office manager and I felt sorry for her.”

She stared at him, and he realised it was the first time he’d said he loved her.

Then she shook her head as if dismissing the point. “Of course it was about us. You knew about all his other conquests and what he’d done to me. It was the perfect opportunity to make him pay, but obviously your feelings weren’t strong enough to give you the courage to go through with it.”

Irritation rose inside him. “That’s unfair. Sasha lied, Coco. Whatever Dell has done in the past, I couldn’t let her get away with such an untruth. And when it comes down to it, Dell hasn’t done anything legally wrong. Morally—yes. He’s an adulterer and he obviously uses his position of authority to charm women into sleeping with him. But that’s not a crime, sweetheart. I understand your resentment toward him because I feel the same, but I can’t punish a man just because I dislike him.”

She bit her lip. Her shoulders slumped. She understood, he thought. She wasn’t stupid and she knew he couldn’t have gone against his conscience. That wasn’t what this was about. This was about the fact that he was leaving, and neither of them wanted to end it, but they couldn’t see a way out.