of absence, that he’ll have nothing to do with the woman from the Albuquerque office that day, and that he’s going to fully support Androcyl when it goes to market?” Karen snorted. “You’re all delusional. He won’t go along with all that.”
“He will,” Ryan said. “It’s what we need from him in order to have him back at the company.”
Lucas shook his head. “Actually, for once, Karen’s right,” he said. “I’m not going to sign any of those documents.”
Everyone around the table stared at him.
Finally, Ryan spoke. “I know you might be hesitant to have your name on legal documents about your personal life,” he said. “But you must understand, we have to protect the company. Quadra-Well is your baby. We’re just trying to do what’s best for it.”
“I’m going to have an actual baby, Ryan,” Lucas said. “A real baby. Not a company. A child.”
“You can’t be planning to claim that child as your own,” Jack said. “You’ll ruin this company.”
“Maybe not,” Lucas said. “There are still options for the company. Sending the drug back for more research, taking the time to get it right—that would be an option.”
“That’s not an option,” Jack fumed. “You’ve been told repeatedly that isn’t something we’re willing to entertain.”
“I suppose I can’t force you,” Lucas said.
“No,” Jack said righteously. “You most certainly can’t.”
“But you know it’s going to raise a lot of questions when I go public about having fathered a child,” Lucas said. “People are going to want to know how that could have happened.”
“We can tell them he stopped taking Androcyl,” Karen said, but now Lucas heard a note of panic in her voice “We’ll put the word out that he was on allergy medicine, as we originally intended.”
“Do you think that will work?” Ryan asked.
“It’ll work if Lucas backs up the story.” Karen looked at him. Lucas suspected she was trying to seem intimidating, but the effect was ruined by the anxiety in her expression. “Will you back up the story?”
“Is this the new offer?” Lucas asked. “Now I can come back to work as long as I’m willing to say that I stopped taking Androcyl and went on an allergy medicine?”
“That might be the best we can do,” Jack said to the room at large.
Lucas shook his head. He had been prepared for more arguments, but they had given in so quickly.
In a way, it was disappointing—and it also made him feel ashamed of how quickly he had been willing to write Elise and their child out of his life. Was this the only push he would have had to give the board to compel them to accept his wish to stand by his family?
It seemed so.
For a moment he was tempted to accept what they were offering. Maybe it was enough. He could still have his family. He could still be the man he wanted to be. And he wouldn’t have to sacrifice his company. He could have everything.
But that was my father’s mistake.
He wouldn’t make the same one.
“No,” he told his board. “I can’t agree to what you’re asking me to do.”
“Do you want to destroy this company?” Jack demanded. “Is that what you want?”
“Of course not,” Lucas said. It killed him to see what was happening to the company he had worked his entire adult life to build. It was heartbreaking.
“You know that’s what will happen,” Ryan said. “If you go public with the information that you’re expecting a child, and if you refuse to cooperate with the story that you’d stopped taking Androcyl. It’ll sink us all.”
“It doesn’t have to, though,” Lucas said. He looked around the table, his gaze lingering on each face. “I’m begging you to see reason. We can save this situation if you’ll agree to have Androcyl looked at again. We can fix it, so the product we’re putting out actually does work.”
“We’ll be laughingstocks!” Jack fumed.
“Isn’t that a small price to pay?” Lucas said.
“For what?” Jack asked. “For having you back at the helm? Because I don’t mind telling you, Lucas, I’m willing to see you leave this company altogether at this point. I don’t care that you’re the founder of Quadra-Well. You clearly don’t have the company’s best interests in mind anymore.”
Jack turned to the other members of the board. “I say we put him on an extended leave of absence and spread the story that he’s making up lies to deliberately try to sabotage the company. We can say he’s in league with one of our competitors.”
“They’ll deny