He Waited She Wilted (Ottilie and Yorath) novel Chapter 45

Gideon let out a booming laugh. "If I didn't come down here to teach him a lesson, with his reckless temper, who knows what kind of disaster he'd cause next? You're far more grounded, Yorath. I'll need you to keep an eye on him in the future."

"I wouldn't dare presume," Yorath replied politely.

The other fathers frantically signaled Gideon with their eyes, silently pleading with him not to just save his own kid but to put in a good word for theirs as well.

Naturally, Gideon wasn't going to pass up such a golden networking opportunity.

He turned back to his former student. "Yorath, the boys definitely handled things poorly today, but none of it was malicious. Why don't we give these young men a chance to turn over a new leaf?"

"Since you've asked, I naturally have to give you face," Yorath said. "However, I find myself dealing with a slight complication of my own. I'm going to need a small favor from everyone here."

The collective breath of relief the fathers had just begun to exhale was sharply sucked back in.

A man with Yorath's immense power rarely needed favors from the likes of them.

When he did, it was never good news.

"Of course we'll help," Gideon insisted. "Whatever you need."

He glanced back at the others. Caught between a rock and a hard place, they could only nod stiffly in agreement.

"I'll be attending a board meeting in a few days," Yorath explained calmly. "During that meeting, I'm going to need all of you to cast a vote in my favor."

Everyone was utterly bewildered.

Yorath was a lawyer. He had nothing to do with the Fordham family's vast corporate empire.

Even if he did, none of their businesses intersected with the Fordhams' ventures on a level that would place them at the same boardroom table.

Yorath gave a subtle gesture, and his assistant immediately distributed stacks of freshly drafted contracts.

There were two documents for each person. The first explicitly mandated their guaranteed vote at a specific location on a specific date.

The second was an ironclad non-disclosure agreement.

As everyone pretended to read the fine print, their minds raced to weigh the risks.

Given Yorath's terrifying reputation, crossing him meant he could weaponize his legal expertise to audit and target every tiny flaw in their companies.

He could sue them daily and bleed them completely dry.

Failing to stop Ottilie from plotting her comeback gnawed at him. He ground his teeth in frustration.

"What exactly were those contracts he made them sign?" Huxley asked. "Could it be a trap?"

"How the hell should I know? He didn't explain a single detail. He just demanded our votes. Yorath is clearly making a massive play. Keep your head down for the next few days. Once this blows over, we'll invite him over for dinner and smooth things out."

"If you ask me," Huxley sneered, "we should just find a way to trap him in bed with Nyssa. Have the whole family walk in on them. Would he really dare refuse to take responsibility then?"

It baffled him entirely. Ottilie had been out of the picture for three years, yet Yorath hadn't been seen with a single woman since.

He was a healthy, normal man. Didn't he have needs?

Was there something wrong with him?

Ultimately, Huxley convinced himself that Ottilie must simply be an unimaginable delicacy.

Once Yorath had tasted perfection, he simply couldn't stomach anything ordinary ever again.

The more Huxley thought about it, the more an unbearable itch clawed at him. He desperately wanted a taste of the forbidden fruit himself.