I Refuse To Be Your Luna (Flourish and Harold) novel Chapter 171

Chapter 171 Suspended

Rhys’s POV

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20

Finished

I’d been in Adam’s office for twenty minutes, and every one of them had left me angrier than the last.

“Why suspend her, Adam?” I kept my voice level, though it cost me considerably more effort than it should have. “She’s CEO. This isn’t some junior associate you can sideline over a phone call.”

Adam didn’t look up from the paperwork on his desk, which told me exactly how uncomfortable this conversation actually made him. “Rhys, I know you’re loyal to her.

But the bylaws are clear on conflict of interest, and Ragnar Virel himself lodged a formal complaint.

She assisted a plaintiff bringing a case against Stonehedge Studios while our firm sits mid- negotiation on the largest merger this company has ever attempted. If no one had noticed, maybe I’d have let it slide. Ragnar noticed.”

“She wasn’t lead counsel. She referred the client to an outside firm specifically to avoid a conflict.” I leaned forward, my wolf sharpening my focus the way it always did when I could feel an argument slipping away from me despite having the better facts. “Did Ragnar file this himself, or did someone hand it to him?”

Adam’s jaw tightened. “Does it matter?”

“It matters considerably.” I held his gaze. “Because the merger lead on Stonehedge’s side isn’t Ragnar. It’s Damian. Ragnar has no formal standing to complain about how F-Tech handles that account at all.”

“You’re being reckless, Rhys. Damian’s still family, whatever his formal role is. You think he watches his own cousin get dragged through a scandal and stays silent about who’s fanning it?” Adam’s tone sharpened. “And do you know who that rookie singer actually is? She’s Harold’s fiancée. The wedding’s next month. This is exactly the kind of mess a merger this size cannot afford right now.”

“Let the suspension stand,” he added, quieter now, like the volume itself was supposed to make it sound reasonable. “Let the heat die down. She comes back after.”

“Do you understand what a suspension like this does to someone’s standing?” I could hear my own voice climbing and forced it back down. “She was next in line for the non-equity partner slot the second this merger closes. You know that.”

“Think long-term, Rhys.” Adam’s tone gentled, though the warning underneath it stayed exactly

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Chapter 171 Suspended

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where it had been. “However much you care about her, this firm is bigger than one attorney’s

career.”

I laughed, short and bitter, my wolf recognizing the shape of this conversation a full sentence before the rest of me caught up. “This is Chris again, isn’t he. He’s been circling for months looking for exactly this kind of opening.”

“Enough.” Adam’s tone cut flat and final. “I have a client coming in. We’re done here.”

He waved me toward the door, and I left without another word, my temper barely leashed by the time I stepped back onto the executive floor.

I found Flourish stepping off the elevator a moment later, and whatever composure she’d managed to walk in with, I watched it settle into something considerably steadier the second she saw my face.

“My office,” I said. “Now.”

She followed without arguing, and once the door closed behind us, I let out a breath I’d apparently been holding since Adam’s paperwork first crossed my desk that morning.

“Sorry,” I said. “This one’s on me. I should have flagged the referral more carefully before you ever sent it to Zephyr Legal.”

She shook her head. “I chose it. That’s not on you.”

“You’re stubborn.” I dropped into my chair, exhaustion finally catching up with the anger I’d been running on all morning. “Was any of this worth torching your standing over?”

She didn’t answer that directly, and I didn’t push. I already had the gossip pieced together well enough on my own, Phina marrying Harold, Harold being her own history, a triangle messy enough that someone was always going to pay for it eventually. I just hadn’t expected it to be her.

“How long am I out,” she asked instead, quiet and steady.

“At least until the merger wraps.” I rubbed a hand across my face. “Damian hasn’t said a word through official channels, so I still don’t understand why Ragnar’s the one making all this noise instead of him.”

Something flickered across her face, quick and unreadable, and I filed it away for later, my wolf too tired to chase it down properly this morning.

I pulled up the formal complaint on my monitor instead, scrolling through the timestamp and routing information out of habit more than suspicion, and stopped cold halfway down the

page.

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