“What brings you here?”
Emerson took a deep breath, pulling himself together before finally letting Curtis into his office.
Curtis walked in, glanced around, and looked a little surprised. “Where’s Ms. Klotz? She’s not here?”
“She had something to deal with,” Emerson said, already pouring him a cup of tea, not really caring about the formalities.
Curtis looked down at the tea in front of him. It was cloudy and looked like it had been sitting there for ages. He could guess Emerson hadn’t exactly been feeling his best lately.
“I’ll just be upfront with you. I’m here to talk you into doing the right thing.”
Emerson had seen it coming. He took a sip of the bitter tea, grimacing. It was awful, almost as bad as his mood.
His guard went up immediately, and his tone turned sharp. “So you’re here to tell me to step down?”
Curtis saw the tension in his face and just sighed. Whatever he meant to say, he let go with a simple, “Forget it. I won’t get involved.”
Funny, Emerson thought. Most people aren’t afraid of getting advice. What really stings is when someone suddenly gives up on you with a “Forget it.”
Those words could hide so much.
Even before Curtis arrived, Emerson’s mind had been a mess of worries, going in circles. He hadn’t figured anything out, but that one “Forget it” hit him like a punch to the gut.
Forget it? Why? Was it really that bad?
He forced a half-smile. “Don’t just drop it. Come on, just say what you want to say.”
Curtis gave a little smirk. “You know it’s easy to climb a mountain but not so easy to get back down. And if the summit’s already on fire, there’s nothing left to burn. That’s all I can really tell you.”
Everything he needed to say, all his intentions, were right there.
Martin Group had been through two leaders now. Whether it was Jason or Emerson, at the end of the day, the goal was always profit.
The board didn’t care who sat in that chair. They only cared about their own bottom line.


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