The Secret Heiress by Judith Gould Read Free Book Online

said, seeming to agree with her again. He looked off into the distance for a moment. “Sometimes I wonder if she’s not so much wily as she is totally unscrupulous.”
    “Don’t you think that’s an exaggeration?” Sugar asked.
    Before Adrian could respond, Angelo Coveri took a sip of water from the crystal goblet on the table, then cleared his throat. “I’m telling you this,” he said, directing his gaze at Sugar. “Old Nikos would never in his life have dealt in toxic waste. That is a fact of which I am certain.”
    Sugar frowned and tapped the tabletop with manicured fingernails. “Maybe,” she said, “but I’m not so sure, Angelo.”
    “Quite frankly,” Yves Carre said, “I’m getting very nervous about the changes since she took over. All you have to do is check out the Internet to get an idea of the image PPHL is projecting. We’re being accused of plundering natural resources. Refusing to modernize facilities and poisoning the environment.” He looked around the table. “It’s only beginning, but you know how word spreads on the Internet. And sooner or later, we’re going to be vilified in the mainstream press because we’re not dealing with any of these issues.”
    “Oh, come on. Do you really believe that?” Sugar asked, playing devil’s advocate.
    Yves nodded. “Absolutely,” he replied. “The way the wind’s blowing, Sugar, it would do us well to start addressing these issues right away. If Nikoletta is as intractable now as she has been in the last two years, then . . .” He gave a Gallic shrug.
    “I think you’re right,” Angelo Coveri said. “Nikoletta, I’m sorry to say, is the root of the problem, and something’s got to be done about her.”
    “We’ve got to discuss the best way of going about approaching Niki with this information,” Adrian said. “I—”
    A cell phone rang, and all four of the executives looked around the table, trying to decipher whose had rung. There was much patting of pockets before Adrian realized it was his.
    “Excuse me,” he said, flipping the phone open. Shifting his chair slightly away from the table, he said, “Hello?”
    “Adrian?”
    Adrian recognized the familiar voice at once. He rose to his feet and retreated to a far corner of the room for privacy. “I’m here,” he said quietly.
    “I’ve been doing as you ordered, but today she caught me.”
    “I see,” he replied.
    “Can you talk?” the man asked. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
    “Somewhat,” Adrian replied, “but never mind. So what happened?”
    “Nothing really. I didn’t blow my cover. I just told her about what I supposedly do. She was so absorbed in it, I wish I did.”
    Adrian did not miss the interest in his caller’s voice. “Well, you make sure you keep a better distance. I don’t want it to happen again.”
    The caller sounded chastened. “Will do.”
    “You’re not to allow this to go any further. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Adrian flipped the cell phone shut and slipped it into the pocket of his suit jacket, then returned to the table. “Sorry about that.”
    “Anything serious?” Sugar asked.
    He shook his head. “No. Just an overenthusiastic assistant in New York,” he replied with a smile. “Where were we?”
    After another half hour or so of discussion, Adrian adjourned the meeting, and they left the conference room. As he walked down the long hallway toward his room, Adrian thought, This wild child is going to be the death of me, and she might be the death of the entire company.
    He emitted a sigh. He was growing weary of intervening on Niki’s behalf, fixing up the messes she made. He’d been behind her in the beginning, giving her the benefit of the doubt and the chance to grow with experience. Nikos had groomed her for years to lead the company, after all.
    As Nikos had grown older, he’d never wavered from his belief that Niki must succeed him. In the beginning when Nikos had separated Niki and Ariadne,