Lovers Premiere. Adrianne Byrd

come to the conference room like I requested.”

      “I’m busy, Uncle Jacob. What is it?” She asked absently as she plopped into her seat and turned to face her computer.

      Jacob heaved himself up from the couch and strolled toward her desk. “First things first. How was your doctor’s visit?”

      She cut a look toward him as if to ask are you serious? Still he stood there waiting so she answered with a slight lie. “Fine.”

      His brows lifted slowly until they stretched to the center of his forehead. “So I look like an idiot now? The shakes, the occasional vertigo and chest pain is all normal for a healthy thirty-five year old woman?”

      Sofia gasped. “Allegedly thirty-five.” She glanced around him to double-check that they were alone in the room together. Then she said quietly, through clenched teeth, “A woman, especially in this town, never reveals her age.”

      “Come on, Sofia. It isn’t really your age we’re talking about anyway. Tell me the truth.”

      “Fine. Dr. Turner said something about my blood pressure being slightly elevated. He gave me a prescription. It’s no big deal.” She glanced at her watch. “Now if we’re finished discussing my health, I have a ton of calls to get through today.”

      “They can wait. We need to discuss details about this merger with A.F.I. I’ve been calling your assistant for weeks now to book a joint meeting with all the parties involved so this transition can go smoothly, but the one person I can’t seem to get on the phone is you.”

      Sofia tossed her hands up in the air. “I don’t know what you need my help for. You certainly didn’t want to listen to me when I told you that I thought that this merger was a big mistake. Apparently my opinion doesn’t matter around here despite supposedly being second-in-command.”

      Jacob sucked in a frustrated breath. “I’m not going to keep going around and around with you on this. This merger is a done deal. I know in my heart that this would’ve been something that even your father would’ve approved of.”

      “Like hell he would have.”

      “Sofia!”

      “What? I’m just being honest here. You used to appreciate my honesty. Has that changed, too? Just let me know and I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”

      Jacob slammed his hand on her desk. “How about you just keep the attitude?”

      Stunned, Sofia was momentarily unable to respond.

      “Now I appreciate and respect your opinion on this matter, but I’m still president of this company, and our merging with A.F.I. makes sound financial sense. Plus, Ramell can go a long way in helping to lighten your load around here and you need to take advantage of it.”

      “I don’t need Ramell Jordan’s help with anything.”

      “Use him anyway. In fact, I’m ordering you to delegate some of your workload to him. No more ninety-plus hour work weeks, Sofia. You need to start taking better care of yourself.”

      Sofia opened her mouth to protest, but her uncle cut her off.

      “You fight me on this then I’ll have no choice but to fire you.”

       “What?”

      “You heard me. Since you’re too hardheaded to take care of yourself then it looks like I’m going to have to force you to do it.”

      With her mouth still hanging open, he turned and started to march out the door.

      “By the way, Ramell Jordan is waiting for you in the conference room. You have five minutes to get in there.”

      Chapter Two

      Ramell glanced at his watch and then resumed pacing back and forth in the conference room. He was more than a little annoyed about wasting a whole hour to meet with Sofia to discuss the transition between the two companies. This was a power move, plain and simple. He knew Sofia well and he knew that she was still fighting this merger tooth and nail.

      He, like her Uncle Jacob, saw the financial advantage in merging their two companies together. Together they would be able to give some of the big-name agencies some real competition in this town. When his father and the Wellesleys started their family agencies back in the day they were more like boutique operations serving a niche market for African-American actors. For Limelight, it was Sofia who expanded their clientele to include other artists in the entertainment field, but now it was time to expand their scope to include all actors, musicians, models and directors, no matter their race, in order to compete in today’s mainstream market.

      On top of that, merging their Los Angeles and New York offices would also free up capital to open new offices in Paris and London. As far as Ramell was concerned this was a no-brainer. Sofia—not so much. In fact, the only thing she’d said to everything proposed so far was a steadfast no. Limelight was a family company and she wanted to keep it that way. End of story.

      By now he shouldn’t be surprised. He’d been running into the same brick wall with Sofia for the past twenty-five years. He would’ve thought by now that he would be used to the pain, but he wasn’t. The main reason being that he was still in love with Sofia, despite the fact that she made it clear that she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him.

      The reason? That was one thing he didn’t know. One day they were best friends, talking in her backyard about marriage, and the next she was avoiding him like the plague. Thinking she was just playing games again, he’d gone through with his promise to date Connie Woods, only for it not to faze her. Or if it did, she sure as hell didn’t let it show.

      Before he could get to the bottom of it, John and Vivian Wellesley were killed in a plane crash. They were flying into Aspen, Colorado, on their private jet. Their death sent a shockwave through the Black Hollywood community and even caught the attention of the rabid mainstream paparazzi.

      The whole thing came as a shock to the Jordan family, as well. Ram remembered his father being distraught over the whole incident because there had been some kind of falling out a couple of days before their death. Ramell tried to get to the bottom of what happened but whenever he tried to discuss the matter, his father would clam up, even to this day, which was odd considering how close he was to his father. If Ram didn’t know any better, he would’ve sworn that his father blamed himself for what went down and that just didn’t make any sense.

      Regardless, he thought that eventually the whole situation would settle down after some time had passed and Sofia and her sister Rachel moved in with her aunt and uncle. That never happened. Whatever the story was, Ram suspected that Sofia knew what really happened and she was equally determined to keep him in the dark as everyone else.

      Still, his love for her remained true. If anything it only grew. From a distance Ram watched as Sofia transformed from a pretty young girl into a gorgeous woman. A tall, willowy woman who looked more like the models that graced glossy fashion magazines than a woman who represented them. Sofia stunned everyone who met her because she was as smart as she was beautiful.

      The only balm for his broken heart was the fact that he hadn’t been forced to watch her settle down with another man and bear a house load of children. He didn’t know whether he could survive something like that. Still, he did have to watch her turn herself into a workaholic in order to carry on what she perceived as her father’s dream. Of course, that was a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black since Ram also put in long hours since he took control of A.F.I. But he still managed to squeeze in some time off and even the occasional vacation.

      Sofia did not. She lived and breathed Limelight. It was her husband, her children—her life.

      “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” Sofia said, breezing into the conference room and not even bothering to glance in his direction.

      Ram’s head swiveled toward the tall hurricane that just blew into the