The world tilts under my feet.

Justin is on one knee, holding a rock the size of a baseball and asking me to marry him. My heart threatens to beat right out of my chest as I search his eyes for the truth.

“Justin—“ I breathe.

“Sarah, I know this is sudden. But I need you to believe that I only want what’s best for you, and the only way I could think of to convince you was this.”

“But this is crazy!” I can hear the gasps as people around us see what’s going on.

“I don’t want you to ever have any doubts about my love for you,” he says. “I’m not asking for a prenup, I’m not putting any conditions on this offer. If you marry me and then turn around and divorce me a week later, you get half my fortune. If that doesn’t convince you that I’m not after your company, then I guess I’m out of ideas.”

I clutch the hand holding mine to keep from tilting over and falling. It’s crazy, it’s ridiculous. My entire life, I never wanted to be saved by a man… but now, here with Justin, I realize I couldn’t stand to lose what we have together. The thought of living life without him makes my soul ache, but the thought of being together forever is like God carrying my heart on a pair of angel’s wings.

“No,” I say. “I won’t marry you, Justin.”

His face drops and I realize I’ve just inadvertently crushed him. I go don onto my knees in front of him on the floor so we can talk face to face.

“That’s not what I meant,” I babble, reaching out to take his face in my palms. “I love you, Justin, more than anything. But I don’t need to marry you for me to trust you. I believe you.”

He lets out a shaky breath as I pull him in for a kiss. He returns it and I feel a sudden peace deep inside me that I never knew was possible. Everything else going on is nothing compared to this feeling, and it’s the only thing I care about right now.

“What in the holy fuck is going on?” Jenna bellows as she and Candice jog up to where we’re kneeling. They’re goggling at us along with the rest of the room.

Justin and I break our kiss. “I’ll tell you later,” I say to Jenna. “For now, I want you two to decide what you’re doing. Are you cutting bait and selling to Millie, or are you sticking with me and Justin?”

Justin holds up a finger. “Before you answer, you might want to look over there.”

He points to an alcove next the side door, where Millie and Darryl Lawrence are talking animatedly.

“What the hell?” Candice whispers.

“I know she’s your friend,” says Justin. “I thought she was mine, too. But I’m pretty sure she’s working with Darryl. If he can get control of your shares, he’ll have the controlling interest in the company. It’s not a full fifty-percent-plus-one, but he has the same potential advantage that we do. If you sell to her, you can bet that Darryl Lawrence will be running the show.”

“It’s up to you,” I say. “If you hold onto your shares and side with me, I can’t guarantee their value will go back up, but I can guarantee that I’ll always be your friend and I’ll continue to rely on you, just like I always have.”

They don’t even look at each other. “We’re with you,” they say in unison.

“To the end,” Jenna adds.

“We’re sorry we doubted you.” Says Candice, fighting tears. “Both of you.”

“There’s time for making up later,” says Justin. “Right now, I think you need to confront Millie.”

I rise to my feet, pulling Justin up with me, and we both dust off our knees. Then Jenna, Candice and I turn as one to face Millie and Darryl. The three of us stalk across the room to where they’re standing like gunfighters in an old TV western. When they finally catch sight of us, Millie’s face turns ghostly white.

“Millie,” I say. “Just catching up with Darryl here?”

“Listen to me,” Darryl jibbers, pointing his index finger in our direction.

“No, you listen to me,” Jenna growls. “Shut your mouth and move your finger if you still want to be able to pick your nose with it.”

“What’s going on, Millie?” I can feel the anger ebbing out of me, replaced by sorrow. “Why would you do this to us?”

Her throat bobs up and down while her mouth works silently.

“Millie, we were best friends,” says Candice. “If Jenna and I ever had a baby girl, we were going to name her after you. What went wrong?”

“Don’t you say a word,” Darryl warns, but he’s suddenly snatched backwards two feet. I look to see Justin’s hand in a C-clamp around the base of Darryl’s skull.

“Let’s leave the girls to talk, DW,” he says casually. “There are some things you and I need to discuss on our own.”

Millie’s eyes are wild as a trapped animal’s as she wrings her hands. Finally tears burst forth and flow down her cheeks and her body starts to shake with her sobs.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry!” she wails. “It was—I got in over my head and—”

My heart aches to see her like this, and I can tell that Jenna and Candice are barely holding it together themselves.

“It’s okay,” I say, taking Millie’s hand. “Just tell us.”

“Tim let’s me handle all the money,” she sobs. “And I put all our retirement into a private fund that was supposed to be the next big thing. I thought I was being so clever, but then the owner took off with all of it and disappeared. We’re… we’re broke.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jenna asks. “Millie, we could have figure something out!”

“Because you three are all so smart,” she snuffles. “And it was such a stupid thing to do…”

“The stupid thing was thinking Darryl would help you,” I say, trying not to sound too judgmental. “What the two of you had planned was technically illegal, Millie. You could have gone to jail.”

“I know!” she cries. “I’m so sorry!”

I look over to the other side of the room to see Darryl gesturing furiously at Justin. The panic in Darryl’s eyes is unmistakable as the satisfaction in Justin’s. I can only imagine what bombs have just been dropped.

“I’m sorry,” I say to Millie. “I know this has been hard for you, but you know you’ll have to leave the company. We’ll buy your shares—maybe that will help to replenish your savings. And we’ll keep this all to ourselves.”

“Unless Darryl starts blabbing,” says Jenna. “In that case, we’ll call him a liar to his face. This doesn’t go beyond us four.”

She nods and wipes at her eyes and nose with a tissue. “I know. I’m so sorry.”

Linda Davies is pounding the gavel again, calling the meeting back to order. That could be a chore, considering the fact that we’ve seen a proposal, an outburst and a physical assault all in the last ten minutes.

As we had back towards our seats, I see Darryl storm out the back door of the room. Justin sidles up to me and puts his hand in mine.

“That was interesting,” he says. “I convinced him to sell me his shares.”

My world tilts again for the second time in ten minutes.

“You what?”

“I told him that if he sold them to me, I’d back off on my takeover of his company. He wasn’t too keen on that, so I said if he didn’t sell them, I’d hand over the evidence I dug up showing that he was the one who handed over the user data to that broker, and that he was conspiring with Millie to commit fraud, and we could let the FBI work it out.”

“Wait, what evidence?”

He grins, and suddenly I’m looking at Justin the shark again.

“The only evidence I needed was a stupid man’s guilty conscience,” he says. “Daryl’s under incredible pressure; the slightest poke and he falls to pieces. Plus, I’m sure the inevitable investigation will back me up.”

Jenna and Candice join us and we bring them up to speed.

“That’s incredible,” says Candice. “I—I don’t know how we can thank you.”

“I know how I can start,” says Jenna. She wraps an arm around Justin’s neck and pulls him into a hug. “I was wrong about you, and I’m sorry.”

“You weren’t wrong,” he says. “I was everything you thought I was.” He turns to me. “But then I met Sarah.”

My heart melts into a big old puddle, and I feel tears prickling at my eyes. I change the subject to keep from being the CEO who lost it at the emergency shareholders meeting.

“Justin thinks an investigation will prove that Darryl was behind everything, including the data breach. I didn’t have the heart to ask Millie if she had a hand in that.”

“Do you think he’ll go to jail?” asks Candice.

“I don’t know,” I say. “He does have some powerful friends.”

Justin grins at the three of us.

“Maybe,” he says. “But they’re not as powerful as mine.”

I’m about to roll my eyes and tell him I won’t fall for corny lines, but Jenna cuts me off.

“Hey, wait,” she blurts. “I totally forgot: did you say yes?”

I’d almost forgot myself. Before I can speak, Justin answers for me.

“She said no. But I’ll keep working on her.”

Jenna slaps my arm. “Are you crazy?”

“Crazy like a fox,” I say, my grin a mile wide.