CHAPTER 24: THE SALE

CHAPTER 24: THE SALE

Dr. Harris had told me to rest. I went home instead and found James still awake in the study with the lights low and a stack of reports he had not opened.

He looked up when I came in. "You're late. And you're pale."

"I'm tired." I took off my coat slowly so he would not see my hands. "James, I need to talk to you about Mercer Holdings."

He set down his pen. "Sit down first."

I sat. The pain was gone but my legs still felt unsteady. I had practiced the words in the van and they came out calmer than I felt.

"I think the only solution left is for me to sell it."

"To whom?"

"To you."

The silence stretched. James did not move.

"I don't want to keep fighting," I said. "I don't want myself or the baby anywhere near this anymore. I want a quiet life and I want to move past all of it. I'll sell you the majority of the shares and leave my father a small stake so the family name stays on the register. I won't keep anything."

"No."

He said it before I finished. He stood and came around the desk and crouched in front of my chair so that our eyes were level.

"Soren, that company is your father's work. It's the reason you signed that contract. I will not buy it from you while you are afraid."

"I'm not afraid."

"You're shaking." He took my hands. "Is this about leaving me?"

It was the question I had known would come and I had thought I was ready. His thumbs pressed against my knuckles and his silver eyes searched my face and for one moment I nearly told him everything.

"No," I said.

I lied. It sat in my mouth like a stone.

He studied me for a long moment. Then he drew me to my feet and held me against his chest and said into my hair that we would talk about it tomorrow and that I was to go to bed. I lay awake until dawn memorizing the sound of his breathing.

I called my father at seven. I had promised Charles I would call before he did, and I did not want to hear that voice on my own phone first.

He answered on the fifth ring. A dry rattling cough came down the line before he spoke.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"That didn't sound like nothing."

"It's a cold." His voice was flat. "Say what you called to say."

There was no point pushing. He had never let me. "Okay," I said, in the same cold tone he used on me. "I'm selling Mercer Holdings."

"To whom?" The cough came again and he turned from the phone to clear his throat. "The Vance family. After everything they've put in the papers."

"To James. The scandal is hurting everyone and this is the only way to stop it. I'm asking you to trust me."

"And what do I get? The Mercer name in a stranger's pocket?"

"You get to stay a shareholder." I kept my voice steady and almost gentle. "I'll sell the majority and leave you a stake. You keep your name on the register. If the company recovers there will be a way to buy it back. Nothing changes for you."

He was quiet for a while. When he spoke again some of the edge had gone. "Tyla brought me soup yesterday. He sat with me for two hours. He at least knows what family owes each other."

I looked at the window and said nothing. He did not ask how I was. He did not ask about the baby.

"Fine," he said at last. "Keep me on the register. I'll tell the lawyers I agree."

The line went dead before I could say goodbye.

James

James told Arthur at nine that morning. The secretary set down the coffee and listened without interrupting.

"Soren wants to sell Mercer Holdings to me," James finished. "I told him no."

Arthur paused for a moment. "Sir, with respect, it may be the best thing for everyone."

"How?"

"The market hates uncertainty. A clean acquisition would calm the board and the investors. The story would lose its fuel." Arthur straightened his cuffs. "It will help the market, and it will take a great weight off Mr Mercer."

"He's frightened. I won't take advantage of that."

"You wouldn't be. What he needs now is not a company. It's you." Arthur's voice was gentle. "Take care of him, sir. Let the rest be handled."

For a moment Arthur's eyes rested on James's pen with an expression James could not read. Then the secretary smiled his usual calm smile and the moment was gone.

James found me in the garden that evening. He stood beside the bench for a long time before he sat.

"I'll do it," he said.

I turned to him. "James."

"On one condition." He took my hand. "The day you want it back, it's yours. No questions."

I nodded because I could not speak. I knew that day would never come.

The lawyers worked through the night. Two days later I sat on the fortieth floor with a pen in my hand and a stack of pages in front of me. The woman in the grey suit slid a sheet across the table.

"The debts Vance capital cleared will be deducted from the price first," she said. "Mr Vance has offered to waive that."

"No," I said. "Take it off. I won't take a penny that isn't mine."

I signed. James signed beside me. A small stake stayed in my father's name and nothing stayed in mine.

By noon the Vance shares had climbed six percent. James read the number off his phone and let out a long breath and kissed my forehead in front of the lawyers. I looked up at him and tried to memorize the shape of his face.

That afternoon a quiet account opened in a name that was not mine. Charles texted one word from the bakery. Ready.

I put the phone away and went home to pack.