All Chapters of I Own Twenty Percent of My Ex Husband’s Company: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

In the weeks after their difficult conversation, Marcus spent a lot of time thinking carefully about what he truly wanted. He tried to separate his feelings from the pressure and urgency to decide about their relationship.As he thought about it honestly, he realized that Elara’s admission hadn’t changed what he wanted. He still really wanted her. The steady, patient feelings he had developed for her over the past several months were still there, and knowing that she was uncertain hadn’t made those feelings any weaker.What had changed was his understanding of how he needed to handle things from that point forward, both for Elara and for himself.After nearly three weeks of giving each other the space they had agreed on, Marcus reached out and asked if she would be willing to meet. He made it clear that he simply wanted to talk to her about how he felt, not pressure her into making a decision before she was ready.She agreed to meet him, and they met at the same small Italian restaura

Two days after hearing about the proposal, Kael sat in Dr. Patel’s office with the news still weighing heavily on him, unresolved. Every instinct in him was pushing him to do something, but he kept deliberately forcing himself not to act on it.“I haven’t been sleeping well,” he admitted, settling into his usual chair. “I keep running through different scenarios in my head. What I should say to her, what I should do, how I might still find a way to change the outcome before she gives him an answer.”"Have you acted on any of those scenarios?" “No,” Kael said. “And honestly, it’s taking more discipline than almost anything I can remember doing in my entire life.”“Tell me about that discipline.”Kael sat with that, trying to put into words something he had not fully examined even in his own mind.“Every instinct in me is telling me to fight for this, to call her, to show up somewhere, to say something, anything, that might remind her of what we’ve built these past several months befor

On her last day at the cabin, Elara drove into the small coastal town nearby and bought a plain notebook from a local shop. It was separate from the one still sitting unfinished on her kitchen table at home.She returned to the cabin, sat on the porch, and opened the fresh notebook to its first page.Before she wrote anything, she thought about the two lists she had made years ago, each one reflecting who she was at that point in her life.The first list, from the private notebook she kept during her marriage, wasn’t really about the kind of partner she wanted. It was about how she could leave her marriage and survive on her own. She had written down practical things like money, plans, and other details she would need if she ever decided to walk away. It was a plan for survival, not a list of what she truly wanted from life or from a partner.The second list, the one she had started at her kitchen table weeks earlier while comparing Marcus and Kael, had been more honest about what she

The board meeting was called within hours; every available member was summoned for an emergency session that stretched long into the evening. The atmosphere in the room was more serious than anything Kael had ever witnessed during previous crises.“I want everyone to understand exactly what we’re facing,” Kael said, standing at the head of the conference table. His father had formally put him in charge of the defense only a few hours earlier. “Harrington Industrial Group does not pursue hostile takeovers without careful planning. They’ve successfully carried out six hostile takeovers in the past decade, each time against companies that underestimated how thoroughly they had prepared.”“What exactly do they plan to do with Sterling Group if they succeed?” one of the older board members asked.“Based on their past takeovers, we should expect major restructuring,” Kael said. “They could sell off some of our divisions, make significant workforce cuts, and completely replace the current le

His father found him in his office late that evening. The defense strategy meetings had wretched for most of the day, and exhaustion was visible on both their faces as the crisis continued to accelerate."You haven't contacted Elara directly," his father said as he entered the room, and closed the door behind him."No, I haven't."“Why?” His father’s voice carried real frustration now. The careful composure he had maintained during their earlier conversations had given way to something sharper. “She holds the most important undecided position in this entire fight, and you have a personal relationship with her that no one else on this board can match. You’re sitting here while Harrington’s representatives and other board members make their pitches, and the one person who might actually have real influence refuses to even pick up his phone.""I understand the strategic logic," Kael said carefully. "But I'm not going to use our personal history to pressure her into making a business deci