Chapter 4 - Twenty-Three Years
Daniel did not sleep.
He and Chloe ended up in a suite at the Royalton Hotel.
A normal room.
Not the penthouse suite Daniel usually booked.
His corporate card had been frozen.
His personal credit card declined twice.
Chloe watched from the bed as he called banks.
Lawyers.
Accountants.
No one gave him the answer he wanted.
Finally, she said.
“How much money do you actually have?”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
“Personally.”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“I was moving in with you.”
“You were moving into a penthouse you didn’t own.”
He stared at her.
The sentence had more bite than she intended.
Chloe folded her arms.
“You told me Rebecca depended on you.”
“She does.”
“Does she?”
Daniel looked away.
For twenty-three years, he had told the story the same way.
Rebecca stayed home when their son was young.
Daniel built the company.
Rebecca enjoyed the rewards.
That story made him feel generous.
It also erased the first five years.
The years Rebecca worked as a corporate analyst while Daniel struggled.
The $180,000 inheritance she used to fund his first warehouse.
The year she paid every household bill.
The client dinner she arranged through her father.
The night she mortgaged a small property she inherited to cover payroll.
Daniel had gradually converted partnership into mythology.
He was the builder.
Rebecca was the beneficiary.
Chloe believed that story because Daniel believed it too.
“Daniel.”
She said.
“Who owns the company?”
“I do.”
“How much?”
He hesitated.
That was new.
“Forty-two percent.”
Chloe stared.
“What?”
“Rebecca owns twenty-eight.”
“The trust owns fifteen.”
“Management and early investors own the rest.”
“You told me you owned seventy.”
“I control the board.”
“Not anymore.”
Daniel stood.
“Enough.”
Chloe grabbed her purse.
“Where are you going?”
“To my apartment.”
“I thought you canceled the lease.”
“I didn’t.”
He stared at her.
“You said you did.”
She shrugged.
“I wanted a backup.”
For the first time that night, Daniel understood how it felt when someone quietly protected themselves from him.
He hated it.
Chloe walked to the door.
Then she turned.
“You know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“You told me Rebecca was useless without you.”
She looked around the hotel room.
“But she has a house.”
May you like
“You have luggage.”
Then she left.
