Chapter 7 - The Price of Choosing
Emma expected Nathan to fly to New York immediately.
He did not.
“When is the vote?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Then you should go.”
“My flight leaves tonight.”
Nathan looked toward the ocean.
“But I promised I would have dinner with you.”
Emma stared at him.
“You might lose your company.”
“It isn’t my company.”
“You built it.”
“I lead it.”
He turned toward her.
“And that distinction is one of several things I should have remembered years ago.”
Emma crossed her arms.
“Don’t lose your career trying to impress me.”
Nathan flinched.
“I’m not.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Go fight for the job if you still want it.”
He studied her.
“I do.”
“Good.”
Emma’s voice softened.
“But fight for it without turning me into the villain.”
Nathan nodded.
“I can do that.”
That afternoon, he returned to New York.
The board meeting began the next day at two.
Douglas Mercer opened with a forty-minute presentation about investor confidence.
Nathan listened.
Then Helen Price presented polling showing the public overwhelmingly sympathized with Emma.
Douglas turned off the screen.
“This is recoverable.”
Nathan already disliked the word.
“How?”
Douglas slid a draft statement across the table.
Nathan read it.
His stomach turned.
The statement blamed Olivia for manipulating Nathan during a period of extreme professional stress.
It described Emma as emotionally vulnerable after fertility struggles.
It promised a united Whitmore family would soon appear together publicly.
Nathan pushed it away.
“No.”
Douglas frowned.
“You haven’t finished.”
“I finished at emotionally vulnerable.”
“Nathan, this protects everyone.”
“It protects me.”
“That is the point.”
“No.”
Douglas leaned forward.
“We need one photograph.”
“Of what?”
“You and Emma.”
Nathan laughed.
“She is not a marketing asset.”
“You are married.”
“That does not make her available to you.”
“We are talking about billions of dollars in shareholder value.”
Nathan thought of Emma alone on their anniversary.
The candles.
The missed appointments.
The ballroom.
For years, every sacrifice had sounded reasonable when translated into numbers.
Nathan finally understood how dangerous that logic was.
“No photograph.”
Douglas stared at him.
“No statement blaming Olivia for choices I made.”
“Nathan.”
“And no reference to Emma’s pregnancy loss.”
Douglas pushed back his chair.
“You are forcing this board to choose.”
Nathan stood.
“No.”
“You are.”
“I’m forcing you to decide whether you want a CEO who refuses to lie about his wife.”
The vote took eighteen minutes.
Six directors supported Nathan.
Five wanted him removed.
One abstained.
Nathan remained CEO by a single vote.
Douglas approached him afterward.
“You nearly threw everything away.”
Nathan buttoned his jacket.
“No.”
For the first time, he understood the difference.
“I nearly stopped throwing away the wrong thing.”
That evening, Emma received a call from a blocked number.
She answered cautiously.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice responded.
“Emma.”
Emma went cold.
May you like
Olivia.
“We need to talk before Nathan tells you another version of the story.”
