Chapter 10 #2
“The Holt you know is trying to save his marriage.” The declaration felt both right and terrifying, a recommitment to the difficult path ahead rather than the easy escape being offered. “You need to leave, Corrine. And we need to redefine the parameters of our business relationship.”
For a second, something ugly flickered in her eyes, the mask of interest dropping to reveal ambition barely concealed.
It vanished almost instantly, replaced by an almost convincing show of understanding.
“Of course, Ephraim. My apologies if I overstepped. I’m just so invested in Holt Enterprises’ success, and you are the key to that. ”
As she gathered her purse and headed for the door, I felt the weight of what had almost happened settling over me.
In my moment of vulnerability, I had nearly made an irrevocable mistake, one that would have validated all of Larkin’s criticisms while destroying any chance of reconciliation with her.
“Corrine,” I called as she reached the office door. She paused, turning with an expectant expression that suggested she thought I might be reconsidering. “I’m pulling out of the McCullough deal.”
The shock was genuine this time, her carefully maintained composure faltering completely. “You can’t be serious. We’re weeks away from finalizing, from securing the largest land expansion in your family’s history.”
“I don’t care about that.” I reached for the preliminary contract papers on my desk.
I ripped them up, tossing the strips into the trash.
I ignored Corrine’s protests. I thought through our past interactions.
How she would insert herself into private conversations.
How she would try to edge Larkin out of them.
How Larkin had seemed to always try to leave when she was around.
“This partnership was a mistake, and this conversation tonight confirmed that I can’t trust your motivations. ”
She recovered quickly, the businesswoman reemerging as her attraction retreated. “You’re making an emotional decision that will cost Holt Enterprises millions.”
“Maybe. But I can live with losing money, and I will live with saving my marriage.” It was the most honest admission I had made in weeks.
The decision felt surprisingly right, despite the strategic implications.
I would find other ways to expand, other opportunities to pursue.
But if I lost Larkin while chasing a land deal, I would never forgive myself.
“You’ll regret this,” Corrine warned, her voice losing any pretense of seduction, now pure steel. “She left you, Ephraim, remember? And when you come crawling back, I won’t be waiting.”
The threat should have stung more than it did.
Instead, I felt liberated, as if I had just stepped off a ledge into the unknown with nothing to break my fall.
“If I crawl back to anyone, it will be to my wife, to make right what I’ve been doing wrong for years.
And if I fail in that, then at least I’ll have failed as myself, not as some imitation version that never fit anyway. ”
Corrine’s departure was abrupt, the door closing harder than necessary behind her.
But I felt no satisfaction in her exit, only the heavy weight of realization about what lay ahead.
I had rejected her offer of easy validation, but that meant I was left with the much more difficult task of addressing the issues that had driven Larkin away in the first place.
The whiskey still sat on my desk, untouched since my return, but I no longer had any interest in its numbing comfort.
Instead, I sat down and pulled out my phone, staring at Larkin’s number on the screen.
Another text, another demand that she return home and resume her role would achieve nothing now.
Something more was required, a recognition that this time, she wouldn’t respond to commands or expectations.
Instead, I called Waylon. He answered on the second ring, his voice tired. “Figured you’d be back by now. How did it go?”
“Poorly,” I admitted, the word feeling inadequate. “Listen, I need you here ASAP.”
“Tomorrow morning?”
“Tonight.” My tone left no room for negotiation. “I’ve made some decisions that require immediate action.”
“Serious decisions?”
I thought of Corrine, the deal I’d torn up, the commitment I’d made to find my way back to my wife. “Yes. The kind that will reshape Holt Enterprises’ immediate future, one way or another.”
“I’ll be there in forty-five minutes.” No questions, no hesitation, the loyalty that had made him invaluable.
As I ended the call, I looked around my office with new eyes, seeing the empire I had built not just as a monument to my success but as a complex web of relationships that needed nurturing, not just management.
Larkin had been trying to show me this for years, her quieter approach at odds with my more aggressive business style.
Now, finally, I could see the wisdom in her perspective, even as I braced myself for the hard work of changing years of habits and assumptions.
Tonight marked the beginning of something, I wasn’t exactly sure what, but it felt more authentic and promising than the path I had been on before Seattle.
For the first time in my adult life, I was approaching a problem not from a position of certainty and control, but as a student again, ready to learn from the woman who had seen more clearly than I had what truly mattered.
It was humbling and terrifying in equal measure.
But as I waited for Waylon’s arrival, planning the changes that would ripple through our organization in response to my decision about the McCullough property, I felt something else stirring beneath the fear and uncertainty.
A glimmer of possibility, of renewal, of becoming not less than who I had been but more.
It wasn’t the triumphant conquest I usually associated with business success, but something deeper, more meaningful.
The Holt legacy wasn’t just about land and cattle and profit margins.
It was about stewardship, about the delicate balance of human relationships and natural resources.
I had ignored Larkin’s understanding of that truth for too long, blinded by my own vision of what success looked like.
Now, I had to find a way to honor both her perspective and my drive for growth, to build not just a larger empire but a more sustainable and meaningful one.
As the sound of Waylon’s car approaching, I met him at the door. “I hope you’re ready to work, because I’ve got a doozy of an ask for you right now. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover before dawn.”
“I’m game for anything.” He was wearing worn jeans and a flannel, but he still had a better posture than I did in my suit, which seemed so inappropriate for what I was going to ask of him. “What do you need?”
“Waylon, I think it’s about time you took a bigger role with the Holt name. I’m going to be busy in Seattle, so I need you here looking after my interests.”
“But the McCullough deal...” He hesitated.
I waved him off. “Scrap that. We’ll find another way.”
He was shocked at that. We both knew what kind of gold that deal was going to turn into.
But I couldn’t shake the fact that Corrine had been involved with it from the start.
The land wasn’t going anywhere. Larkin was.
“Consider yourself my proxy on anything Holt related.” He began to protest, but I shut him down.
I made sure to specify that nothing permanent be done until he ran it by me.
I just wanted him there so we could start thinking about this like a business instead of me trying to navigate this alone. My next step was crucial.
“You’re going after her?” He was concerned, his tone taking on a fatherly quality.
I nodded, feeling the rightness of this decision settling into me. “I’m going to show Larkin I can learn. I can change. It won’t happen overnight, and I’m sure I’ll make mistakes, but I need to start somewhere.”
“Good,” he said simply. “Been wondering when you’d get around to figuring out what most of us saw months ago. That woman you married, she’s your best chance of balancing who you want to be and who you need to be.”
The simple validation from the man who knew my business better than I did in many ways was more meaningful than any praise from Corrine or acknowledgment at a board meeting.
It was time to show Larkin that her leaving had accomplished what she intended, that she had my full attention not because of the disruption it caused, but because she mattered in a way that transcended my ego and ambitions.
But that reminded me of another painful fact. “And Ms. West is no longer allowed at the ranch for any reason, understand? No exceptions.”
“Is she...” Waylon shook his head and left it alone. “I understand.”
I nodded my agreement. “I appreciate that.” He hesitated to leave, as if waiting to see if I had anything else to confess.
He didn’t push it, just moved past me toward the door of my home office.
Before he closed the door behind him, he looked me in the eye.
“Larkin loves you, Ephraim. If anyone can make this right, you can.”
“Thanks.”
I didn’t say anything more, because I wasn’t sure about anything else except that I wanted the chance to show my wife the man she had married all over again. It was going to be the toughest deal I had ever worked, and failure wasn’t an option, not this time.