Chapter 18
CHRIS
The motel clerk probably just saw a weary traveler in need of lodgings for the night.
I planned to stay longer, but it was easier to start with one night.
I had no idea where this venture would take me, if I would even get a chance to speak to Beth, much less explain myself to her.
But I needed her to understand that I wasn’t a villain in her life, even though that might have been what I played in her story up to now.
And maybe I needed to remind myself who I was when she fell in love with me.
I needed her to see that I didn’t just use her, like she seemed to think I did.
The truth was, she gave me confidence, something I always needed and hadn’t realized until after she walked out on me.
I kept thinking of her journals. I should have looked at them sooner, read them sooner, realized what she was giving up for me before it was too late.
But it was hard. It was hard for me to believe she wasn’t happy and didn’t want all the trappings I could give her, the luxuries I so enjoyed.
Why didn’t I realize they made her unhappy?
The motel room wasn’t nice by any stretch, but it was a bed, and I needed a moment to myself.
The drive here had been a whirlwind in my mind.
And I wanted to make plans before I tried to talk to Beth, show her that I understood where I had fallen short.
I knew my words weren’t going to be enough to mend this relationship. It would take a lot of work.
There had to be more to her plans than working in her sister’s diner and barely surviving.
So, I lay down on the bed, thinking back on that first notebook, the very first thing she wrote about when her sister bought the diner.
There was so much heart and thought put into the plan that she came up with for a community food hub, but that plan never had the opportunity to come to light.
It was clear it would never come to light here without a moneyed intervention.
I eventually turned out the light, just lying in bed.
My mind was far from clear and calm, but there were solutions for every problem.
That was always true. I just needed time to find them.
And I was willing to put the time in. It would mean a change of lifestyle for me.
But I could be mobile with work for the time being.
My companies could run without me, they did on a regular basis.
I just had to tell them that. It was a phone call, something I could put off until the morning.
Because if I started down that rabbit hole now, I wasn’t going to be able to stop myself.
And I didn’t want to lose track of what I was doing, which was figuring out a way to make it right between Beth and myself.
I didn’t know if I could achieve that. But it was a starting point and all I could give right now.
When morning came, it wasn’t the sunlight that woke me.
My phone was buzzing with calls. I had forgotten to turn it off last night.
With a sigh, I grabbed for it. There were a few from Jessica, which I would ignore.
There were a couple from people at the company, including Maria, which I would respond to, and a missed call from my personal attorney.
That gave me an idea, something I could have done last night if I had thought of it, and I called him back immediately.
“This is an interesting call,” he answered. “Where are you right now?”
I hated that question, as it was too close to the ones people were already asking at my office. But there was nothing for it. “I’m away, trying to handle some personal business.”
“Is everything okay?”
I appreciated the concern. It reminded me I had a team at home, people who cared for me even if they didn’t know about my marital issues.
I wouldn’t keep the secret forever, but I couldn’t tell my lawyer I was tracking down the wife who left me.
It felt pathetic and weak and a thousand other things that I just couldn’t name right now.
“Yes, everything is fine. I’m actually calling because I want to draw up some papers to establish a local nonprofit.”
“In Seattle? Won’t be a problem.”
“Not Seattle. I’m on the coast right now.”
I could almost hear him thinking through the particulars. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Same rules apply. You’re going to need a board to run things. I’m assuming you’ll want to be on it.”
“Not this time,” I answered. The first rule I had come up with was this needed to be something Beth wanted to be involved with, if I ever got a chance to show her it existed.
And she wouldn’t want it if she felt like I was still controlling things from the top.
“I’m looking for an irrevocable living trust, if you can make that work.
The organization needs to run on the profits and the principal. ”
“I can do that, sure.”
“Perfect. I’ll call you back this evening with more information. And keep this quiet for the time being, will you?”
“Of course.”
With that done, I was feeling accomplished and a bit of my stress melted away.
I turned my attention to my messages next.
Most of them could be handled by Maria. But there was one I needed to reply to, and I steeled myself for this one as well.
It was time for Jessica to know that I meant what I said.
I’d had a night’s sleep to reflect, and it had only strengthened my conviction.
Jessica answered the phone with an attitude I should have anticipated. “Where are you, Chris? No one can get a hold of you, and there are things that need to be decided. I’ve had to put off signing some agreements because of you.”
“I’m surprised you’re even at the office. I thought I made myself clear last night. You’re done. I’m buying you out. I’ll be contacting security to lock you out. I plan to pay you fair market value for your shares, but I expect you to go quietly.”
“But, Chris?—“
“You overplayed your hand, Jessica,” I interrupted. “And now you will suffer the consequences. You can go quietly, or I can bury you. It’s entirely up to you.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“I don’t really care.”
I hung up the phone then and started making notes for my next call to the legal department.
This was an unusual requirement, but it was entirely within their wheelhouse.
I was sure the finer legal details would require time, but I fully expected Jessica to be gone within the week.
Obviously, she could make that more difficult, but she had to know I had the upper hand, even when I was distracted by winning back Beth.
It felt strange to be buying out Jessica.
The legal team kept questioning me, probably wanting to hedge against a lawsuit if this was about our relationship.
But I didn’t want to talk about our personal history at all, so they were just going to have to believe me.
I made sure there would be a very strict non-disclosure attached to her severance payment and buyout, as I wanted to protect both of our dignity in this matter.
As much as I wanted to make Jessica pay for what she had done, she knew too many of my secrets to let that go.
This would have to be a fair business transaction, even though I no longer wanted anything to do with her.
By midday, I was able to shift my attention to my personal mission.
If I wanted to make Beth’s dream a reality, I needed to find a physical building, but that wouldn’t be all that difficult.
I just needed to visit the town records to find out what was available.
As long as the property had the bones of what was needed, access to utilities and the highway, the rest was fixable.
The building itself, I could fund. The organization needed to be sustainable, though, which meant I couldn’t fund it forever, even with the money I’d be setting aside.
But I was sure there had to be ways of making that work.
If not, then Beth would have to help me come up with a new solution.
I didn’t want to think about that just yet, though.
I still didn’t have proof that I’d even get the chance to have such a conversation with her.
Walking into the town hall felt like an out of body experience.
This small town was so different from the cities and suburbs I had spent my life in.
There was no glossing over the economic hardships that were being felt by those in the community.
The paint on the town building was faded, the interior worn down, the faces of the people moving around the building sad and tired.
There weren’t enough resources, that was for certain, which made my task both easier and harder at the same time.
“Hi, there,” I said as I stepped up to the clerk’s counter, pulling my attention back to the task at hand. “I’m looking to invest in some property in town, and I wanted to know who I should speak to.”
The woman behind the counter looked up with a furrowed brow. “We don’t get a lot of folks coming here to invest.” The suspicion was written across her face.
“I’ve never been here before,” I admitted, and that only seemed to make the suspicion stronger.
“If you’re looking for lakefront property, we don’t have any left.”
“That’s not what I’m interested in, but that’s interesting. Is all the lakefront land developed now?”
“It has been for several years, though not all of those projects were successful in the long-term,” she answered. “It’s not the kind of land an investment is going to pay off on, though. The lake is more like a swamp most of the year.”
“I’m looking for something different,” I said with a small smile. “Something with good access to the highway would be ideal.”
She nodded. “We do have a few places that could work for whatever it is you’re thinking of. Do you want me to connect you to our town administrator?”