37. Interlude #2
“Yeah, I do.” Daniel’s bright blue eyes were serious.
“I was acting like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum because someone told me I couldn’t have something.
Being controlled like that, manipulated…
” He shook his head. “It made me crazy. But that’s not your fault.
I’ve depended on you to take care of my messes for too long.
You were just doing what you thought was right to take care of us.
Just like you always do. I could have dealt with it better. ”
But all Lucas could see was that pain etched across Marie’s face when she realized the depths he had gone to control her and everyone else like puppets. “I could have handled it differently too.”
That sat for a moment in companionable silence, sipping on their seltzers while the sounds of the card game, the crackling fire, and Winnifred and Emma’s polite conversation filled the room.
“If I told you now that you didn’t have to be married, would you want out?” Lucas asked.
Daniel looked over, clearly surprised. “What?”
Lucas glanced between him and Emma, who was still peeking at her new husband every so often like a lovestruck teenager.
Daniel would always have that effect on certain women, it seemed.
“I shouldn’t have forced you. None of us should have.
And divorce—or maybe an annulment—wouldn’t stop you from being a dad. If that’s what you want.”
It was the last thing he should do. Hubbard had continued to play hardball after the ceremony, and as a result, the appropriations bill was still sitting on his desk.
The truth was, Lucas couldn’t care less.
These days, nothing seemed more distasteful than congressional politics or international business deals or any of the machinery that had consumed his life for twenty years.
None of it had mattered at all since she walked out of his life.
“I appreciate the offer,” Daniel said once he’d recovered his shock. “But…I think I might give it a go.”
Lucas blinked. “Really?”
Daniel nodded. “Would you believe that marriage and fatherhood might be exactly what I need? About time I had something important to do with my life, you know? Maybe this is it.”
Lucas was legitimately dumbfounded. Of everything he expected to come out of his brother’s mouth, that was the last option. “I see. Well. Good for you.”
“What about you?” Daniel’s voice was carefully casual.
Lucas frowned. “What about me?”
“You’ve been working hard. Maybe you need a vacation. Like, I don’t know, maybe to France.”
Lucas nearly dropped his glass. “Why would I do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Thought maybe you left something there last time.”
When Lucas finally met his brother’s eyes, Daniel’s eyes twinkled like the water beyond the line as the sunset light hit the waves.
But instead of answering, Lucas found himself standing. Suddenly, he couldn’t bear to be in this house one moment longer. There was no point in waiting until dinner to say what he’d come here to say. Better get it over with now and get the hell out.
“I have an announcement to make.”
Winnifred looked up from her cards, eyebrows raised, and Emma stopped chattering about swimming with dolphins. Clifford turned in his chair with interest. Daniel set down his drink and leaned forward.
“I know I haven’t been around much the last month,” Lucas began, despite the magnitude of what he was about to say. “It’s because I’ve been putting some things in order. Things about the future of Lyons Corp and my place in it.”
“Oh?” Winnifred’s tone was carefully neutral, but Lucas could hear the sharpness at its edges, as cut as any crystal hanging from the chandelier above them.
“I’m stepping down as CEO.”
The silence was deafening. Winnifred’s gin and tonic stopped halfway to her mouth. Emma’s mouth flopped open like a fish. Even Daniel looked stunned.
Only Clifford went back to calmly dealing his own cards, like Lucas had simply told everyone the next day’s weather forecast.
“What?” Winnifred’s voice shook with barely repressed rage. “Why in God’s name would you do that?”
“Furthermore,” Lucas continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’ve made the decision to divest from the company.
I’m transferring my shares into a trust that will redirect profits toward nonprofit causes.
Mental health initiatives, education programs for underprivileged kids, after-school programs. Starting with a new initiative in the Bronx. ”
As he spoke, Marie’s face filled his mind.
Her kind strength, her fierce loyalty, the way she’d looked at him all those nights in the onsen.
With every quiet conversation, she’d inspired something in him that had nothing to do with quarterly earnings or market shares and everything to do with becoming the kind of man worthy of a woman like her.
Even if he could never have her.
He was tired of being Prince John.
He could play Robin Hood to his own family and fortune.
God knew it was the least he could do.
“Lucas, you can’t be serious.” Winnifred had gone pale beneath her perfectly applied makeup. “This is…this is insane. You’re talking about giving away billions of dollars. The family would lose everything .”
“We don’t need billions of dollars. No one does,” Lucas said. “And before you worry too much, every person in this room will retain their individual shares.”
“But—but that’s less than a percent of the company each!” Winnifred screeched. “Clifford transferred more than fifty to you when he signed over power of attorney!”
It was the most her face had moved in years. Apparently, even Botox and fillers couldn’t stop her rage now.
“Lyons Corp is currently valued at nearly a trillion dollars,” Lucas informed her. “Even one tenth of one percent of that is more than enough to live comfortably for several lifetimes. Hoarding anything more is obscene, and deep down, you know it.”
“But the company—the family—your father’s legacy ?—”
“Will continue, just under the stewardship of a trust instead of going straight into our pockets. I’ve already recommended an interim CEO, and the board is likely to confirm her. The business will run exactly as it always has, just with a different purpose.”
Winnifred was on her feet now, pacing. “I won’t allow this. I’ll hire attorneys, I’ll fight this in court?—”
“Winnifred.” Clifford’s voice cut through her tirade, surprisingly clear and firm. “The boy’s right. Enough is enough.”
It was obvious to everyone that the veil had cleared, at least for the next few minutes, and the old man knew exactly what was going on and what he was saying.
She turned to stare at her husband in shock. “Clifford, please. You can’t possibly?—”
“I can and I do. Lucas has made this family richer than any of our ancestors could have imagined. If he wants to put those riches to something better than new cars or houses or whatever else we try to spend this money on, I support him. He hasn’t led us wrong yet.”
Daniel had picked up his glass again and been watching the exchange, though he looked like he would prefer the drink contained vodka along with the soda.
“And you?” Winnifred asked him. “This is your legacy too, Daniel. Aren’t you going to stand up for it at all?”
But Daniel kept his eyes firmly on Lucas. “This is about Marie, isn’t it?”
Winnifred spun around. “Marie? What does that little cook have to do with?—”
“Don’t call her that,” Lucas snapped before he could stop himself.
Before Winnifred could respond, Daniel was talking again, his voice taking on an edge that Lucas had used almost every day in the boardroom but had never heard come out of his brother until now.
“She really got to you, didn’t she?” Daniel said as he put his drink on the coffee table and stood to look Lucas in the eye. “The mouse from the kitchen. I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming. But then again, I never really saw her at all, did I? Not the way you did.”
“Stop.” Lucas opened and closed his fists, willing himself a control that seemed to be ebbing by the second.
“No, no, this is fascinating. My big brother, the man who’s never let anything cloud his judgment a day in his life, throwing away everything for a nice pair of tits and a mouth that could?—”
It took exactly three seconds for Lucas to grab Daniel by the collar, wrench him around the sofa, and slam him into the wall, his forearm shoved against his brother’s throat.
“Lucas!” Winnifred cried. “What are you doing?”
“You will stop talking about her, or you will swallow every goddamn tooth you have.” Lucas’s entire body vibrated with a single urge to destroy anyone who even threatened Marie’s name. “Do. You. Understand?”
Daniel’s eyes widened, but there was no fear there. Instead, something like triumph flared.
“Oh, I understand,” he said. Then to the family: “See? He loves her.”
“What?” Winnifred demanded. “What are you talking about? Loves who?”
“Marie,” Daniel called over Lucas’s shoulder. “The cook.”
Lucas rammed his neck again. “She’s not a cook, you little shit. She’s an artist.”
Daniel just chuckled. “Yeah, you’re a fucking goner, aren’t you?”
Lucas held him there for a moment longer, his heart hammering against his ribs. Finally, he released Daniel, who straightened his collar, brushed back his hair, and returned to his seat on the couch like nothing had happened.
“Over the fucking moon,” he said calmly before winking at Emma, who obliged him with a blush.
“So what if I am?” Lucas kept a hand braced to the wall beside a portrait of Oscar E. Lyons, his great-uncle. The admission felt like bleeding out. “What does it matter anymore?”
Daniel looked genuinely surprised. “Isn’t that why you just announced you’re giving away half a trillion dollars, brother? It’s the only thing that matters at all.”
Winnifred was staring at both of them like they’d both grown second heads. “I don’t understand what’s happening here, but I am not going to let you destroy this family over some?—”
“Mom.” Daniel sliced through her complaints with a single word. “You won’t do anything. So just finish your drink and make an appointment with your therapist, all right? We’ll be fine, just like Lucas said.”
She gaped at him. “Daniel, how dare you?—”
“Because I’m going to be a father soon, and maybe I want to teach my kid a little something better than what I had.
So I better learn what it means to work for it if I’ve got a hope in hell of teaching it to him too.
” Daniel turned to Lucas, his club soda raised like a toast. “Lucas has spent his entire life taking care of everyone else. Maybe it’s time he took care of himself. ”
Lucas stared at Daniel, this new version of his brother who seemed to have found a backbone along with purpose.
“I’ll handle her,” Daniel continued, his voice firm with newfound authority. “The board meetings, Mom’s theatrics, whatever legal challenges she thinks she can mount. Don’t worry about any of it.”
Lucas stared. “It’ll take a little more time than that. But, Daniel?—”
“Go.” Daniel nodded toward the exit. “Go find her before it’s too late. Because take it from me, brother, you’ll regret it if you don’t.”