Chapter 42
ALEX
Jane still hadn’t answered my calls. My texts sat unread, the little delivery confirmations mocking me every time I unlocked my phone, and a tight, restless sensation was crawling under my skin.
“Take me to the Thayer house,” I told my driver as I dropped into the back seat of the car I’d had waiting for me. The city blurred outside the windows as he pulled away and took me to my wife without asking any questions.
By now, he’d probably seen the article and she definitely would have. An unfamiliar tension hummed through my muscles, and while I didn’t have a ton of experience with it, I was pretty sure it was anxiety. Nerves.
Fuck, I should’ve gone straight to her when I saw it. I should’ve been there, the one to show it to her and explain what happened.
When we pulled up to Nora’s house, hope flared in my chest embarrassingly fast—and promptly died just as quickly.
The driveway was empty. Jane’s car wasn’t in its spot and the house itself looked closed up, the blinds drawn like no one even lived there at all.
“Wait here,” I said, already opening the door. My jaw clenched so hard it ached.
Despite knowing what the outcome was going to be, I marched up to the front door anyway and knocked, but nothing happened.
Nora didn’t appear with that usual polite smile on her face.
Wyatt didn’t pull aside the curtain and glower at me.
Jane didn’t open up to invite me in after pressing a kiss to my lips that always left me wanting more.
As I walked back to the car, out of sorts didn’t begin to cover what I was feeling.
I liked control. I thrived on it. Every deal I touched was iron clad, layered with contingencies, and pressure tested until there were no surprises left.
Jane disappearing, the article, and the board meeting all on one day were chaos.
And it was happening at the worst possible time.
By the time I sat down in the Thayer boardroom after not hearing from or being able to reach my wife for an entire day, my nerves were wound so tight, I felt nauseated.
The long table gleamed under harsh lights, leather chairs filling one by one as members filtered in, murmuring to each other like they already knew how this would go.
Which was a problem for me because I didn’t. I had no fucking idea what was happening or how it would go, and again, I didn’t operate like this. I didn’t get blindsided, ambushed, or surprised. Not in business anyway.
When Nora walked in, I almost relaxed. She was our ace in the hole, responsible for working with my father to arrange a fucking marriage to put this company in her daughter’s hands. I didn’t want to believe that she’d work against us now, but she didn’t look at me as she strode to her seat.
There wasn’t even a flicker of acknowledgment.
A week ago, I would’ve bet my life on her support, but Uncle Harlan’s voice echoed in my head, reminding me how often logic bent under the weight of greed. My gaze tracked her as she sat down on the far side of the table, her posture as stiff as a board and her eyes locked on her hands in her lap.
My gut flared with unease, suspicion creeping through me like twisting vines. But the meeting was called to order with brisk efficiency before I could even move a muscle to pull her outside for a minute.
Sterling’s face appeared on the screen at the end of the room.
He gave me a small nod. Then the second screen flickered to life and Andrew Thayer’s smiling face appeared.
He was barefoot, shirtless, and sitting on what looked like a white-sand beach with turquoise water stretching endlessly behind him.
He held a glass with a ridiculous little umbrella stuck into the fruity cocktail, not even pretending to be embarrassed.
“Well, hello everyone,” he said cheerfully, raising the glass toward us. “Exciting times, huh?”
No formalities. No preamble. Just vibes and irresponsibility.
“I’ll get right to it,” he said. “I’m thrilled about the prospect of selling the business. Frankly, I think it’s the smartest move for us all.”
My hands curled into fists under the table. He went on, explaining that he’d spoken privately with every board member except Sterling, myself, and, I assumed, Nora. The implication hung there, heavy and deliberate.
“Now,” he said, grinning. “All that’s left is to make it official. Let’s vote.”
I felt the shift in the room like a ghost passed through us all, the momentum moving away from Westwood and Sons like a tide pulling back before a wave. My phone buzzed softly against my thigh and I checked it, hoping it was Jane.
Sterling: If the vote doesn’t go our way, we’ll have time to improve the offer. But I need to know, are you serious about this? It would be our first real gamble with the company.
I didn’t hesitate to respond, typing just one word with absolute certainty.
Me: Yes.
Across the table, Nora finally lifted her gaze. Our eyes met for half a second, just long enough for my heart to hammer painfully against my ribs before she looked away again.
The vote was coming, and for the first time in my professional career, I had no idea how it would end. One of the board members cleared his throat, smiling like a Cheshire cat when he looked at me. “Before we proceed, we should acknowledge that there is a competing offer on the table.”
My pulse spiked. I already knew. I’d felt it in my bones since Mallory’s smile at the club.
“It’s from a foreign manufacturing group,” he said smoothly. “Privately held. Substantial liquidity.”
I leaned back slowly in my chair, my jaw tight. “How substantial?”
“Five hundred million,” he said like he was challenging me to argue.
The room went very still, and for half a second, I actually laughed. Thayer Steelworks wasn’t worth nearly that much. Not now. Not with outdated plants, unstable leadership, and a board desperate to cash out. Five hundred million wasn’t just generous, it was obscene.
There was no universe in which the other board members wouldn’t agree to it. My phone was already in my hand under the table.
Me: If shit hits the fan, we’re offering a billion.
I hit send to Sterling and stared at the screen like I could will the dots to appear, but they didn’t.
Andrew Thayer took a long sip of his cocktail, utterly delighted as he looked around the table. “I told you this would be a productive meeting. The offer ensures a clean exit and significant shareholder value. Frankly, I don’t see a downside.”
Because you’re checked out, I thought. You don’t care what happens after.
Sterling finally spoke up from California. “This feels premature. There are alternatives worth discussing.”
A few board members exchanged looks and one of them shrugged, but another just shook his head. “There have been enough discussions. We’re voting.”
My heart hammered so hard, it felt like it might crack my ribs, but my gaze was locked on Nora.
She sat perfectly composed, her hands folded neatly on the table and her expression unreadable.
Not cold, emotional, or distant. Just like she’d already made peace with whatever choice she was about to make.
The votes started going around the table. One yes after another, each one landing like a blow, dull and cumulative, until my chest felt hollowed out.
Sterling voted no, his voice firm and resolute. Mine followed immediately after, sharp with barely restrained fury, but it didn’t matter. Just like we’d known it would, it came down to one person.
Nora.
I drew in a slow breath, forcing my shoulders to relax and my face to stay neutral. This was the moment we’d been waiting for, to see her do the right thing to protect her daughter and to stop this madness before it went any further.
She lifted her chin. “Yes.”
The word echoed in the silence of the room, but I still didn’t quite seem to understand it. My mind refused to process the sound, clinging to the expectation that she’d say no, that this was just a delay or a misunderstanding, anything but the truth.
As I slammed back in my chair, I caught a glimpse of the door from the corner of my eye, and I felt the blood drain out of me. Jane stood frozen in the doorway, her eyes darting around the room, confusion written all over her face.
She looked like she’d walked into the wrong room, the wrong version of her life, one where everything had gone sideways without her. The timing was brutal. Surgical.
Nora hadn’t even looked at her daughter as she’d voted, but the chair didn’t care about what had just been done to my wife.
“Majority rules,” he announced. “The motion passes.”
Just like that, Thayer Steelworks was officially in the process of being sold. To the husband of the woman who’d caused them to be in this position to begin with.
Jane’s face drained of all color and she took a step forward, like she was going to say something that would be able to stop this if she just found the right words, but it was over.
I pushed back my chair and stood, the room spinning faintly around me. Rage burned hot and clean through my veins, but underneath it was something worse—an icy certainty that Mallory had played this perfectly.
I’d been too late. When I looked at Jane again, I stood up, about to cross the room, to explain, and to promise I’d fix it, because I would.
But in that moment, with the deal sealed and my wife staring at me like the ground had just vanished beneath her feet, all I could think was that the unraveling had officially begun, and I had no idea if my marriage would survive it.