Chapter 46
ALEX
Iwoke up angry. A deep, barely controlled fury had settled into my bones overnight and stayed there. This wasn’t the type of feeling that would burn itself out by the time the coffee had finished brewing, but the kind that suddenly made things crystal clear.
Jane was still asleep when I left, curled up in my bed like she’d finally accepted it was hers too.
I didn’t wake her, instead just standing there for a moment watching the steady rise and fall of her back.
Her dark blonde hair was spread across the pillow like spun gold, her face hidden by the strands, but she finally looked at peace.
As I looked at her, I made myself a promise I was intent on keeping—no one was taking anything else from her.
No one. This woman was so strong and so brave.
She’d fought for her family and what was theirs until the very last moment, and although she seemed convinced she’d lost, the war wasn’t over yet.
That thought was at the front of my mind as I finally turned away from the bed and walked into the bathroom. It stayed with me all the way through my shower and churned through my mind as I quietly got dressed.
By the time I got to the office, I was ready to kill someone. But since that would complicate things rather significantly, writing up a nearly billion-dollar contract would have to do.
The lawyers were already waiting. Nate sat at the head of the table, his sleeves rolled up and his tablet in front of him, his expression alert. He took one look at my face and didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“Tell me you slept,” he said.
“Not much,” I replied, dropping into my chair. “Tell me you’re ready.”
His mouth curved into something like a smile, but it didn’t quite make it all the way there. “Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m onboard.”
“Really?” I asked, a little surprised.
“I’ve run the numbers six different ways since last night and you were right,” he said. “We’re going to scare the hell out of anyone on the other side of the table, but it’s going to be worth it. There’s a ton of potential in that company.”
“Rattling them is exactly what we want,” I said. “I’m glad you’re finally coming around, though. I want Thayer for Jane, sure, but I wouldn’t be pushing this if I thought it was a bad investment.”
He looked at me for a long moment, then raked a hand through his hair and nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
We got to work then and there was something soothing about it, the clean lines of the deal, the precision, and the absolute certainty of ink on paper. I dictated terms while Nate and the rest of the team adjusted the language, the numbers climbing higher with every revision.
A billion-dollar counteroffer didn’t blink. It just stared back and dared anyone to challenge it. A few hours later, we were done and the entire Westwood and Sons board were set to meet, ours and the East Coast division.
Some were in our executive conference room, those who had been able to attend in person on such short notice. Most, however, were on screen, their faces arranged in neat little boxes, all of them waiting to see what kind of madness I was about to unleash.
Sterling appeared from his office, as calm as ever, but I caught the flicker of anticipation in his eyes. Harlan joined a moment later and my father grinned at his brother from his seat beside mine. Neither of them had questioned the meeting request or asked for details.
That told me they knew something big was coming and they were eager for me to get the ball rolling, so I did. I stood when it was time, my voice steady and carrying easily through the room. “Gentlemen, thank you all for joining us. You’re all aware of the situation with Thayer Steelworks.”
A few nodded, but most just kept giving me the same, cautious looks.
I didn’t make them wait long. “What you don’t know is that the current offer on the table undervalues the company strategically.
Not in terms of assets, but in terms of positioning.
Thayer isn’t just steel. It’s infrastructure. It’s leverage.”
I tapped the remote, bringing the numbers up behind me. “We’re countering. One billion.”
Someone inhaled sharply over the line, but I didn’t slow down. “This isn’t a gamble. It’s a consolidation move. We absorb Thayer completely, stabilize it, strip out the rot, and rebuild the core. In five years, it’ll be worth twice this. In ten, it anchors half our industrial portfolio.”
A voice cut in. “That’s a massive exposure.”
“No.” I turned toward the screen in question. “It’s decisive.”
Silence followed and I let it stretch for a long minute before I nodded, a little surprised that I wasn’t receiving any more pushback. “The numbers speak for themselves. We’ll put it to a vote, but you should know no is the wrong answer. Any questions?”
Sterling spoke first. “I vote yes.”
No hesitation. No qualifiers. Just that. Just yes. A trickle of relief ran through me, but I turned to Harlan next, watching as he leaned back in his chair. “You’re sure about this.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “I am.”
He nodded once. “Then it’s a yes from me, too.”
One by one, the votes came in. Yes. Yes. Yes.
My jaw relaxed as the tally climbed. I’d expected resistance. I’d planned for it. Instead, the momentum rolled forward like an unstoppable tide. When the last remote vote was cast, every box on the screen had gone green.
It was unanimous so far and there was only person left. My father. I turned slowly toward him, wondering if he was going to be the same kind of dark horse as Nora, but unlike her, he met my gaze. For a moment, I saw something like pride flicker there. Hne lifted his chin slightly.
“Yes,” he said.
The meeting adjourned shortly after that, the screens going dark and chairs scraping back. Nate glanced at me on his way out, but I nodded at him to leave, and then it was only my dad and me. He stood and walked over, stopping in front of me and clapping a hand on my shoulder.
“Well done, Alex,” he said simply.
I exhaled for what felt like the first time all day. “Thanks.”
“Your wife will be pleased.” He shot me a lopsided grin. “I’m surprised she isn’t here.”
“Jane doesn’t know yet, but she will,” I said. “I didn’t want to subject her to the stress of another vote so soon.”
He chuckled. “You always have been fiercely protective of the ones you care about.”
I nodded, but as I looked at him, the ease of his movements and the tension-free contours of his face, it hit me that he’d been looking like this since he’d walked in.
He’d grinned at Harlan, hadn’t tensed once during the meeting, and then voted like the issue in question was whether we were getting pizza for dinner.
“Why?” I asked finally.
He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Why what?”
“Why are you so okay with this?” I said, scrubbing a hand over my face.
“It’s a gamble. You know that. Thayer Steelworks has been considered a dying animal for years.
Everyone’s been circling it, waiting to see who’d carve it up first. It’s going to take an enormous amount of work.
Time. Money we won’t see a gain for a few years. ”
Dad didn’t interrupt, just watching me the way he’d always watched us as kids when he was deciding whether we were finished or just warming up.
“We’re talking about nearly a billion dollars,” I said. “Even for us, that’s not nothing. It might not break the bank, but it’s a significant risk. The board voted yes, but you didn’t hesitate. You didn’t even ask for a break. I need to understand why.”
For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he smiled in a way I rarely saw from him. It was almost soft and certainly older and wiser than usual, like he was about to impart knowledge he considered truly valuable.
“I would have done the same for your mother,” he said. “That’s why.”
The explanation hit me directly in the heart. “It’s hardly the same thing.”
“It’s exactly the same,” he argued gently, moving away from me to lean back against the table.
“When I met your mother, Westwood and Sons wasn’t what it is now.
We were solid, respected, and certainly a player to be contended with, but we weren’t untouchable.
There were risks everywhere. Deals people warned me against. Moves that didn’t make sense on paper. ”
I frowned. I’d heard pieces of this story before, but never like this. A faraway look entered his eyes. “Every time I took one of those risks, someone told me I was reckless. Emotional. Letting my personal life cloud my judgment.”
“And were you?” I asked point blank.
Dad laughed as he refocused on me. “Absolutely.”
I blinked at him, more than a little surprised by the admission—and his general demeanor. I’d seen Dad like this before but almost never when he was talking to me. It wasn’t bad, though. In fact, it was a pretty refreshing change of pace after all the arguments we’d had about Charlotte’s future.
“But I was also right,” he said. “Because when another person is on the line, someone you love and whose future is tied to yours, you stop thinking in quarters and projections alone. You think in terms of decades. In legacy.”
He straightened up again, his gaze locking on mine as he pushed away from the table.
“That’s how I knew you were ready to be CEO, Alex.
It wasn’t about when you closed your first eight-figure deal or how you were outmaneuvering competitors twice your age.
It was when you learned which risks are worth taking. That was when I knew I could retire.”
The day Dad had told me he was retiring, a knot had formed in my chest and it had never even begun to loosen.
Until this very moment. All the while, I’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to lay down the law about getting married like Harlan had done with Sterling before completely handing me the reins.
When Dad hadn’t tied any of those strings to my position, I’d thought it was some kind of test. A trick. Right up until this very moment, I’d thought I was only keeping his seat warm until he decided to take it back.
But now?
“You understand that moves like this aren’t always about money. Sometimes, they’re about stability. About protecting what matters and making sure the person standing next to you doesn’t lose their place in the world.”
Jane’s face flickered through my mind, her stubbornness, exhaustion, and the way she held herself together through sheer force of will. “Yeah, I think I do understand.”
“Don’t think, Alex. Know, because I know that you do. You have for a while now, but I also didn’t do this blindly. Sure, Thayer can be salvaged. It’ll be brutal work, but it’s possible. And if it weren’t, I still would’ve voted yes.”
I huffed out a quiet laugh. “That’s why you didn’t even blink.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Neither did you.” He clapped his hands once, briskly, signaling that to his mind the conversation was clearly over. “Go take your wife out to dinner, Alex.”
I frowned. “Dinner? It’s not even noon.”
“Yes, but make it something nice. Put in the extra effort,” he said. “Once this is over and she’s CEO of Thayer, things are going to get busy. We’re going to have to restructure. The media will get up to their usual nonsense. People will question whether she deserves the seat.”
“She does,” I said firmly. “You know that.”
“Of course,” Dad replied. “We know that, but the world will still make noise about it, so enjoy this downtime with her while you can. Pick her up for dinner before lunch and make a day of it. Make memories. Make her feel special simply because she is. You’ll thank yourself for it when the real work starts. ”
I nodded slowly. “That’s advice I might just take.”
He offered me another of those wide, trust-me smiles, then squeezed my shoulder again. “You did well, Alex. I’m proud of you.”
After he left, I stayed in the empty boardroom for another minute, letting the weight of everything settle before I turned to leave, my mind already whirring with ideas about where to take Jane to make the most of his advice.
I didn’t know yet what exactly was special enough to celebrate a deal like this, but I did know one thing for sure. The world would bend before it took anything else from her. I would personally make sure of it.