Chapter 19 - WHO TAKES OVER
Dad wanted an independent CEO.
For the first time in Walker Supply history, the company would not be run by a Walker.
I should have been offended.
A year earlier, I would have been.
Instead I felt relief.
"What happens to my shares?"
"They stay yours."
"And voting control?"
"Shared with the board."
I laughed.
"You spent my whole life telling me the company was my responsibility."
Dad nodded.
"I was wrong."
That may have been the hardest sentence he ever said.
He wanted me to choose whether I actually loved the business or only loved proving I could lead it.
I took three months away.
Not a vacation.
A real pause.
I helped Mom repair the garden at Willow Ridge.
The sale contract disappeared once the fraud was exposed.
The house stayed theirs.
One afternoon, while replacing a broken fence board, Mom asked me whether I missed Vanessa.
I hated the question.
"Sometimes."
Mom nodded.
"That doesn't mean you made the wrong decision."
"I know."
"Love doesn't disappear on schedule."
I looked at her.
"How are you not furious all the time?"
She smiled.
"I am. I just don't want fury renting a room in my head forever."
At the criminal sentencing, Vanessa received prison time followed by supervision and restitution obligations.
Grant received his own sentence.
Paul's case dragged longer.
Richard sold one of his properties to help repay legal debts tied to Redstone.
Claire moved away and sent Mom a handwritten apology.
Life did not snap back.
It changed shape.
Six months after the wedding, I returned to Walker Supply.
Not as CEO.
As head of operations.
For the first time, the title did not feel like a demotion.
It felt honest.
Then Dad called me into the conference room.
On the table was one final file from the Northline investigation.
I groaned.
"Please tell me there isn't another secret."
"Not exactly."
Inside was an email Vanessa had written before our first date.
It was addressed to herself.
A note about me.
I read the first line.
TARGET: ETHAN WALKER.
My stomach turned.
May you like
Then I read the last line.
And it changed the way I remembered everything between us.
