Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
The next week was polite.
Painfully polite.
Emily continued sleeping in her room.
Adrian stopped touching her.
They still ate together, but something invisible sat between them.
The deadline.
Fifty-one weeks.
At work, Adrian’s lawyers searched for ways around the amendment.
There were none.
If he divorced Emily, or if she filed for divorce, the trust shares transferred to Daniel.
Daniel was not evil.
That would have made things easier.
He was simply reckless.
He wanted to divide Mercer Industries, sell the freight division, outsource thousands of jobs, and distribute the proceeds.
Adrian had spent twelve years preventing that.
Friday afternoon, his sister Claire walked into his office without knocking.
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Claire dropped into the chair across from his desk.
At thirty-two, she was a pediatric surgeon who found corporate politics ridiculous and her older brother exhausting.
“Mom called me.”
“Of course she did.”
“She says Emily is destabilizing you.”
“Emily is the only person in this family who hasn’t tried to control me.”
Claire smiled.
“So you love her.”
Adrian stared at her.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
He looked away.
Claire leaned forward.
“Have you told Emily?”
“Told her what?”
“That you’re in love with her.”
Adrian’s silence answered.
Claire groaned.
“You run an international company.”
“Yes.”
“You negotiate contracts worth hundreds of millions.”
“Yes.”
“And you cannot say three words to your wife?”
“Those negotiations don’t involve my heart.”
Claire’s expression softened.
“That’s generally why saying them matters.”
That evening Adrian came home with a folder.
Emily was standing by the windows.
Snow had begun falling over Chicago.
“I did something,” he said.
“That sentence rarely ends well.”
He placed the folder on the table.
Emily opened it.
Her eyes moved across the first page.
Then widened.
“What is this?”
“An irrevocable trust.”
“I can read.”
“Apparently with unnecessary hostility.”
“Adrian.”
He became serious.
“I’m transferring my personally owned shares into an employee stewardship trust if our marriage ends before Grandfather’s deadline.”
Emily stared at him.
“That’s almost half of your voting position.”
“Yes.”
“If I leave, you could lose control even without Daniel receiving the inheritance.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I want you to know there is no financial advantage to keeping you here.”
She stared at the papers.
“I don’t want your shares.”
“They’re not going to you.”
“Then who?”
“The employees.”
Emily looked up.
“If you leave tomorrow, I lose the inheritance and these shares go into a trust controlled partly by employee representatives.”
“That’s insane.”
“Probably.”
“You could lose everything you’ve spent your adult life building.”
“Not everything.”
His voice was quiet.
Emily stopped breathing.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You asked how you could know whether my kindness was real.”
He swallowed.
“This is the only answer I could think of.”
Her eyes filled.
“You shouldn’t have to destroy your life to prove something to me.”
“I’m not destroying it.”
“You could lose your company.”
“Then I lose the company.”
“Adrian—”
“I can build another company.”
His voice cracked.
“I cannot build another you.”
The tears came before Emily could stop them.
Adrian did not touch her.
He waited.
Always waiting now.
She looked at him through blurred vision.
“That was a terrible line.”
“I know.”
“It sounded rehearsed.”
“I spent four hours on it.”
She laughed through her tears.
Adrian smiled.
Then she stepped into his arms.
He held her carefully at first.
Emily wrapped both arms around his waist.
His restraint broke.
He held her like a man finally permitted to come home.
“I’m still angry,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I’m still scared.”
“So am I.”
“And I’m not promising one year.”
“I’m not asking for one year.”
She pulled back.
“What are you asking for?”
“Tomorrow.”
Emily looked at him.
“Just tomorrow?”
“Then maybe the day after that.”
May you like
Her smile trembled.
“I can do tomorrow.”
