Chapter 15: Both Sons

Weston stood up.

Claire was back at the table by then, with her hands in her lap and her pulse in her ears.

He passed behind her chair and did not touch her.

He walked the length of the ballroom with four hundred people watching, and he took the steps one at a time.

On the stage, the two men stood a body apart under the lights.

Preston was the shorter by a few inches, and his face was white.

Weston looked at him once, and then at the man holding the microphone.

"Thirty-four years ago," Thurston said, "I made a decision that I have regretted every day since."

He did not look at his notes. He had none.

"I was married. I was afraid of what it would cost me. And a young woman who worked for me had a son, and I let her raise him alone."

Nobody in the room coughed or moved a glass.

"That son stands here. His name is Weston Crane, and he is my eldest child."

For a moment nothing happened at all.

Then the sound came, a long low rush of voices from every table at once.

Beside Claire, Delaney said, "What?" in a thin, plain voice that was not her singing one.

Preston did not move.

He was staring at Weston.

"I built Vanderveer Group," Thurston said, over the noise. "I have two sons, and I am old, and tonight I am putting it right."

"On Monday the board will vote on a new chairman. I am asking my eldest to take the chair."

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