An Understated Dominance novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Promise

We sat in my car in the parking garage with the soup going cold between us.

"Tell me about the board seat," I said.

Colter looked at his hands.

"Not here," he said.

"Here. Now. You've had a week."

He took off his glasses and set them on the dashboard.

"Four years ago," he said, "my father found out how much I had put into Fieldwell."

"Found out?"

"He has people who watch me. I told you. They traced the wires."

"He called me the next morning. He said he'd destroy it."

I stared at him.

"He'd do it, too. He'd done it to smaller things. He had already tried twice. He knew your suppliers, your banks, your landlord."

"He gave me one chance."

"What chance?"

"He said, 'Let her keep the company. Make me a promise, and I'll leave it alone.'"

My mouth had gone dry.

"What promise?"

"That the day Fieldwell sold, or went public, or changed hands for any reason," Colter said, "I'd come home."

"And take the chair at Merrow Freight."

"Chief executive. Full term."

"There's a seat on the Merrow board that's been empty for four years."

"My father keeps it open. It has my name on a card."

"Russell knew about it, because it's in the Harcourt paperwork."

"It's how the deal was designed."

The garage was suddenly very quiet.

I could hear a drip somewhere behind us, and my own pulse in my ears.

"The day I sell," I said, "you go home."

"Yes."

"To the house on the hill, and the portrait, and the empty chair."

"Yes."

"And you knew this. When I stood on that stage and said I was divorcing you."

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