Contract Over: You're Free to Go novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Last Trade

The hospital smelled of floor cleaner and burnt coffee.

Margot sat in the waiting room with her coat buttoned wrong.

At six in the morning a nurse came out and said the chairman was awake and had asked for one person.

"He wants you," Margot said.

"He wants you."

"He said Mr. Cronin."

I looked at the door for a moment.

Then I went in.

Alistair lay propped on three pillows with a tube in his arm and a screen beside him drawing green lines.

Without the suit he was thinner than I had thought.

His hands lay on the blanket, spotted, and one of them shook a little.

"Sit," he said.

"I'll stand."

"As you like." His voice was lower than usual, but the softness was still in it. "You have done a remarkable amount of damage in a month."

"You started it."

"I did." He closed his eyes briefly. "I should like to make you an offer. A last one. You may refuse it."

"I've refused the others."

"This one is better."

He opened his eyes.

"My doctors say I have a year, perhaps two, if I do nothing. I intend to do a great deal. I will restore every share my daughter owns and burn the clause she signed. I will withdraw the eviction and sign the building over to Mr. Brennan outright. In return, I ask very little. Co-guardianship of the boy. Schooling of my choice. He lives with you, naturally, but the company trust names me his regent until he is twenty-five."

"A regent."

"It is a position of some dignity."

"It's a leash."

"It is a lifetime of protection," Alistair said. "Nine thousand jobs depend on the right person in that seat. The boy will be hunted by every lawyer in the state. He needs someone who knows how."

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