Chapter 26: The Seat

Lachlan's POV

I carried my son up to a hotel room that was not mine and gave him to his mother at the door.

She took him without a word and turned her back.

I did not ask to come in, and I did not ask for anything.

I went home to an empty townhouse and slept in the study for the last time.

At six in the morning, someone rang the bell.

Cordelia stood on the step in yesterday's gold silk with a suitcase at her feet.

Her makeup had run, and her hair had come down on one side.

The driver's car was gone from the curb.

"Mother won't let me in," she said. "She says I'm to go to a hotel."

"Then go to a hotel."

"Lachlan, I'm your sister."

"You are the woman who put my son's face on every phone in this city."

"I did it to protect you!"

"From what?"

She opened her mouth, and for once nothing smooth came out of it.

"She'll leave again," she said finally. "You watch. She left once without a fight, and the minute you stop being sorry, she'll do it again."

"Maybe."

She blinked at me.

"Maybe she will. That's hers to decide. It was never yours."

She held out her ring of keys, and I took the townhouse key off it.

"You can pick up the rest of your things from the lawyer."

She picked up her suitcase and walked down the steps by herself.

She did not look back, and I did not watch her go.

At ten I walked into the boardroom, and the black glass table had twelve chairs, all full.

The old director stood to meet me, which he had never done in thirty years.

"We voted without you," he said. "Cordelia is out as chief operating officer. The vote was unanimous."

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