The Man Who Can't Let Her Go novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Seat He Gave Up

Hayden watched her plane's lights go up over the harbor from the hospital parking lot, and then he drove to the office.

He did not go home.

At nine on Monday morning the board of VanAlen & Co. sat down at the long table on the fortieth floor.

A dozen men and two women, in dark suits, with the gray man at the foot of the table pretending to read a folder.

Hayden stood at the head, and did not sit.

"I have something to read," he said.

"Hayden, the press is already downstairs," the gray man said. "Saturday night will be in every paper. We need a statement that shows control."

"This is the statement."

He unfolded one sheet of paper.

"As of today I am stepping down as chairman of this company for twelve months."

The room made a sound like a dropped tray.

"You can't," someone said.

"I can. My grandmother signed the articles in 1971 so that the chairman could take a leave. I looked it up on Saturday night."

"Over a scandal?"

"Over my wife."

A woman at the middle of the table put her pen down.

"Hayden, the firm is eleven thousand employees," the gray man said, standing. "It is a hundred and forty ships. It's your father's name."

"My father's name is on a building."

"Please sit down."

"Three years ago, I let a stranger's phone call decide whether I would get on a plane," Hayden said. "I told myself I couldn't leave. The firm needed me. The quarter needed me."

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