Claire Takes the Chair
Chapter 14 - Claire Takes the Chair
Claire accepted the position for one year.
No longer.
That was her condition.
She walked into Grant’s former office on Monday morning and removed the enormous portrait of him from the wall.
She did not replace it with her own.
Instead, she hung an old black-and-white photograph of Harbor House when it first opened.
A reminder.
Buildings outlast egos.
Her first decision was to cancel the planned age-based layoffs.
Her second was to publish a financial recovery plan employees could actually read.
Her third made the board nervous.
She cut executive bonuses.
Including her own.
“You’re setting a dangerous precedent,” one director complained.
Claire smiled.
“Then let’s hope it becomes contagious.”
The company did not magically recover.
There were difficult weeks.
Properties had to be sold.
Contracts renegotiated.
Budgets reduced.
But Claire refused to sacrifice the employees at the bottom to preserve comfort at the top.
Something began to change.
People stopped whispering when she entered rooms.
They started bringing her problems.
Real ones.
Meanwhile, Grant disappeared from public view.
His attorneys negotiated.
Investigators questioned him.
His friends stopped returning calls.
The people who had laughed beside him at galas discovered other invitations.
Then, six weeks after Claire became CEO, Grant appeared at Harbor House.
He waited in the lobby.
Claire almost had security remove him.
Instead, she walked down.
“What do you want?”
“To talk.”
“We’re talking.”
Grant looked around.
Employees were watching.
His voice dropped.
“I lost the apartment.”
Claire said nothing.
“My accounts are frozen.”
Still nothing.
“You could help me.”
There it was.
After everything.
The expectation.
Claire looked at the man she had once loved.
“I did help you, Grant.”
His expression changed.
“For twenty-two years.”
She walked away.
Then he said, “There’s something about your mother you don’t know.”
Claire stopped.
Grant had finally found a weapon sharp enough to turn her around.
“What about my mother?”
May you like
Grant reached into his coat.
And held out a letter bearing the handwriting Claire had not seen since the funeral.
