Chapter 4
My son had always sounded like me when he was angry.
That used to make me proud.
Now it made me sick.
“Walk away,” Charles repeated.
“You have no idea what that family is.”
I looked at Noah.
He was standing beside Rose’s bed, one small hand resting on her blanket.
“I know enough.”
“No, you don’t. They are opportunists.”
“Careful.”
“They found you in a park, didn’t they?”
His voice sharpened.
“How convenient.”
I turned toward the window.
“Noah asked for forty dollars. He returned a wallet full of cash.”
Charles paused.
Then laughed coldly.
“And that impressed you? Father, you built an empire. Don’t become sentimental now.”
Sentimental.
That was what men like Charles called decency when it threatened profit.
“What did you ask Rose to sign?”
Another pause.
Longer.
“Nothing important.”
“Wrong answer.”
His voice dropped.
“You’re tired. You’re old. People will use you.”
I looked at my reflection in the dark window.
Old, yes.
Tired, yes.
But not dead.
“Charles, listen carefully. Preserve every file involving Mateo Reyes, Rose Reyes, Noah Reyes, and the warehouse fire.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You are still CEO because I allow it.”
His breathing changed.
“You wouldn’t remove me over some cleaner’s grandson.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The rot.
“You have until morning,” I said.
Then I hung up.
Rose stared at me.
“You should not fight your son for us.”
“I am not fighting him for you.”
Noah’s face fell.
I looked at him.
“I am fighting him because he may have turned my name into a weapon.”
Rose looked away.
“That happened long before him, Arthur.”
I did not answer because I feared she was right.
That night, I sent for Dr. Keller, my personal physician.
Rose refused at first.
Noah begged.
“Please, Grandma.”
That broke her.
Dr. Keller examined her carefully.
“She needs hospital care,” he told me in the hallway.
“How serious?”
“Serious enough that another week like this could have killed her.”
I looked through the doorway.
Noah sat beside Rose, holding her hand and trying not to cry.
“Arrange it.”
Rose protested when the medical transport arrived.
“We can’t pay.”
“I can.”
“I don’t want your charity.”
“Good,” I said.
“Consider it the beginning of a debt.”
Her eyes filled.
“A debt?”
“Yes. Mine.”
At the hospital, Noah refused to leave her side.
I stayed too.
Malcolm stood near the door, still unhappy, but quieter now.
Around midnight, Noah fell asleep in a chair.
Rose looked at me.
“He is all I have.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. His mother died when he was six. His father left before he was born. That boy has never had anyone stay except me.”
I watched Noah sleep.
“What happens if you die?”
Rose’s eyes shone.
“That is what scares me.”
Before I could answer, my phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
Stop digging, Arthur. The Reyes file burns everyone.
Then a photo arrived.
Noah kneeling in front of me at the park.
Taken that afternoon.
Someone had followed us.
I showed Malcolm.
His face hardened.
“Sir, this is no longer family business.”
“No,” I said.
“It is exactly family business.”
The next morning, I returned to Alden Tower.
My board was waiting.
So was Charles.
He stood at the head of my conference table.
My chair.
My place.
He smiled when I entered.
“Father. We need to discuss your judgment.”
I looked around the room.
Lawyers.
Directors.
Executives.
All carefully avoiding my eyes.
I sat down slowly.
May you like
“No,” I said.
“We need to discuss yours.”
