Chapter 14 - The Last Offer Before the Vote
Victoria called Ryan Thursday evening.
He almost ignored it.
Then he answered and put the phone on speaker while Oliver listened from another line.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to contact each other,” Ryan said.
“I received permission through counsel.”
“What do you want?”
“To solve this.”
Ryan waited.
Victoria’s voice was composed.
“If the board terminates exclusivity tomorrow, the hotel loses weeks. Possibly months.”
“Maybe.”
“The lender won’t wait forever.”
“I know.”
“Your mother’s collateral remains exposed.”
“I know.”
“Your sister needs liquidity.”
Ryan looked out his kitchen window.
Ethan was in the backyard trying to kick a soccer ball between two folding chairs.
“I know that too.”
Victoria paused.
“We’re prepared to improve the offer.”
Ryan said nothing.
“Another two million.”
“That isn’t my decision.”
“It influences your family.”
“Still not my decision.”
Victoria’s patience thinned.
“What do you want, Ryan?”
He had asked himself the same thing all week.
Not her humiliation.
Not her apology.
Not even her money.
“I want you away from my son.”
“That is already the case.”
“I want the board free to document what happened without signing a release that turns it into nothing.”
“This is business.”
“It became something else when you used Ethan.”
Victoria exhaled.
“You keep describing him as though I injured him.”
“You made a seven-year-old kneel at your feet.”
“He’s physically fine.”
Ryan looked through the glass at Ethan.
Physically.
The word enraged him more than shouting would have.
But he didn’t take the bait.
“My answer is no.”
Victoria was quiet.
Then she said, “Your father would have taken the money.”
Ryan almost answered instinctively.
Instead he asked, “Did you know my father?”
“No.”
“Then don’t borrow him.”
He ended the call.
Friday morning, the family met before the board vote.
Judith wore Peter’s old watch.
Claire sat beside her but did not speak for her.
That alone felt new.
Martin asked whether the Mercer family supported continuing with Vale.
Claire looked at Ryan.
Then Judith.
“I’ll vote my own six percent for the sale,” Claire said. “I need everyone to understand why.”
Her voice was steady.
“My finances are worse than I admitted. Derek’s business debt is mine too. A sale helps me. That is part of why I made decisions I had no right to make for Ryan.”
Judith nodded slowly.
Then voted against continuing with Vale.
Martin looked at Ryan.
Ryan thought about his father.
About the debt.
About Claire.
About the change-of-control payout that could disappear if no sale happened.
About Ethan.
“I vote against Vale,” he said. “Not against selling.”
The distinction mattered.
The full board voted twenty minutes later.
Vale Hospitality Partners lost exclusivity.
The hotel was not saved.
Nobody suddenly became rich.
The debt remained.
Another buyer might offer less.
Judith’s house was still connected to obligations she wished she had understood years ago.
Claire still had creditors.
Ryan still had a disciplinary warning.
But Victoria no longer had the right to walk into the Linden House acting like tomorrow already belonged to her.
Her final opportunity to control the transaction ended with a four-to-three vote.
Afterward Claire found Ryan alone in the hall.
“I voted against you.”
Ryan nodded.
“I know.”
“I couldn’t afford not to.”
“I know that too.”
She looked at him.
“Do you hate me?”
Ryan could have given her comfort.
He could have punished her.
Instead he gave her the truth.
“Not enough to stop loving you.”
May you like
Claire’s eyes filled.
“And not little enough to forgive you yet.”
