Chapter 12 - WHAT SABRINA SAID SHE WAS PROTECTING
Sabrina requested a mediated meeting as the divorce and related cases moved forward.
Wyatt agreed only because business and property issues required structured discussion.
Abraham did not attend.
That mattered.
Wyatt was not a child being rescued by his father.
He was the person Sabrina had harmed.
The conversation belonged to him.
Sabrina wore a gray suit.
No glittering gown.
No stilettos.
Wyatt still used a cane after knee surgery.
He hated the symbolism.
He used it anyway.
“Why Redfern?” he asked.
Sabrina looked at her attorney.
Then answered.
“Because Mercer was wasting value.”
“You could’ve told me.”
“I did.”
“You told me to trust you.”
“You never listened when I showed you the numbers.”
Wyatt thought.
That was partly true.
He hated discussions about selling.
Every valuation felt like someone pricing Harold’s life.
Sabrina continued.
“You wanted to protect every employee, every warehouse, every tradition. You weren’t running a company. You were preserving a museum.”
Wyatt nodded slowly.
“Maybe.”
She seemed surprised.
“Then why not let me restructure it?”
“Because you didn’t ask for authority. You took it.”
Her face hardened.
“I was protecting our future.”
“Whose?”
“Ours.”
“Then why did you own Redfern separately?”
Sabrina had no good answer.
“Why did you hide Mark?”
Silence.
“Why did you build contracts that paid your company?”
Still nothing.
Wyatt leaned forward.
“What were you actually protecting when you chained me downstairs?”
Sabrina’s eyes filled.
“The deal.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Your deal?”
“Yes.”
“Your money?”
“Yes.”
“Your reputation?”
Her voice cracked.
“Yes.”
Finally.
Sabrina had spent her entire career advising powerful people who never hesitated.
Closing.
Executing.
Deciding.
Wyatt’s uncertainty embarrassed her.
His emotional attachment to Mercer embarrassed her.
His refusal made her feel powerless inside a marriage where she believed she had become the smarter operator.
“At some point,” Wyatt said, “you stopped seeing me as your husband.”
Sabrina looked down.
“I saw you as the person blocking every solution.”
“And that made my consent optional.”
She cried.
“I didn’t plan the basement.”
Wyatt believed that.
The chain had been escalation.
Not original strategy.
That made it no less real.
May you like
“You planned around me for a year,” he said. “The basement was just the first time the plan needed hardware.”
Sabrina had no answer.
