Chapter 4 - I Walked Away From the Life My Father Built
Walter expected Julian at the office Monday morning.
Julian arrived at seven.
By seven-twenty, he had removed family photographs, personal books, and twenty years of small objects from his office.
At seven-thirty, Walter walked in.
“What is this?”
“I’m taking a leave.”
“You don’t take leave from your own company.”
“It isn’t my company.”
“You hold eight percent.”
“You control seventy-one.”
Walter closed the door.
“You’re behaving emotionally.”
“My five-year-old told me he’s afraid I’ll abandon him because you’ve been telling him I will.”
Walter exhaled.
“You’re putting adult language into a child’s mouth.”
“Nat knew my schedule.”
Walter’s eyes shifted slightly.
Julian caught it.
“Why were you changing my site visits?”
“I run the company.”
“Why those days?”
“Because work needed to be done.”
Julian placed his office key on the desk.
Walter looked at it.
“You walk out now, the succession offer disappears.”
For eighteen months, Walter had been preparing Julian to purchase another thirty percent of Mercer Residential Group through a seller-financed transaction.
It was the opportunity Julian had spent most of his adult life working toward.
It was also frightening.
The purchase would require millions in debt over time, personal guarantees, and years of dependence on Walter.
Claire had urged him to slow down.
Walter hated that.
“You think Claire is protecting you,” Walter said. “She’s making you weak.”
“No.”
Julian picked up his box.
“She made me notice I’ve spent my entire life confusing your approval with security.”
Walter stepped in front of the door.
“If you leave, don’t expect me to hold your position.”
“I don’t.”
“And the seventy-five thousand I advanced for your house?”
“We have a signed repayment schedule.”
“I can accelerate it.”
“No, you can’t.”
Walter smiled without warmth.
“You sure?”
That was when Julian realized the financial pressure would not stop at his salary.
He left anyway.
The hotel was not sustainable, so Julian and Claire found a furnished townhouse in Skokie.
It was half the size of the mansion’s guest wing.
Nat loved it.
He chose a bedroom overlooking a maple tree and asked if he could put glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.
Julian said yes before Claire could remind him they were renting.
That night, while assembling a cheap shelving unit, Julian heard Claire say his name from the kitchen.
She was holding her phone.
“What?”
“There’s something else I should have shown you.”
Julian immediately knew from her face that he was not going to like it.
Claire opened an email Walter had sent her three weeks earlier.
It began politely.
By the fourth paragraph, Walter was offering to pay a year of rent if Claire took Nat and moved out temporarily.
Not divorce.
Not officially.
Just “space.”
The final sentence read:
Julian needs the freedom to decide what kind of future he wants before he makes permanent choices about the boy.
Julian looked at Claire.
“What permanent choice?”
May you like
Her eyes filled.
“The adoption.”
