Chapter 4 - THE WHITAKER INHERITANCE
The next morning,
the apartment was filled with the smell of breakfast.
I woke up to find Graham in my kitchen,
surrounded by grocery bags.
He was awkwardly trying to flip pancakes while Noah watched him from a high chair.
“What are you doing?”
I asked,
rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“I went to the store at 6:00 a.m.,”
he said,
not looking away from the pan.
“I realized I don't even know what their favorite food is.”
“It’s blueberries,”
I said,
walking over to help him.
“They love blueberry pancakes.”
He nodded seriously,
as if he were taking notes for a billion-dollar merger.
We worked in a strange,
domestic silence for a few minutes.
It felt dangerously like the future I had once imagined.
But then the phone rang.
It was Graham’s lawyer.
I watched his face harden back into the man of business.
“No,
I don’t care about the board meeting,”
he snapped into the phone.
“Tell them I’m indisposed.”
“Indefinitely.”
He hung up and looked at me,
defiance in his eyes.
“They’re going to try to take the company from me,”
he said.
“Because I walked away yesterday.”
“Let them,”
I said,
setting the table.
“You said it yourself,
it’s just buildings.”
He walked over to Noah and gently touched his hair.
“It’s not just buildings anymore,”
he said.
“It’s their inheritance.”
“My father’s will has a clause.”
“If I have children,
the majority shares go to them,
not the board.”
I froze,
a fork in my hand.
“So that’s why Vanessa was there?”
“She wasn't just there for you?”
Graham nodded grimly.
“She was there to see if the rumors were true.”
“If the children exist,
she loses her power over the firm.”
Suddenly,
the safety of my quiet life felt very fragile.
My children weren't just toddlers anymore,
they were targets in a corporate war.
“I won’t let them near them,”
Graham promised,
May you like
his voice low and dangerous.
“I’ll burn the whole company down before I let them hurt you again.”
