Chapter 12 - THE FATHER WHO FINALLY CHOSE
Raymond Blake owned six percent personally.
Enough to decide the contest.
For years he had avoided choosing.
Now avoidance became a vote.
Northstar needed him.
Titan needed him.
Serena needed him.
Adrienne needed him.
Raymond invited both daughters to the family house.
The same dining room.
The same chair Chloe had fallen from was gone.
Margaret had removed it.
Adrienne noticed.
Serena did too.
Raymond sat at the head of the table.
“I am tired,” he said.
Serena laughed.
“So are we.”
Margaret was not there.
Raymond had asked her to leave for the evening.
That alone was extraordinary.
He looked at Adrienne.
“Your plan will expose Walter.”
“Yes.”
“And Henry.”
“Yes.”
“And me.”
Adrienne frowned.
“How?”
Raymond admitted he had discovered the pension diversion years later.
He chose not to report it.
Not criminally actionable now perhaps.
But reputationally devastating.
Adrienne looked at him.
“You all built this company out of secrets.”
Raymond nodded.
“Yes.”
Then he looked at Serena.
“Northstar keeps you in place.”
“For three years.”
“And after?”
“They say review.”
Adrienne almost laughed.
Everyone knew what that meant.
Raymond asked Serena:
“Do you believe you should stay CEO?”
Serena went silent.
A month earlier, she would have answered instantly.
Now:
“I believe I could.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Serena looked down.
“No.”
Adrienne stared.
Serena continued:
“Not now.”
Raymond closed his eyes.
The favorite daughter had finally said the sentence nobody had allowed her to say.
I should not be in charge.
Raymond looked at Adrienne.
“And you?”
“I don’t want the job.”
“Then who leads?”
“Someone who doesn’t need our mother’s approval.”
Serena almost smiled.
Raymond reached into his jacket.
He had signed two voting agreements.
One with Northstar.
Unsigned by witness.
One prepared by Patrick for Titan’s restructuring.
He tore the Northstar agreement in half.
Serena exhaled.
Adrienne did not celebrate.
Raymond signed the Titan agreement.
Then said:
“I am not choosing you over Serena.”
Adrienne nodded.
“I know.”
“I am choosing a structure over us.”
“That’s the first good governance decision this family has made.”
Serena laughed unexpectedly.
Raymond did too.
For one brief moment, they sounded like a family.
Then the front door slammed.
Margaret entered.
Her face was white with fury.
“You signed it.”
Raymond stood.
“Yes.”
“You weak coward.”
“Margaret.”
“You gave Walter’s company to outsiders.”
“No.”
“You chose Adrienne.”
Raymond shook his head.
“I chose to stop making Serena carry what you wanted.”
Margaret looked at Serena.
“You told him.”
Serena stood slowly.
“I told myself.”
Margaret stared.
Then her expression hardened into something dangerous.
“Fine.”
She opened her purse.
Patrick, who had been waiting in the next room, stepped in.
Margaret smiled.
“You all want truth?”
She held up a flash drive.
“Then let’s give the regulators everything.”
Adrienne went cold.
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If Margaret released the founders’ fraud without coordinated disclosure, panic could destroy the company before Titan’s rescue closed.
Margaret had chosen scorched earth.
