Chapter 12 - THE JOB DEREK THOUGHT WAS HIS
Derek had assumed Northline viewed him as the indispensable operator.
They did.
But they also viewed Raymond as a risk-management asset.
Graham explained:
“Your brother asks different questions than you do.”
Derek heard criticism.
Graham meant balance.
Northline’s due diligence showed that before Laura’s illness, Raymond repeatedly prevented:
overpaying for land,
taking on poorly structured debt,
and chasing expansion before utilities were secured.
Derek had grown the company.
Raymond had slowed it at useful times.
Northline wanted both.
Derek asked Graham:
“So you think I can’t run the company?”
“I think no one should run a forty-million-dollar family company without counterweights.”
That answer humiliated Derek.
Then educated him.
Raymond faced his own problem.
Did he want to return?
He spent two weeks visiting projects.
Walking land.
Meeting managers.
Looking at financing models.
Some parts felt familiar.
Some exhausted him.
One afternoon Eli asked:
“Are you going back to work with Uncle Derek?”
“Maybe.”
“Do you want to?”
Raymond opened his mouth.
Stopped.
He had spent years answering what others needed:
Laura needed care.
Eli needed stability.
Derek needed decisions.
Elaine needed peace.
The company needed clarity.
What did Raymond want?
He did not know.
Then Eli asked:
“If you don’t work there, do you lose your chair?”
Raymond smiled.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because chairs aren’t shares.”
Eli laughed.
Simple.
But the question stayed.
Raymond decided on a narrower return.
Board chair.
Land and capital oversight.
No daily operations.
Derek remained CEO.
The board approved it.
Northline reopened discussions.
Then Kristen made a decision no one expected.
She declined the phantom-equity pool.
Derek looked stunned.
“Why?”
“I want cash compensation for real work. Not another promise tied to what the company might become.”
That was healthier.
Then she added:
“And I want my own contract reviewed independently.”
The compensation committee agreed.
One major ambiguity finally ended.
But before the Northline deal could sign, Paige discovered a clause in the shareholder agreement everyone had overlooked.
Elaine’s twenty percent carried a transfer restriction.
If she sold more than five percent, both sons received equal purchase rights.
Northline’s model assumed Elaine would sell eight.
Elaine looked at the clause.
Then said:
“I was never planning to sell anything.”
May you like
The deal assumptions were wrong again.
And this time, Derek was not the source.
