“I don’t know how to live with that.”
“You live with it by becoming someone who would never make that choice again.”
He nodded, but the grief in him remained enormous.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“With the company?”
“With everything.”
“The company continues according to Richard’s plan. James will remain acting CEO while the board finalizes succession. The foundation expands. Charlotte’s trust remains intact. The employees receive their pension enhancement.”
“And me?”
Eleanor studied him.
“You remain responsible for your own life.”
He laughed once, quietly. “That sounds like Dad.”
“It is.”
“I don’t want my regional director job.”
Eleanor had not expected that.
Thomas looked ashamed but determined. “I don’t deserve it. Maybe I never did. I was there because of my name. People knew it. I knew it too, even if I pretended otherwise.”
“What will you do?”
“I don’t know.”
He touched the notebook.
“But maybe I can start where he wanted me to understand things. The foundation. The employee programs. The scholarships. Not as director. Not as some symbolic Mitchell heir. At the bottom. If Alan Reeves will have me.”
Eleanor felt something inside her loosen, not forgiveness exactly, but the first movement toward it.
“You will have to earn trust.”
“I know.”
“People will be angry.”
“They should be.”
“Charlotte most of all.”
At that, Thomas’s face crumpled.
“I’ve been a terrible father.”
“Yes,” Eleanor said gently. “You have.”
He looked at her with pain but no defensiveness.
“I want to apologize to her. Properly. No excuses.”
“Then do.”
He hesitated.
“Would you be there? Not to protect me. I don’t deserve that. Just… I might need help finding the words.”
Eleanor reached for his hand again.
“Of course.”
Thomas withdrew the lawsuit the next day.
Grayson Mills was furious. Victoria, through her own attorney, accused Thomas of emotional instability and threatened divorce proceedings that would “reflect his family’s fraudulent financial conduct.” Society columns buzzed for two weeks. Business reporters speculated endlessly about whether Thomas had been bought off, broken down, or outmaneuvered. The court filings were dismissed. The headlines faded, as headlines always do once they have fed enough.
But inside the Mitchell family, the real work had only begun.
Thomas met Charlotte at Eleanor’s penthouse on a Sunday afternoon.