Chapter 6 - Thomas Left Eleanor a Warning
Inside Thomas’s old desk was a letter dated two months before his death.
Ellie—
If Ryan ever starts treating the company like an inheritance instead of
a responsibility, slow him down.
Thomas wrote that Ryan was brilliant, ambitious, and dangerously
impatient.
Years earlier, Ryan had tried to push through a hotel acquisition using
financial projections Thomas considered misleading.
Thomas stopped the deal.
He hoped Ryan had learned.
At the bottom was one line Eleanor had read many times.
Do not reward him for becoming the man he thinks money requires him to
be.
Claire looked at her mother.
“You knew?”
“I knew he could become reckless.”
“You didn’t know he would hit you.”
Eleanor looked toward the window.
“No mother believes that until the hand is already moving.”
Claire reached for her.
Eleanor shook her head.
“Don’t pity me.”
May you like
“I don’t.”
“Good. Then help me finish this properly.”
