Chapter 7 - SIX BILLION DOLLARS COULDN’T FIX THIS
Daniel Ross pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction.
Travis survived and agreed to testify.
The crisis should have ended.
Instead, Ethan’s real crisis began.
Mercer Dynamics’ board voted to remove him as CEO.
Not permanently.
That was the language they used.
“Administrative leave.”
Ethan understood corporate euphemisms.
He had invented several.
The company he had built at twenty-seven no longer wanted him running it at forty-one.
When he told Maya, she expected anger.
Instead he said, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
“You built that company.”
“I did.”
“And they’re pushing you out.”
“Yes.”
“Why aren’t you furious?”
Ethan looked around his penthouse.
Maya and Lily had finally visited.
Lily was currently investigating the refrigerator.
“Because six months ago, I would have burned half the boardroom before letting them take my title.”
“And now?”
“I’m tired.”
Maya studied him.
Not tired from sleep.
Tired from years.
Ethan sat.
“I missed my mother’s last Thanksgiving because of a product launch.”
Maya sat beside him.
“I missed my sister’s wedding rehearsal.”
“Ethan.”
“I’ve forgotten birthdays. Canceled vacations. I once sent my nephew a birthday present through my assistant and couldn’t remember what it was.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I kept telling myself I was building freedom.”
Maya touched his hand.
“When exactly was I supposed to become free?”
Lily returned carrying a glass bottle.
“Why does your water wear a fancy dress?”
Ethan looked at the expensive mineral water.
“I have no idea.”
Maya laughed.
Lily climbed beside them.
“Are you sad?”
Ethan considered lying.
Then didn’t.
“A little.”
“Because of work?”
“Yes.”
Lily thought carefully.
“You can get another job.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Ethan laughed.
“That is technically correct.”
“You can work at Mom’s building.”
“Lily.”
“What? He knows technology.”
Ethan laughed harder.
Something loosened inside him.
A week later he accepted the board’s decision.
Then he did something nobody expected.
He resigned.
Mercer Dynamics stock briefly dropped.
Financial television spent forty-eight hours discussing his “stunning exit.”
Ethan turned everything off.
He kept his shares.
Kept his fortune.
But for the first time since his twenties, he had nowhere he was required to be Monday morning.
At 7:43 a.m., he called Maya.
“Coffee?”
“You know normal people work?”
“I’ve recently become unemployed.”
“You are worth six billion dollars.”
“Unemployed is unemployed.”
She laughed.
They met after her shift.
Weeks became months.
Spring reached Chicago.
Ethan learned Lily’s school schedule.
He attended her science fair.
He discovered Maya hated lilies despite having named her daughter Lily.
“That’s confusing.”
“I liked the name.”
“You dislike the flower.”
“They smell like funerals.”
“Fair.”
He helped Maya’s neighbor fix a broken laptop.
He cooked terribly.
He learned to make pancakes because Lily insisted billionaire pancakes should taste better.
They didn’t.
One evening Maya found him washing dishes.
She leaned against the kitchen counter.
“You’re changing.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I mean it.”
“Is that bad?”
Maya hesitated.
“No.”
But she looked afraid.
Ethan put down the plate.
“What?”
“This is easy right now.”
“What is?”
“Us.”
“That’s usually considered positive.”
“You don’t understand.”
She looked around her tiny kitchen.
“You lived in another universe before me.”
“I still technically own property there.”
“Ethan.”
He became serious.
Maya continued.
“What happens when you get bored?”
“With you?”
“With this.”
She gestured toward everything.
“School pickups. Cheap takeout. My apartment. Me.”
Ethan stared.
“You think I’m playing house?”
“I think you’ve spent your entire life being able to change anything that becomes uncomfortable.”
The accusation hurt because part of it was true.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“That I’ll never leave?”
Maya looked away.
“I don’t make promises I can’t guarantee.”
“That’s convenient.”
“No. It’s honest.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“I can’t promise we’ll never fight. I can’t promise I’ll never make a mistake. I can’t promise you’ll never decide I’m impossible.”
“You are impossible.”
“I’m aware.”
He took her hand.
“But I can promise I’m not here because I’m bored.”
Maya looked at him.
“I love you.”
Silence.
Ethan had not planned to say it.
Maya’s eyes filled.
He almost panicked.
“You don’t have to—”
“I love you too.”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
She smiled through tears.
“You heard me.”
“Could you repeat it?”
“No.”
“Maya.”
She kissed him.
That night, Ethan slept on Maya’s couch because Lily had a nightmare and climbed into Maya’s bed.
At 6:12 the next morning, he woke with his neck aching and Lily standing over him.
“You snore.”
“I do not.”
“You do.”
“Your evidence is weak.”
“I recorded it.”
Ethan stared.
Lily grinned.
He started laughing.
Then his phone rang.
His sister, Rebecca.
They hadn’t spoken in months.
“Ethan.”
Her voice was shaking.
“What happened?”
“It’s Dad.”
Ethan sat up.
Their father, William Mercer, had been emotionally absent for most of Ethan’s life.
The two men spoke perhaps four times a year.
“What about him?”
“He had a heart attack.”
Ethan stood.
“Where?”
“Northwestern.”
“I’m coming.”
He hung up.
Maya appeared.
“What happened?”
“My father.”
He reached for his coat.
Then stopped.
The old Ethan would have gone alone.
The old Ethan always went alone.
This time he looked at Maya.
“Will you come with me?”
She didn’t hesitate.
May you like
“Yes.”
And Ethan understood that asking someone to stay beside you could require more courage than pretending you never needed anyone.
