On my way outside to find my parents on the patio, I ran into Ian, who insisted I meet with him in his office for a few minutes first.
“I didn’t want to approach the subject with Grey until I’d had a chance to speak to you and your father,” Ian began once we were seated together by the empty fireplace in the cozy paneled room with the door closed.
“What subject?”
“It’s about the building Grey Blackwood wants to buy.”
My heart took a little leap of excitement until I realized he’d mentioned my father. If he was taking my dad’s advice, Ian would never sign over the property to Grey.
“What about it? Do you want me to go get Grey so he can answer any questions you have?”
“No, that’s just it. I wanted to talk to you alone because the issue is… complicated.” He took a breath. “You see, one of my tenants in the building has a right of first refusal clause in their contract. If I intend to sell the building, they would get the right to offer for it before anyone else. Based on knowing who they are and what their situation is, I think they would exercise the right and buy it.”
“So then Grey would have to buy it from them?” I asked.
“Theoretically, yes, except in this case, they would never agree to sell it to him. The tenant is a company your father has partial ownership of.”
“It is? What company?” I asked. “If it’s one of York Capital’s investments, then Dad doesn’t own it anymore. Grey does.”
Ian shook his head, looking noticeably disturbed about all of this. “No, this is a personal thing. Your father and a few of his friends co-own a company called Marlette Venture Partners. Marlette leases three of the five floors of my building. Part of the reason they have a right of first refusal is because one of the companies they’re invested in is a specialty science lab that needed to invest quite a bit of money in retrofitting their own space on the top floor. If I were to sell the building, they wouldn’t be able to recoup their losses on the specialty outfitting.”
None of this made any sense. Marlette was my mother’s maiden name, so if that was the name of the company, my father had to be involved. “My father co-owns another VC company? Since when?”
The fact he’d never told me about it all these years felt like a betrayal. Who the hell had done his legal work?
Even worse, my father had let me believe that everything he owned was tied up in York Capital—that my parents would have ended up homeless if I hadn’t agreed to be Grey’s assistant and save the Greenwich house—when all the while, he’d owned another company. A company with enough assets to buy Ian’s building outright.
Ian shifted uncomfortably. “That’s not the point, and honestly, that’s between the two of you. It’s not my place to tell you any of this, but the reason I’m doing so anyway is because I can see how much you care about Grey. I can see he cares for you as well. I’m sorry you’re in this predicament with your father.”
“Maybe Grey can make an offer to the lab to cover the expense and inconvenience of fitting out a new space?”
Ian sat back in his chair. “I’m afraid you’d still have the issue of your father to deal with. He’s not going to agree to sell to Grey Blackwood. Ever.”
My head spun with this new information. I finally looked back up at Ian. He’d always been more like a father to me than my own dad in some ways. I’d looked to him for advice many times. “What do I do?”
Ian tapped his fingers on the arm of the antique, upholstered chair while he thought about it. “Think about something your father wants. Negotiate with him for it. His currency is power. Find a way to give him some. Help him save face and you might have a chance.”
He was right, and I suddenly felt more hopeful. If Ian agreed to sell to Grey, Grey would return York Capital to my father. That was already the deal we’d struck. I could offer my father York Capital in exchange for him agreeing to let Ian sell the building to Grey. Surely he’d go along with it if it meant getting his company back and restoring all those years of our family’s legacy.
I thanked Ian and made my way out to the patio to meet up with my parents. It wasn’t a sure thing, but at least I now had a plan. Everything was going to work out fine. Dad would get York Capital back, Grey would get the final property he needed for his development, and I would be able to return to Vermont to get to work at the academy. With Dad back in charge of York, the foundation’s financial commitments to the academy would stand.
And I could just… not think about living so far away from Grey.
He had money. Maybe he wouldn’t mind spending some of it to come see me in Vermont.
I blew out a breath and stepped outside into the afternoon sunshine. My parents were already settled at a table by the edge of the boardwalk which would give us plenty of privacy for the discussion I wanted to have. Unfortunately, as soon as I sat down to talk to them about everything, Cate and her parents joined us.
My mom’s face lit up. “Well, hi. It’s so good to see you all. Cate, you look just as beautiful as always.” Mom glanced my way. “Ellison, doesn’t Cate look beautiful?”
Christ.
“Yes, of course,” I murmured, shooting Cate a wink.
My dad sat up straighter. “And I hear she’s doing amazing work at the SEC counsel’s office.”
Cate’s dad puffed up. “We’re very proud of her.”
The three of them took seats around the table and began the usual small talk with my parents about what everyone had been up to lately and wondering why they hadn’t seen each other at the club in a while. At one point, Cate leaned over and whispered, “Sorry about this. They insisted on coming over to say hello.”
“It’s fine. I enjoy your parents.”
She kept a polite smile on her face. “They still have high hopes for us despite knowing I started seeing someone.”
She’d already told me about her new-ish relationship, and I was happy for her. “Don’t they like Drake?”
I’d hardly had any dealings with Drake Lou since that night at the club fifteen years ago, and it was hard to imagine what someone like Cate saw in him. But then, here I was trying to convince Grey that I was a different man than I’d been back then. The least I could do was believe the same could be true for Drake.
Cate let out a soft mock gasp. “But, darling, he’s…” She made a show of looking around as if to make sure no one was listening. “Asian.”
“You’re kidding. I’ve never noticed your parents being prejudiced before.”
“They try not to be, but it’s still there.” She picked at the edge of a cocktail napkin on the table. “Maybe they just need time to get to know him better. I think they’ll be impressed with him once they realize he’s even smarter than I am.”
“Not possible,” I teased.
“Enough about me and my new man. Tell me about yours! He’s beautiful, but sometimes he looks like he wants to murder everyone around him. I can’t deny he’s intimidating.”
I laughed. “No kidding. He gets this stoic face. Sometimes it reminds me of a dragon who makes the villagers scream and run in every direction.”