“He wants me to negotiate with people who would probably take pictures of my financial statements and turn them into memes,” I said.
“Kate, this could be a good thing,” she replied gently. “Besides, I don’t think they’re all that bad. At the very least, they seem rather modest about their wealth in the tabloids. None of them have ever waved around their own financial statements as a sign of their superiority, so I doubt they’d make a joke of yours.”
I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see me. “You’re my mother. You’re contractually obligated to try to make me feel better.”
“Perhaps, but I’m also contractually obligated to remind you that sometimes, a change of scenery helps people breathe.”
“I breathe perfectly fine in Manhattan.”
“There’s a difference between breathing and hyperventilating, darling. What you do most frequently is the latter.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it again because she wasn’t entirely wrong. “What if I like hyperventilating?”
“You’ve been running yourself ragged for months,” she said. “Stepping away from your routine, even temporarily, might give you some perspective.”
“I don’t need perspective,” I said automatically. “I need competent negotiating partners and fewer legacy finance empires judging my family tree.”
“You might meet someone there who doesn’t care about your family tree.”
I groaned and dragged my free hand across my face. “Mom.”
“What? Chicago is a big city.”
“I’m too busy for love.”
“That’s what people usually say right before they fall in love.”
“I barely have time to sleep, let alone emotionally invest in another human being.” I’d recently learned that lesson all over again, but I shook off the lingering regret and disappointment and refocused on her. “What would a man even do with me? Pencil me into his calendar between ego boosts and professional insecurity?”
“That’s dramatic.”
“It’s historically accurate,” I countered. “Every man who ever looks my way starts out charming and ends up either intimidated by my success or trying to compete with it.”
She sighed. “Fine. No love.”
“Thank you.”
“But you still deserve to be happy.”
“Iamhappy,” I said, pushing off the counter and walking toward my bedroom. “I have everything I need to fulfill me.”
That much, at least, was true. I honestly didn’t need a man in my life to make me happy and I would rather die alone than be with someone who wasn’t right for me. But Mom had never understood any of that. In that respect, we were very different people.
We talked for a few more minutes. Then she let me go after I promised to visit once I got back.
When I reached my bedroom, I grabbed my favorite suitcase from the closet and tossed it onto the bed. I’d received the email with my flight details while I’d been on the phone with my mom and I was taking off early in the morning, so I started pulling clothes from drawers and hangers with practiced efficiency, work dresses, tailored pants, and running gear.
If I was going to be exiled to Chicago, my routine was coming with me even if my mom thought it would be good for me to take a break from even that. But I was training for the New York City marathon and I wasn’t about to let the Westwoods take that from me too.
Halfway through packing, I paused, staring at a dress I’d bought a couple weeks ago and had never worn. It was softer than my usual style, less structured. It had been meant for?—
I shoved past it before I could even finish the thought. This was business, a way to prove that my family’s last name no longer deserved to be just a footnote in a cautionary tale. I wasn’t going to Chicago to grow. I was going because my family’s future depended on it and that was the only thing I would be focusing on right then.
CHAPTER 3
NATE
Once in a blue moon, I had a good morning. I generally didn’t trust optimism, but I’d woken up to an email from Emma, and seeing her name on my screen first thing had put me in a great mood.
