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“You’ll do fine. Don’t let this mess you up.”

Allison wanted to believe him. More than anything.

It was time to get her life back on track. She’d be thrilled to get off the rollercoaster and return to her regular, old, and mundane life.

Sometimes, boring was just fine.

Chapter

Three

Sam had been anticipating the visit all morning. In fact, he was a bit disappointed that Rick and Henry had made him wait this long.

He’d already warned Leigh not to get in their way. It was almost lunchtime, so the two men would have had all morning to build up a good head of steam. Frankly, they’d been simmering since the wee hours in the hospital hallway when Sam was elected the new CEO and Chairman.

Rick and Henry should be livid by now, and they weren’t exactly known for hiding their emotions in a professional environment.

It was precisely eleven-fifty-two when Rick barreled into Sam’s office, banging the door open so hard the top hinge rattled. He then marched to the middle of the plush rug, hands already chopping the air.

Yep, he’s mad.

“You’ve got some nerve,” Rick shouted, clearly not caring if any other employees heard him. Behind him, Henry stood in the doorway, arms crossed tightly over his chest, his mouth a thin line of disapproval.

Oh well.

Sam stayed behind his desk, the power position. He’d learned many things from his father, good and bad. But one thing Joel was damn good at was making sure everyone around him knew who was in charge.

Sam had arranged the room to his liking in the last few hours. He’d piled all the golf trophies and the fossilized globe that his father used as a metaphor in every negotiation into a storage closet down the hall.

In their place, a set of framed watercolors by a local artist, along with a small porcelain sculpture that Cooper had given him, picked up on one of his many trips to Europe. On the credenza was his own team photo from his first summer league baseball team, which sat next to a much larger photo of his siblings and his mother. It had been taken on the Mother’s Day before her disappearance. They were all smiling and happy, especially as their father had chosen to stay at the office that day.

The rest of the office was unchanged, at least for now. But he had plans for that, too. Everything, however, didn’t need to be done in a day.

“Morning, Rick,” Sam said, not looking up from his laptop screen. “Henry.”

“Don’t ‘morning’ me, Sam. What the hell are you doing? You know what this place is? It’s your father’s life. You can’t just come in here and⁠—”

“Fix it?” Sam suggested, finally looking up at his visitor.

Rick’s eyes were bulging, and his face was a shade of bright red.

“Fix it? You’re screwing everything up.”

Henry cleared his throat, apparently deciding that he was going to be the voice of reason today.

“I have to agree with Rick on this one, Sam. A lot of us have been here a long time. There’s a process for these things. You don’t just announce, out of nowhere, that you’re rewriting company policy.”

Sam sat back and folded his hands on the desk. He’d already anticipated their opinions about his changes.

“If you’re talking about the new HR rules, they go into effect today. We’re already behind industry standards on maternity leave and PTO. Remote work is optional for department heads, but you’re expected to comply for your team. And before you ask, yes, compliance audits are quarterly now, not annual. That’s non-negotiable.”

“This isn’t what Joel wants,” Rick scoffed with a shake of his head.

Sam leaned forward, elbows braced on the dark oak wood. There was no time like the present to remind them of reality.

“Joel isn’t in charge anymore. What he wants isn’t important.”

The temperature in the room dropped. Henry’s mouth pinched so hard his chin almost disappeared into his neck.