Chapter 12 - My Father's Chair
“You're ready,” Alexander said.
“No.”
“You spent three months proving otherwise.”
“I spent three months discovering how much I don't know.”
He smiled.
“Exactly.”
I stared through his office windows at Manhattan.
The Blackwood name had opened doors for me before I could knock.
I hated that.
But I was beginning to understand something.
Privilege wasn't something I could erase by pretending I didn't have it.
It was something I had to decide how to use.
“I don't want your chair because I'm your daughter.”
“Then don't take it for that reason.”
“How?”
“Let the board vote.”
So we did.
No guaranteed succession.
No family promise.
I presented my plan against two outside candidates.
Employee retention.
Transparent reporting.
Leadership accountability.
Long-term expansion.
The vote took three hours.
When Evelyn finally entered my office, I couldn't read her face.
“Well?”
She placed a folder in front of me.
“Congratulations, Ms. Blackwood.”
My hands trembled.
Not because I had inherited something.
Because, for the first time, I felt I had earned the opportunity to protect it.
But my first day as incoming CEO brought a visitor I never expected.
Vanessa Cole.
May you like
And she wanted a job.
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