Chapter 18 - What I Did With My Shares
At sixty-seven, I decided to reduce my role at Northstar.
Not disappear.
Reduce.
There was a difference.
I transferred part of my voting interest into the employee trust.
Grant supported it.
The company that began as our family’s opportunity would become an opportunity shared by the people who built it.
At the announcement, employees applauded.
Celeste cried.
Grant hugged me.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“You could keep control.”
“I know.”
That was precisely why giving some away felt right.
Control held too tightly becomes fear.
I had seen what fear could do.
Northstar was strong.
Grant was strong.
And I no longer needed ownership to prove I mattered.
Afterward, I drove alone to Juniper House.
I hadn’t planned it.
I simply found myself turning onto the road.
I entered the lobby.
Different receptionist.
Different furniture.
Same marble.
I stood in the place where Paige had slapped me.
Nobody knew.
Nobody stared.
Nobody whispered.
A young couple walked past laughing.
Someone checked in for a massage.
Ordinary life filled the room where one of my worst memories lived.
I smiled.
Then walked outside.
I did not need to reclaim the place.
May you like
It had never belonged to the memory in the first place.
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