Chapter 4 - FREDERICK VALE WANTED DOMINIC TO CHOOSE
Dominic put the call on speaker.
Emily did not know whether he intended to.
She appreciated that he did.
“Where are you?”
Dominic asked.
Frederick laughed softly.
“That’s your first question after seventeen years?”
“It’s the useful one.”
“You haven’t changed.”
Emily looked at Dominic.
He had.
Frederick simply did not know it yet.
Dominic leaned against the desk.
“You sent Cross.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor failed.”
“He did more than fail.”
“He became greedy.”
“That tends to happen when you employ predators.”
A pause.
“Careful.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“You threatened Emily’s family.”
“I did not.”
“Your company financed the acquisition.”
“Victor operated independently.”
“Under your capital.”
“Yes.”
“That makes it your problem.”
Emily felt something strange.
Months earlier, Dominic had looked at her bruises and said almost the same thing about Victor making his problem Dominic’s.
Now he applied responsibility upward.
Interesting.
Frederick continued.
“I did not authorize Renner touching her.”
“Would you have stopped it?”
Silence.
Dominic smiled without warmth.
“That is what I thought.”
Then Frederick changed direction.
“Black Pine.”
“No.”
Dominic answered immediately.
Emily stared.
Frederick laughed.
“I haven’t asked.”
“You don’t need to.”
“You bought seventy percent of the surrounding land.”
“You targeted Murphy’s because you need access.”
“You funded Victor.”
“You’re not calling to discuss childhood.”
“Maybe I’m calling to discuss inheritance.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“What do you want?”
“Fifty-one percent of Black Pine Holdings.”
Emily’s breath stopped.
Caleb looked murderous.
Ruth closed her eyes.
Dominic answered:
“No.”
Frederick continued as though he had not spoken.
“In exchange, I release every Alder Ridge claim against the Harper property.”
“Cancel every option.”
“Provide twenty million dollars to compensate them and neighboring landowners.”
Emily stared.
Twenty million.
Her parents could retire.
Murphy’s could survive forever.
Dominic said:
“No.”
Frederick paused.
“Ask Emily.”
The room went still.
“She doesn’t decide ownership of my company.”
“No.”
Frederick’s voice became almost amused.
“But she decides whether her parents spend the next decade fighting billion-dollar litigation.”
Emily felt cold.
Dominic’s eyes found hers.
Frederick continued:
“That’s what makes vulnerable people so educational.”
Dominic became terrifyingly still.
Emily saw his hand curl.
“Do not call her vulnerable.”
“She works six nights a week in a diner.”
“Restaurant.”
Emily muttered.
Dominic glanced at her.
Despite everything, his mouth moved.
Frederick heard.
“Is she there?”
“Yes.”
“Put her on.”
“No.”
Emily walked toward the phone.
“Yes.”
Dominic stared.
She ignored him.
“Mr. Vale.”
Silence.
Then:
“Emily Harper.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry Victor allowed things to become physical.”
“That sounds like the rich-man version.”
Frederick paused.
Dominic looked at her.
Emily continued.
“You’re apologizing around the thing instead of for it.”
Interesting silence.
Then Frederick said:
“You are not what I expected.”
“People keep saying that after underestimating waitresses.”
Ruth smiled.
“What do you want?” Emily asked.
“I told Dominic.”
“No.”
“You told him what you want from him.”
“What do you want from my family?”
“The parcel.”
“It isn’t for sale.”
“Everything is.”
“No.”
Frederick chuckled.
“Your restaurant grosses less than a million dollars a year.”
“You’ve reviewed our books.”
“Of course.”
“We have forty-three acres tied to the old estate option.”
“Correct.”
“How much do you think it is worth to you?”
“Financially?”
“Yes.”
“Eleven million.”
Emily’s heartbeat changed.
“And you offered twenty.”
“For cooperation.”
“Then you can afford to build around us.”
“That is inefficient.”
“So?”
Frederick went silent.
Emily continued.
“You nearly destroyed my parents because going around our land cost too much.”
“That means Murphy’s is worth more to you than it is to us.”
“Which means we have leverage.”
Dominic stared at her.
Caleb actually smiled.
Frederick stopped sounding amused.
“You’ve been spending time with my brother.”
“Yes.”
“Dangerous habit.”
“Apparently sleeping in his hot spring was worse.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Ruth laughed.
Frederick did not.
Emily continued.
“Our property isn’t for sale.”
“If you sue, we’ll fight.”
“If you threaten us, we document it.”
“And if another one of your employees puts hands on me, I won’t lie to protect my parents from embarrassment anymore.”
The room became silent.
Her voice shook slightly.
She kept going.
“You built your deal around everyone believing my family would be too tired and ashamed to fight.”
“We were.”
“We aren’t now.”
Dominic watched her.
Something deep moved through his expression.
Frederick’s voice cooled.
“You think Dominic will stand beside you forever?”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
That surprised Dominic.
She continued.
“I think I can stand without him.”
“But right now, he happens to be standing here too.”
Dominic’s eyes softened.
Frederick said nothing for several seconds.
Then:
“Forty-eight hours.”
“For what?”
“I’m filing to enforce the participation agreement.”
“Do whatever your lawyers tell you.”
Emily answered.
“Mine will answer.”
She ended the call.
Dominic stared.
“You hung up on Frederick.”
“Yes.”
“He once threw a banker’s phone into Lake Geneva for doing that.”
“I’m not a banker.”
“No.”
Dominic smiled slowly.
“You are definitely not.”
Then his expression changed.
“You should have let me handle it.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
She stepped closer.
“That is exactly what Frederick expects.”
“What?”
“That you decide.”
“That I get protected.”
“That my family becomes something you exchange for Black Pine.”
“He wants you to choose between your inheritance and my safety.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“I refuse to be the thing on the other side of that choice.”
Dominic stared.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“We fight.”
“Legally.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Say it properly.”
Ruth turned away to hide a smile.
Dominic sighed.
“We fight legally.”
“Thank you.”
The first lawsuit arrived twenty-nine hours later.
Alder Ridge Development versus Harper Family Holdings.
The claim sought enforcement of a twelve-year-old land option allegedly signed by Emily’s uncle before his death.
Robert Harper read the complaint at the restaurant counter.
His hands shook.
“I’ve never seen this.”
Emily sat beside him.
“Neither have I.”
Laura read the signature page.
“That’s Thomas’s name.”
Dominic’s lawyer, Hannah Price, examined it.
“Could be real.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“If it is?”
“The option may still be invalid.”
“Why?”
“It requires annual extension payments.”
“Did anyone pay them?”
Hannah smiled.
“That is what we find out.”
For the next week, Murphy’s Grill became a war room after closing.
Lawyers at table six.
Boxes near the pie display.
Caleb checking security.
Dominic sitting in a booth that had once hosted truck drivers and high-school football players.
Robert hated having him there.
Then slowly stopped.
One night, Robert slid a cup of coffee toward Dominic.
“No sugar.”
Dominic looked surprised.
“How did you know?”
“Emily watches what everyone drinks.”
Emily stared.
“I do not.”
Her mother laughed.
“You absolutely do.”
Dominic looked at her.
That small observation made Emily uncomfortable.
Because he looked pleased.
Then the breakthrough came.
Laura found an old ledger inside Thomas Harper’s storage boxes.
Annual property taxes.
Insurance.
Farm payments.
And one recurring entry:
VALE DEV — RETURNED.
Every year.
For twelve years.
Checks mailed by a Vale entity.
Returned by Thomas.
Then after Thomas died, Robert continued returning them.
He thought they were scam solicitations.
Hannah stared.
“If the option required accepted annual consideration, they may have a problem.”
Dominic smiled.
Emily knew that smile.
Fatal business error.
Three days later, Alder Ridge’s emergency injunction was denied.
Frederick lost the first round.
He responded differently than Victor would have.
No threats.
No men at the restaurant.
He bought the property next door.
Then another across the road.
Then announced publicly:
ALDER RIDGE TO DEVELOP $1.8 BILLION ADIRONDACK LUXURY CORRIDOR.
Black Pine Springs appeared on the planning graphic.
Without Dominic’s permission.
Reporters called.
Investors called.
County officials called.
Suddenly everyone assumed Dominic would sell.
His board wanted to consider it.
Alder Ridge’s implied offer for Black Pine reached $640 million.
Emily heard the number and nearly dropped a plate.
“You said no?”
Dominic sat at Murphy’s counter.
“Yes.”
“Six hundred forty million?”
“Yes.”
“Are you insane?”
Robert shouted from the kitchen:
“I’ve been asking that!”
Dominic looked offended.
Emily sat opposite him.
“Why?”
He looked toward the window.
“Black Pine isn’t for sale.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s enough.”
“No.”
She had learned his tricks.
Dominic sighed.
“My mother loved that place.”
Emily went quiet.
There it was.
Family.
Again.
“She died there.”
“Oh.”
“Cancer.”
“When?”
“Ten years ago.”
Emily softened.
“She spent her last three months in the east lodge.”
“Hot spring?”
“Yes.”
“The private one?”
He nodded.
That changed something.
The robe.
The bench.
His refusal to allow anyone there.
The first day he found Emily sleeping in that water.
She had invaded not simply a private luxury.
A memory.
“And you still covered me with your robe.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You were cold.”
“I was in hundred-degree water.”
“You looked cold.”
She smiled.
Then:
“Thank you for telling me.”
His expression changed.
Apparently simple disclosure still required effort.
They sat quietly.
Then Emily reached across the counter.
Touched his hand.
Dominic froze.
Not pulled away.
Froze.
She almost laughed.
“Dominic Carver.”
“What?”
“You look scared.”
“I’m not.”
“Terrible liar.”
His fingers slowly turned beneath hers.
Their palms met.
Warm.
No contract.
No debt.
No protection.
Just a hand.
Then the restaurant door opened.
Caleb entered quickly.
His face destroyed the moment.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“Black Pine.”
Dominic stood.
“What happened?”
“Fire.”
Emily’s hand went cold.
“The east lodge.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
May you like
His mother’s lodge.
And suddenly Frederick’s legal war had become something much more dangerous.
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