Chapter 6: The Zoning Call That Wasn't About Zoning
Grace called me at seven the following Monday morning.
I was in the kitchen of my penthouse.
Liam was eating cereal.
Noah had fallen asleep on the couch with his shoes still on.
Caleb was explaining something at length to a stuffed bear.
"The zoning review is a pressure play," Grace said.
"Eleanor has a contact at the assessor's office — a man named Dalton.
He's done favors for the Montgomery family before.
Nothing that rises to anything actionable on its own, but enough to delay a building permit, flag a compliance review, make life difficult."
"How long can she drag it out?"
"Three months.
Maybe four.
It won't shut you down, but it will slow your expansion project.
The new floor you're building out for the media team."
"What does she actually want?"
Grace was quiet for a moment.
"She called my office late Friday.
She wants a meeting.
You, her, no attorneys."
"No."
"I told her that.
She said to tell you that if you agree to a private meeting, she'll withdraw the zoning complaint and return Arthur's envelope."
"Arthur's copy," I said.
"She can keep it."
"She doesn't know that."
"Then let her not know it a little longer." I watched Caleb offer the stuffed bear a spoonful of Liam's cereal.
"What's her real play, Grace?
The meeting — what does she actually want from it?"
"My read?
She wants to offer you money.
A settlement.
Something large enough that you sign an NDA and the boys never have a legal claim to the Montgomery trust."
The cereal box was on the counter.
The Montgomery family crest was not on it.
Nothing in my kitchen belonged to that world.
I had built everything in this apartment, everything in my company, from nothing, while three infants slept in the next room.
"Set up the meeting," I said.
Grace paused.
"Vivienne—"
"I want to hear what number she thinks my sons are worth." I set my coffee down.
"And I want it recorded."
"That's legal in Illinois," Grace said slowly.
"One-party consent."
"I know."
"She'll have her own attorney present despite what she said."
"Then I'll bring you."
Another pause.
"You're going to let her make the offer."
"I'm going to let her make the offer," I said, "and then I'm going to tell her what I actually want.
And I want witnesses when I do it."
Liam looked up from his cereal bowl.
"Mama, is something wrong?"
I looked at him.
His gray eyes.
His father's eyes.
"Nothing's wrong, baby," I said.
"Eat your breakfast."
He went back to his cereal.
He was five years old and he trusted me completely.
I picked up my phone and texted Ethan: *She's going to try to buy us out.
I'm taking the meeting.
May you like
You should know.*
His reply came in under a minute: *Don't go without me.*
