VICTORIA POV
Victoria Wolfe didn't knock on her son's office door. She opened it like she owned the building.
She probably could have owned the building if she wanted to. Victoria had made her own fortune before Ryan was born. She'd built real estate empires. She'd made deals that would have destroyed most people. She'd become the kind of woman that other people feared.
But she'd never become the kind of woman that people loved.
Ryan looked up from his desk when she walked in and Victoria could see the exhaustion written all over his face. He looked defeated. Broken. Like someone who'd just realized that the world didn't work the way he'd always believed it did.
Victoria hated that look.
"We need to talk about your situation," she said. She didn't bother with hello or how are you. She'd never been good at small talk. Never saw the point in wasting time on pleasantries when there was actual work to be done.
"Mom, I don't think—" Ryan started.
"I'm not interested in what you think right now," Victoria interrupted. "Because what you're thinking is making you weak. What you're thinking is letting a woman walk into your company and take what you built."
She walked to the window and looked out at the city below. She could see it from here. The empire Ryan had constructed. The same way she'd constructed hers. Brick by brick. Deal by deal. Never letting anyone close enough to hurt her. Never trusting anyone. Never settling for less than absolute control.
"Sarah Mitchell is a parasite," Victoria said. Her voice was cold. Sharp. "She rode your success for seven years and then when you left her, she decided to take revenge. This isn't about saving the company. This is about destroying you because you hurt her feelings."
"That's not—" Ryan said.
"Don't interrupt me," Victoria said. She turned from the window and faced her son. "I raised you to be strong. I raised you to take what you want and never apologize for it. I raised you to understand that the moment you show weakness, people will exploit it. And you just showed the entire world that you're weak."
Ryan's jaw tightened but he didn't respond.
"You let her sit on your board," Victoria continued. "You let her present her little strategy. You let her vote against you. And you did nothing. You just sat there and accepted it."
"Because her strategy is better than mine," Ryan said quietly.
Victoria felt something cold settle in her chest.
"Better?" she repeated. "You're comparing your strategy to hers and you're deciding that she's right? That's exactly the weakness I'm talking about."
"It's not weakness. It's reality. I would have bankrupted the company."
Victoria walked toward her son's desk and leaned against it. She was close enough to see the exhaustion in his eyes. The doubt. The fear. All the things she'd taught him to hide.
"Listen to me," she said. Her voice was quieter now but harder. "You are a Wolfe. We don't lose. We don't accept defeat. We especially don't accept defeat from women who think they're our equals. That woman needs to understand her place."
"And what is her place?" Ryan asked.
"Gone," Victoria said. "She needs to be gone. We offer her money. We offer her whatever she wants. But she doesn't get a seat at your table. She doesn't get to make decisions about your company. She doesn't get to think she won."
Ryan was quiet for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely a whisper.
"What if she's not trying to win?" he asked. "What if she's actually just trying to save the company?"
Victoria felt something crack inside her.
She'd spent thirty-four years raising her son to be exactly like her. She'd taught him that love was weakness. She'd taught him that vulnerability was death. She'd taught him that the only thing that mattered was power and control and never, ever letting anyone close enough to hurt you.
And now he was questioning everything she'd taught him.
"You're starting to sound like your wife," Victoria said. The words came out bitter. Harsh. "You're starting to sound weak."
"Maybe I want to be weak," Ryan said.
Victoria felt like she'd been slapped.
She looked at her son for the first time really looked at him and saw what she'd done. She saw a man who'd spent his entire life building empires because that's what she'd taught him to do. A man who'd never learned how to build relationships. A man who'd pushed away the only person who'd ever actually loved him because accepting that love meant accepting vulnerability.
A man who was becoming exactly like her.
And Victoria suddenly remembered what that felt like. Being alone. Believing that power was enough. Realizing too late that it wasn't.
She'd been married once. Before Ryan was born. To a man named James who'd wanted her to slow down. To spend time with him. To put the relationship before the business. She'd told him that wanting her to sacrifice her career for a relationship was weakness. She'd told him that she needed power more than she needed him.
He'd left.
And she'd spent the last thirty-five years alone. Telling herself it was strength. Telling herself she didn't need anyone. Building empires because empires couldn't leave you. Empires couldn't hurt you. Empires couldn't demand that you be vulnerable.
But empires were also cold. And empty. And at three in the morning when you couldn't sleep, they didn't hold your hand. They didn't tell you that you mattered. They didn't make you feel like you were enough.
Victoria had raised her son to be the same way. And she'd done it because she'd never known anything different.
But watching him sit at his desk looking broken, Victoria realized something she'd spent her entire life denying.
She'd been wrong.
Not about power. Power mattered. But it wasn't everything. And a life built entirely on power was a life built on nothing.
"Sarah needs to be removed from your company," Victoria said. The words came out automatic now. Like she was speaking a script she'd memorized a thousand times. "You need to do whatever it takes."
"No," Ryan said.
Victoria felt her world tilt.
"What did you just say?" she asked.
"No," Ryan repeated. "I'm not removing her. Sarah's right about the company. She's right about the strategy. And I need to figure out how to work with her instead of against her."
"Then you're choosing to be weak," Victoria said. Her voice was shaking now. With anger maybe. Or disappointment. Or something else she didn't want to name.
"Maybe I am," Ryan said. "But at least I'll be choosing it. At least I'll know what I'm giving up and what I'm gaining."
Victoria walked toward the window again. She looked down at the city below. At the empire her son had built. At the life she'd helped him construct exactly like hers. Powerful. Impressive. Completely and utterly alone.
"I'm staying in Seattle," she said. The words came out cold and final. "I'm not leaving until Sarah Mitchell is gone from this company. I didn't raise you to surrender to anyone. And I'm not going to watch you throw everything away because you've suddenly decided that love matters more than power."
She turned to face her son one more time.
"You have a choice to make," Victoria said. "You can listen to your mother who built you into this man. Or you can listen to a woman who only just came back into your life. But understand this. If you choose her over me, you're choosing to become weak. You're choosing to become everything I taught you not to be."
Ryan met his mother's eyes and something in his expression told Victoria that she'd already lost him.
"I think I have to," he said quietly.
Victoria felt something break inside her chest. Something that had been broken for a very long time. Something that she'd been too afraid to look at directly.
"Then I'm staying until I change your mind," Victoria said. "I have lawyers on call. I have connections throughout this city. I have resources you can't even imagine. And I'm going to spend every single day reminding you that accepting Sarah Mitchell means accepting everything you were built to reject."
She walked toward the door.
"You have until tomorrow morning to tell me you've fired her," Victoria said. "After that, I start making calls. And trust me, Ryan, you don't want me to start making calls."
She left before he could respond.
In the hallway, Victoria leaned against the wall and realized her hands were shaking. Her son had just chosen a woman over his mother. Just said no to everything she'd taught him. Just told her that her entire philosophy was wrong.
And the worst part was that he was right.
Victoria had spent thirty-five years being alone and calling it strength. She'd spent thirty-five years building empires and calling it purpose. She'd spent thirty-five years telling herself that she didn't need anyone because needing people meant being vulnerable.
And she'd raised her son to do exactly the same thing.
But he was finally seeing what she'd never let herself see. That power without connection was empty. That control without trust was just another form of prison. That being right wasn't the same as being happy.
Victoria pulled out her phone and started making calls. She had lawyers to brief. Strategies to develop. Ways to destroy Sarah Mitchell and prove to her son that his mother was still the most important person in his life.
But as she made those calls, Victoria couldn't stop thinking about what she'd lost.
About James. About the life she could have had if she'd been brave enough to be vulnerable. About the fact that she'd spent her entire existence building things that couldn't love her back.
And now she was going to spend the next few days making sure her son made the same mistake.