“Don’t ask me to cry over your poor deprived kids,” Liam said. “I had a miserable childhood without any doting fathers or weekend yacht rides. Crocket Malone pounded me into a man with his fists. I grew up in a freezing cold tenement because he was too cheap to buy coal, and when most kids were in school, I sweltered in a steel mill tending the furnaces. I only have one happy memory from my childhood.” He leaned forward in his chair as he locked eyes with Oscar. “I remember being on a boat with my real father. I remember facing into the wind and laughing with him as we threw crusts of bread up to the sea gulls wheeling above us. That boat was the Black Rose, and I want it back.”

Uncomfortable seconds ticked by, and Oscar narrowed his eyes in a glare. “I think you’re bluffing.”

“Try me,” Liam said. “If the U.S. Steel deal flies without opposition, you will be rich beyond all imagination. You can buy another yacht, but there’s only one Black Rose. I can’t get my childhood or my father back, but I can get the Black Rose back.”

The challenge hung in the air, and Patrick wanted to strangle Liam. This was precisely the sort of tangent he’d warned Liam against because it endangered the real prize, but the gamble paid off. Oscar caved, and Liam signed over his ten percent of the vote in exchange for a seat on the board of directors for U.S. Steel. The agreement would make Liam one of the most powerful men in the steel industry.

As they walked out of the mansion, Liam carried the title to the Black Rose in his back pocket.

38

Gwen arrived at the college’s greenhouse on Wednesday morning with a couple of students to add an extra layer of insulation to the north side of the structure. Little Mimi sat inside the greenhouse, charged with potting the goldenseal roots they’d prepared the other day. Mimi stared dully at a bowl of potting soil sitting in front of her. It was early, and she was probably sleepy, given the way she stared with limp interest at the bowl.

Gwen helped Hiram and Jake lay a roll of foil into the trench they’d dug around the north end of the building. It took almost an hour, and when they returned inside, Mimi still sat slumped before the bowl of potting soil. She hadn’t touched it yet.

“You’re not going to let us down by neglecting those plants, are you, Mimi?” Gwen teased.

To her horror, Mimi’s expression crumpled, and she curled over, hiding her face.

Gwen gasped, racing to hunker down beside the girl. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” she asked, but Mimi just shook her head and didn’t speak.

Hiram and Jake both dropped what they were doing to stand nearby, looking on in concern.