Chapter 10 - THE NEW HEIR
The following week, I restructured Whitmore Publishing entirely. I promoted Elena, a brilliant, hard-working junior editor who had fought her way up from the mailroom while paying off her own student loans, to Vice President. I took the seven-figure fund that was meant for Valerie’s vanity project and established the Lucy Whitmore Foundation, named after my daughter, providing aggressive grants to first-generation writers from underprivileged backgrounds. The company didn't just survive the transition; it thrived. The energy in the office shifted from walking on eggshells around a toxic heir to a fierce, creative loyalty. I was seventy years old, my lip had fully healed, and I had never felt more alive.
