Chapter 6 - The Rebranding
Two weeks later, the acquisition of Matthews Consulting was finalized.
We didn't keep the name. Within forty-eight hours of the ink drying on the contract, the old brass lettering on the Michigan Avenue office building was unscrewed and replaced with a sleek, minimalist brushed-steel sign reading: Pinnacle Advisory Group.
The antiquated administrative staff was streamlined, the toxic senior partners were bought out and retired, and the entire operation was integrated into Pinnacle Holdings' commercial division. My father was officially retired, though I offered him a small, advisory office on the top floor if he ever wished to consult on legacy client relations—an offer he quietly declined, choosing instead to spend his time traveling with my mother, trying to rebuild whatever fragments of their personal life remained.
Emma had taken my advice.
Three days after the engagement was broken off, she packed two suitcases, booked a flight to London, and took a three-month leave of absence from the firm. According to occasional texts she sent me, she was taking a pastry-making course in Kensington, visiting museums, and attending therapy twice a week.
"I didn't realize how much of my life was just a performance," she wrote in a message late one Tuesday night. "Thank you for not letting me go through with a wedding that would have destroyed my life."
I didn't reply with a long lecture. I simply sent back: Take your time. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a real life.
Meanwhile, my business empire continued its relentless expansion.
We closed on a twenty-story residential tower in Milwaukee, finalized the zoning permits for a new hotel development in downtown Chicago, and prepared for Pinnacle Holdings' upcoming tenth-anniversary gala.
And where was the anniversary gala going to be held?
May you like
Naturally, Grandview Manor.
The temporary cancellation notices had been lifted, the electrical grid renovations had been completed ahead of schedule, and the estate's grand ballroom was polished, restored, and shining brighter than ever under the autumn stars.
