Jack Newman sat solemnly behind his desk, Diane Jenkins beside him. The office, usually a place of pride, now felt heavy with dread. They weren’t speaking as lovers or partners — they were speaking as leaders… and as parents trying to make an impossible decision. Jack’s voice was hushed but firm. Kyle’s time as CEO, he believed, had reached its limit.
Diane, softer but no less resolved, agreed. Kyle, they said, had potential — but lacked the pragmatism needed to lead Jabot through turbulent waters. His drive, once admirable, was now blinding him. They feared he would damage the brand trying to prove himself.
They didn’t know Kyle was listening.
Drawn by instinct — or perhaps fate — Kyle approached Jack’s office and heard everything. Every word laced with disappointment. Every phrase twisting into betrayal. They weren’t just questioning his leadership. They were plotting to quietly remove him — to manipulate him into stepping down under the illusion that it was his decision.
It took every ounce of strength for Kyle not to burst through the door. Instead, he turned away, fists clenched, heart thunderous, breath shallow. If they thought he was reckless, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of a reaction. But inside him, something broke. The trust, the belief in his place within the Abbott legacy — gone in a flash.
The next morning, the Jabot boardroom was a theater of tension. Executives gathered, unaware that the meeting would become a battlefield. Jack, ever composed, began his quarterly report. But there was a shift in the air. Everyone could feel it. When he spoke, his words were chosen carefully: he was willing to resume the CEO role — if that was what the board wanted, and what Kyle himself wished.
A graceful out. A trap in silk gloves.
Kyle stood slowly. His voice didn’t tremble. “I appreciate the offer. But I didn’t come here to be anyone’s placeholder. If you want me out, say it. Don’t ask me to pretend it’s my choice.” His words sliced through the room. Jack’s mask cracked for a moment, and Diane’s eyes filled with a sorrow she couldn’t hide. But Kyle didn’t flinch.
“You trusted me once,” he said to his father. “Now you’ve lost that trust in secret. I may not be perfect, but I won’t let you quietly write me out.”
The board sat frozen, caught between legacy and loyalty, between father and son. The silence was deafening — and then Jack did something unexpected. He relented.
“No changes today,” he said, voice heavy. “We’ll revisit after due diligence.”
A stalemate. A reprieve. But the damage was already done.
Later, Jack found Kyle alone in the hallway. They looked at each other — two Abbotts, bound by blood, now divided by ambition. Jack wanted to explain. Kyle wasn’t ready to listen. And Diane? She watched, knowing that her involvement in the plan had pushed her son further away than ever.
Clare Newman saw it all. She had chased after Kyle when he left the boardroom in a blur of pain. She wanted to reach him — to hold him — but she knew better. This wasn’t her war. It was the Abbotts’, and the wounds were generational.
Alone now, Clare found herself confessing to Victoria and Nikki that she wasn’t ready to move in with Kyle. Not because she didn’t love him — but because she was scared. Of becoming collateral damage in another Newman-Abbott power struggle. Of losing herself.
“I want to prove that I make choices for me,” she said. “Not because of my grandfather, not because of Kyle… but because I know who I am.”
Victoria, though hurt, understood. Nikki, wiser than both, offered her unwavering support.
And Clare made a choice. She would host a party. A celebration of new beginnings. Not for show — but to reclaim her voice. To remind herself and everyone else that she wasn’t just a pawn in Victor’s empire or a chapter in Kyle’s redemption story.
As the sun dipped and lanterns swayed in the spring breeze, Clare stood beneath the rafters of the old barn, flanked by the women who shaped her. She wasn’t sure where her future with Kyle would lead. But for the first time, she was choosing herself.
And in the distance, across a city trembling with ambition and old wounds, Kyle Abbott stood alone — betrayed, emboldened, and ready for a reckoning.
What would you do in his place?
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