He did that through deals, through partnerships, through connections. And it worked. He's not wrong that it works. She paused. He's just applying the same logic to my life that he applied to the company and you're not a logistics contract.
No. She looked at him. I'm not. Gloria came back and asked if they wanted anything else. Lauren looked at the pie case on the counter.
What's good? Cherries good tonight, Gloria said. Strawberry rhubarb. If you want something different. Strawberry rhubarb, Lauren said.
Same, Daniel said, which surprised him because he hadn't intended to say it. Gloria left again. What did you do? Daniel asked. Tonight, when he introduced you to Evan, I shook his hand.
I talked to him for about 20 minutes. He was perfectly pleasant. She paused. And then I excused myself to the bathroom and texted my father that I was leaving. He sent me.
I know. She looked at him. You were supposed to drive me home and I was supposed to wake up tomorrow morning at the estate and my father was going to have Evan's number saved in my phone and a brunch scheduled for next weekend. How do you know all that? Because that's how he works.
He sets things up. He doesn't ask. He arranges and then by the time you realize what he's done, you're already three steps into something you didn't agree to. Daniel leaned back in the booth. I knew men like Richard Whitmore, not at that level of wealth and power, but the same architecture of thinking.
Men who believed that taking care of their families meant controlling the conditions in which their families lived. Men who genuinely could not understand why their children didn't feel grateful. Men who'd worked so hard building something that they'd forgotten to ask whether the people they were building it for actually wanted what they were building. He'd watched it from the outside for 12 years in the logistics industry. Owners and managers who managed people, the way they managed fleets efficiently, according to plan, with very little interest in what the individual units actually needed.
He'd never been in a position to say any of that out loud to someone connected to that world. Can I say something that might be out of line? He said, "You've already driven me to a diner instead of taking me home. " Lauren said, "I think we're past that point. Your father called me because he trusts me. And part of why he trusts me is because I stay in my lane.
I do my job. I don't get involved in things that aren't my business. " He paused. So, what I'm about to say, I need you to understand. It's not me getting involved. I'm just saying what I see.
Okay. Your father loves you. I've worked for him 6 years. I've never once heard him talk about the business without mentioning you somewhere in it. Not as a piece of the business as the reason for it.