Chapter 25 - I stop being the boss
I remained away from daily management longer than expected.
Michael Ames proved competent.
Annoyingly.
Revenue did not collapse.
Employees continued arriving without checking whether Maximilian Rourke had personally approved the sunrise.
My ego disliked that.
My daughter benefited.
I took her to school.
Badly packed lunches.
Forgot spirit day once.
Learned first-grade parents form more dangerous political alliances than anyone in construction.
I also began individual therapy.
Not court-ordered.
Anouk’s therapist recommended it after I admitted checking every room twice at night.
My therapist asked:
“What did your reputation do for you?”
“Protected me.”
“From?”
“People testing boundaries.”
“And what did it cost?”
“People telling me things.”
There.
Fear reduces bad news before it reduces bad reality.
I had spent years treating silence around me as competence.
Sometimes it was fear.
My grandfather wanted fear because it simplified authority.
I wanted my daughter safe.
Those goals were incompatible.
So I changed smaller things.
No bodyguards inside school functions unless threat assessment required.
No convoy for ordinary trips.
No staff calling me Mr. Rourke in my own kitchen.
Teresa refused that one for six months.
Eventually:
“Max.”
Sounded strange.
Good.
Anouk once asked:
“Are people still scared of you?”
“Some.”
“Why?”
“History.”
“Are you scary?”
I thought.
“Sometimes.”
She nodded.
“Not to me.”
That was the goal.
Not because I indulged everything.
I still said no.
I still enforced bedtime.
I still took screens away.
May you like
Safety is not lack of authority.
It is authority without terror.
