Page 39 of Rebellious Hearts

The coffees were handed out, and Sofia looked at the board intrigued, picking a piece of cheese and a cracker.

Richard did the same, and when the two of them chewed on something, Richard looked at me again. I sipped my coffee. My stomach was in knots and I wasn’t going to eat anything right now.

I couldn’t when Richard had thrown me for a loop.

He wanted an answer and he wasn’t going to let it go.

“Well…” I swallowed. “I’m dedicated to the success of Blackwood Incorporated, naturally.” I chose my words carefully. “I believe in pushing boundaries and striving for excellence in everything we do.”

Richard nodded thoughtfully, running his fingers through his beard. I noticed the gray streaks, the proof that Richard had been around for a while and he knew what he was talking about.

I just wished I could figure out what he wasthinking.

And what he was trying to get from me. How could I give him what he wanted and seal this deal if I didn’t know what that was?

Richard looked skeptical. “Is that all there is to you, Ben?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Surely, there’s more to life than business,” he added.

I froze. Therewasmore to life. When I wasn’t working, I was drinking and picking up girls. That wasn’t something I was going to say in this business meeting, though.

“If I may,” Sofia said, her warm voice breaking the tension, and I let out a breath. Her eyes met mine briefly before she looked at Richard again. She was my saving grace right now. I took the break to breathe, to sip my cold brew coffee and take a moment to collect myself and try to keep up with the direction this was going.

Sofia continued. “I believe that family is the true measure of wealth. It’s about the connections we forge and the bonds we share.”

Richard’s eyes softened, and he smiled at Sofia. “Family,” he mused, “yes, I agree with you. That’s what really matters. Building something meaningful that lasts beyond time, a legacy you can leave behind…” He looked emotional again. “My wife and I never had children, and I will forever regret not pushing harder for that. It’s so easy to build a business but so hard to find someone worthy of passing it on to, and our life on this Earth is finite.”

“Children aren’t the only legacy you can leave behind,” Sofia said gently. “I’m in the same boat you are, in a way.”

“Oh?”

Sofia nodded and put down her coffee. “I was in a serious relationship. Marriage, children… it was all on the cards for me. It wasn’t for him, apparently. At least, not with me.” She suddenly looked so sad; she looked down at her hands in her lap. “It took me a long time to find a new purpose. I’d always seen myself as a mother and felt like the children we have, and their children and the bloodline that goes on… that that’s our legacy.”

“What do you feel now?” Richard asked, and I found that I wanted to know, too. Sofia was opening up, being so vulnerable, and Richard was drinking it in. Of all the ways I knew how to do business, being vulnerable and getting personal had never been one of them but Richard was eating out of her hand.

“It took a long time for me to find a new purpose,” Sofia said. “I didn’t feel like I was worth anything if I couldn’t bring children into this world, and I had to really think about what else drove me, what else was important to me. That’s where I am now.” She looked up at Richard. “My career is something that’s also important to me, but not in the way it was before. Now, I want to be able to give back to people, to help where I can. I might not be able to leave my own children behind when I pass on, but if I can help people, that’s something beautiful and fulfilling.”

I swallowed hard.

“Well, if that’s not the crux of what life is about, I don’t know what is,” Richard said with a smile and looked back at me. He sat back in his chair and drained the last of his coffee before he set it down on the coffee table.

“What about you?” His eyes pinned me again.

Shit.

I didn’t have anything nearly as relative to share and I wasn’t going to open up about my past here. For all I knew Sofia had told a story and none of it was true.

“Well, I agree with Sofia in so many ways. But to me, it’s about more than that, and when I met Sofia, it changed everything.”

“Oh?” Richard asked, his eyes sparkling. Sofia frowned.

“Yeah. I couldn’t let her go through it alone. Our visions align in so many ways. We wouldn’t be here, together, if it didn’t.”

“What do you mean?” Richard asked.

“We don’t usually share this, because we always worry that it might affect business, but Sofia and I are married.” I picked upa cracker and bit into it to keep my shaking hand from being obvious and to give myself a moment to pause.