Chapter 6 - James Had Been Using Lucas as an Argument Too
The marina dispute had damaged James and Victor’s relationship for nearly a year.
James always described his resistance as:
protecting the future.
When Victor pushed for sale, James said:
“What am I supposed to leave Lucas?”
That sounded noble.
It was also partly evasive.
Cape Arden was not Lucas’s personal inheritance.
It belonged to a company with multiple shareholders.
James had his own reasons for disliking the sale.
His mother had taken him to the marina every summer as a child.
He learned to sail there.
His first job was cleaning slips.
He was emotionally attached.
Instead of saying:
I don’t want to sell the place where I grew up,
he said:
Lucas deserves this someday.
That made Victor feel James was turning a business disagreement into a moral one.
Victor responded:
“Your son needs a healthy company more than a rotten marina.”
Also partly true.
Sarah noticed the pattern after the accident.
Adults were placing Lucas inside arguments he did not understand.
Victor needed the sale to preserve his own shares.
James wanted to preserve the marina partly for himself.
Both used:
family legacy.
Then Lucas physically fell into the dispute by chasing Victor’s key.
Sarah finally told James:
“Stop making him the reason for decisions you want.”
James bristled.
“I’m thinking about his future.”
“Then think about it honestly.”
He looked at her.
“If you don’t want to sell Cape Arden because you love it, say that.”
James went quiet.
Then:
“I love it.”
Good.
“And does that automatically mean we keep it?”
“No.”
May you like
Now they could discuss the asset without turning an eight-year-old into symbolic evidence.
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