Chapter 17 - Ryan and Linda
Ryan blamed Linda initially.
“She pushed me.”
Into what?
Using my signature?
He tried.
Linda had encouraged.
Yes.
But Ryan uploaded.
Ryan was CEO.
Ryan benefited.
Ryan did not tell me.
His therapist apparently asked:
“If your mother disappeared from story, would you still have done it?”
Ryan told me later:
“Yes.”
There.
Important.
He had been scared of losing company.
He would have found another justification.
Linda amplified.
Did not create.
Their relationship changed.
Ryan stopped letting her manage company matters.
She lost informal office access.
No company email.
No board meetings.
She still owned a minority economic interest through old family shares? We can say her shareholder loan repaid from project sale; no operational role.
Linda felt betrayed.
“You choose Natalie after she divorced you.”
Ryan said:
“No. I’m choosing boundaries.”
Late.
Still.
Mother-son relationship survived.
Different.
May you like
That mattered because Ethan could eventually see Linda without Ryan falling back into old hierarchy.
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