Chapter 9 - CHAIRWOMAN
For the first time, I stopped hiding my role.
Vance Crest Group rebranded.
Not because I hated Caldwell’s surname.
Because the company had outgrown a family identity.
New name:
Arden Crest Holdings.
Employees voted on several internal options.
That one won.
I became public chairwoman.
Not CEO.
I did not want operations.
We hired Maya Chen, an experienced executive with no family ties.
The company stabilized.
Then grew.
But differently.
I created an employee emergency fund after discovering how many staff members had lived paycheck to paycheck while executives expensed champagne.
I capped certain executive benefits.
Made parental leave equal.
Expanded fertility coverage.
For everyone.
Not because of my marriage.
But obviously because of my marriage.
The first time the company announced comprehensive fertility benefits—including IVF, donor pathways, fertility preservation, and adoption assistance—I cried in my office.
Not because I planned to use them.
Because nobody else should be turned into a family scandal by a medical diagnosis.
At thirty-nine, I still did not know whether I wanted children.
That was another freedom I had never given myself.
For ten years, the question had been:
Can Saraphina give Caldwell an heir?
Now the question became:
What does Saraphina want?
I did not have an answer immediately.
That was okay.
Worth does not require a nursery.
I traveled.
Joined two nonprofit boards.
Went to dinner alone.
Bought art Caldwell used to call ugly.
Painted one room of my apartment deep green.
Lorraine would have hated it.
Excellent.
I also started therapy.
Because chairwoman authority can remove a CEO.
It cannot automatically remove ten years of conditioning.
That work was slower.
May you like
More important.
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