45. Aaron
45
AARON
T he tension settled in the conference room at the Coleman Mining board meeting when I walked in and stood behind the chair in the center of the long curved table.
Was it because of Natalie and the decades of hurt directed as silent missiles across the table at Bill? Or was it the board members wary of their new master?
Wyatt and several other members of Daisy’s extended family sat anxiously on the edges of their seats.
The chairman of the board banged his gavel, starting the board meeting.
“First and only item on the agenda.” He blinked owlishly. “The takeover of Coleman Mining by Aaron Richmond. We will take a formal vote to hand over power and total control of the company to Mr. Richmond. All in favor.”
I looked around the room as, one by one, the board members raised their hands.
The company was officially mine.
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In three days’ time,” I announced, “this company will be sold to Richmond Electric. Let the minutes state that I, as the now sole legal owner of this company, will both move and second the motion to approve the sale of eighty percent of Coleman Mining to Richmond Electric. As I understand it, Coleman Mining requires a cash contribution to sustain operations during this transition period.”
I nodded to Betty, who shot me a thumbs-up.
“The transfer of these funds has been completed.”
“Coleman Mining confirms receipt of the funds,” the CFO stated.
Everyone relaxed. Their asses were saved.
Wyatt Coleman was ecstatic and shook hands vigorously with the rest of the relieved board members as they all crowded around me to kiss the ring. Because there was no way anyone else sitting at the table could do what I just did.
After the meeting adjourned, Natalie hovered by her chair. If I didn’t know her, I’d say she was waiting for me.
Surely not.
Wyatt pumped my hand and slapped me on the back.
“Thank you so much, Aaron. You really saved my hide.” He leaned in. “You don’t have kids yet, especially not a daughter, but let me tell you, Alex would have strangled me in my sleep if she couldn’t have the wedding she wanted. Really appreciate this. So, uh…” He rocked on his heels. “Are we going to be seeing you around? Daisy mentioned you two might stay together?”
“I—”
“Didn’t mean to put you on the spot.” Wyatt shook my hand again. “Do hope to see you around, even if things don’t work out with Daisy. We really like having you over. We’ll have to split custody of Aaron with you, Bill,” he joked.
Natalie seemed like she was going to say something to me, but Bill was waiting anxiously.
My grandfather looked old and tired, like he was sinking into himself. It reminded me of the first time I’d been introduced to him, and I’d asked him why he was sad to see his daughter.
Bill started to maneuver past the chairs and toward us.
Natalie spun and stalked off. Bill slumped out of the room.
I shook hands and made small talk and inane, polite chitchat with the rest of the board.
“You want a coffee, sugar?” Betty asked when the board members finally drifted off.
“I have to do one thing first.”
I shouldn’t do it. I should just leave Bill alone. But I had to know.
My mother had never come to my house, never expressed even a passing interest in it. And she’d visited? In the middle of the day when she knew I wouldn’t be there?
“Bill…”
My grandfather stiffened behind his desk.
“Sorry to interrupt you.”
“What do you want, Aaron?”
“How,” I asked carefully, “is Emily?”
Bill stared vacantly out the window.
The Coleman Mining offices were a little worse for the wear. They’d had their heyday in the eighties and gone downhill ever since. The worn curtains, the beige-tinted windows—they were like Bill. Used up. Exhausted.
“Is she okay,” I pressed, “after…”
“You have no comprehension of how much a person is able to love. I love my children so much, Aaron.” Bill made a distressed noise. “I had such hopes and dreams for them. Emily was such a joyous, spirited, happy little girl. She had a rough high school and early twenties, but she would have been okay, Aaron. She would have been okay if it…”
“If it hadn’t been for my father,” I completed.
“And you.” Bill rubbed his eyes. “You don’t have children, and I hope to God you never do.” His voice broke. “You have no idea how heartbreaking it is to want grandchildren, to want to have that connection, the continuation of the family, to see your parents in their faces, to love them, be there for them. To wonder what kind of mother your daughter would be, what kind of person your grandchild would be. And then…” A sob pierced his monologue.
“You don’t have to say it. I know.”
But he did.
“And then to have them be you .” His words were bitter. “Not conceived in love, or joy, just misery.”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted to sink into the stale wallpaper, to disappear into the beige walls.
Bill fished out his handkerchief.
“I’ve tried to do right by you, Aaron. I begged Emily to get rid of you. The other parents—we would all meet up, you see. It was a support-group thing. Siobhan always seemed to be doing so well, and it’s because her parents insisted that Grayson be sent away. Anywhere, they didn’t care. He had to be gone. She healed without him reopening the wound every day.”
Bill blew his nose.
“Michelle thought it would look bad if the Ragnors sent one of their own to foster care. The neighbors already looked down on us. How would that appear? Not to mention, Emily wanted to keep you. Becca had a daughter, and when the doctors said Emily couldn’t have more children, she wanted her dream fulfilled, for her son and her best friend’s daughter to get married.”
The guilt flooded me.
“So there you were. Against my better judgment. You don’t know how much it pained me to have you in my house around my daughter. Emily sacrificed for you, Aaron. She sacrificed too much. More than you deserved. She would have been fine if you hadn’t been here. Emily could have been someone.” A whimper escaped. “And now this .”
He waved a tired arm. “You can’t do one thing for her, one simple thing. The only thing she wanted, the one thing that could make her happy. You’re going to choose yourself over her after everything. You’re going to stay with Daisy even if it breaks your mother. Your father knocked her down, and you’ll land the killing blow.”
I wished he had just punched me. That would have hurt less. He was right. I was a horrible son, a horrible person.
“I—”
“Don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter. You made your choice.” He patted in his suit for a handkerchief until realizing it was in his lap. “You want to know how Emily is? She’s heartbroken. She doesn’t want to see you anymore. She says she’s done with you.”
I’d never hated myself more.
“My poor daughter.” Bill wiped at his eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll fix it, Bill. I promise I’ll make everything right.”
He’d never shown this much emotion in front of me.
“I lost my family. Natalie hates me,” he blubbered.
I rested my hand on his shoulder. “I said I’ll fix it. Don’t worry.” I hoped I sounded soothing.
I wished Daisy was there. She’d know what to do.
Except I knew what to do too.
“Tell Emily I’ll make it right. Please.”
I’d been planning to make it up to Daisy, now that Grayson wasn’t going to kill me, now that Coleman Mining was mine and I could sell it to my brother for a discount.
I wanted to forget about the Ragnors, forget about everything, let Daisy take care of me. Lose myself in her. Bask in her love.
Instead, I went to the office. I couldn’t look at her when I passed her at the coffee cart. I pressed the phone to my cheek, calling Grayson so I had an excuse not to stop, afraid I couldn’t hide the lie.
“Any problems?” Grayson asked when he picked up.
“Betty’s sending over the paperwork,” I promised as the elevator sped me up to the top of the tower.
“Marius will be on the lookout.”
I headed past Betty and into my office, where I stood at the window and looked down on the world.
Grayson sighed on the phone.
“What about Daisy?”
“We’re staring down the barrel of a twelve-figure cash outlay and you want to know about Daisy?”
“You looked happy the last time I saw you, Aaron.”
“I wasn’t,” I said petulantly to my reflection, which mirrored his own. “I’m not. My mom doesn’t want me to marry her. I’m supposed to marry Aurora. That was her dream. You know. You were there. You heard her. I promised.”
Another sigh from Grayson. “I know.”
“This was her and her best friends’ dream—that their kids would marry. I have to do this, don’t I.”
It wasn’t a question.
“So you’re going to sacrifice yourself to make Emily happy?” Grayson asked me. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
No.
“That’s what she did for me. You repay a sacrifice with another sacrifice. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” I hung up on him.
Sat down at my desk.
Couldn’t concentrate as I stared at this quarter’s numbers.
The plan had always been to divorce Daisy, to finally get her out of my life.
Everything could go back to how it had been: she’d go back to hating me, the Ragnors would go back to tolerating me, and Grayson and I would go back to our frosty relationship in which I resented him and he was disappointed in me.
“Do you want me to cancel your two o’clock?” Betty stuck her head into my office.
“I don’t think so?”
She seemed disappointed.
“Seems I’m letting everyone down today. Betty, what is it? Didn’t win bingo last night?”
“You still want to meet with the lawyers?”
“Sure, send them in.”
“The divorce lawyers.”
“Oh.” I put my pen down.
So it was happening now.
I stood up. Buttoned my jacket.
“No time like the present.”
Betty narrowed her eyes at me.
“They charge in six-minute increments, Betty. Send them in.”
The team of lawyers in conservative suits filed into the office. Betty perched at her pink typewriter, a heavy beast of a machine that sat on a small corner table and ruined the minimalist aesthetic of my space.
“We have the paperwork ready for your signature, Mr. Richmond,” the head lawyer said, opening his briefcase.
“He needs to review it first,” Betty interrupted. “Probably will take a few weeks.”
“If it’s what you sent me as a draft over email earlier this month, it’s fine.”
“Both parties leave the marriage with only those assets they entered into the contract with,” the lawyer confirmed. “Margaret Coleman retains one hundred percent ownership of one Scottish fold cat named Dorian. Additionally, per the terms of the original 1887 contract, Margaret Coleman retains ownership of the wedding dress and the jewelry in the wedding set. We also have prepared an NDA for her to sign.”
The keys on the typewriter clack aggressively.
“Strike the NDA. She comes from a good family. Her mother would disown her if she talked poorly about me.”
“Very well. Though that isn’t our recommended solution.”
“Noted. I’d like to not make this ugly.”
The typewriter rang angrily as Betty reached the end of the line.
“I’ll inform the servants to pack up the cat, Daisy’s belongings, and the jewelry.”
More aggressive typing from Betty.
“Do you have something to say?” I asked my assistant.
Clang! the typewriter rang.
“Are you actually typing or are you just making it make noise?” I scowled.
Betty held one finger down on the X key, tapping it rapidly and loudly so that we couldn’t talk over the noise.
Clang!
Clack! Clack! Clack!
“I’m buying you a Chromebook, Betty,” I warned after a final DING!
The lawyer placed the divorce papers on my desk.
I hesitated for a moment. Then I scrawled my signature on the line.
This was it. All the longing for Daisy, the dreaming, the wanting, the hoping—I signed it all away.
I loved her, but I couldn’t choose her over my mother.
I wouldn’t.
I didn’t deserve to.
“You at least need to man the fuck up and tell her yourself,” Betty said after the lawyers headed out to file the papers.
“I’ll think about it.”
But I wouldn’t.
Because I was a coward. Because that’s what I’d always been.