Chapter 29 #2
I cringe. “Daph—you know our father would make their lives hell if he knew about them, right? It’s—it’s not entirely safe for them to know who he is.”
“Do you think they’ll want something from him?”
I shake my head. “No. They have everything they want and need already. I shouldn’t—I shouldn’t have gone.”
I hurt them.
I hurt Rhys.
I hurt myself.
I hurt Rhys.
She points a piece of bacon at me. “Just because our father’s a dick of the highest order doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to get to know our siblings.”
“I should’ve told them the truth from the start.”
“Hard disagree,” Oliver says, weighing in for the first time.
Daph nods as she munches on her bacon. “Same.”
“Speaking as somewhat of an outsider to this, I’m also on page you weren’t wrong,” Bea says.
“That’s not you were right,” I point out.
She lifts a shoulder. “Life’s complicated.
If like, some famous boy-bander-turned-fashion-mogul or, say, one of the Rutherford brothers showed up at my doorstep like, guess what, we’re related!
, I think I’d freak out and start looking for paparazzi everywhere and worry I couldn’t trust anyone anymore because I didn’t know who wanted to make new friends with me for me or because of who I was suddenly related to. ”
Daph blinks at her. “That’s basically exactly your life now with you dating Hollywood’s hottest leading man.”
“Exactly. I more or less do know what they’re going through.”
“They’re friends with the Rutherford brothers already,” I tell her.
“Friend-friends? Not just acquaintance friends?”
“Friend-friends,” I confirm.
“I never knew Beck Ryder was your favorite Bro Code band member,” Daphne says to Bea. “I always pegged you for a Davis Remington stan.”
“I’m a sucker for a golden retriever type. What can I say?” Bea grins. “But Davis Remington definitely would’ve shown up in disguise if he was coming to tell any of us he was secretly our half brother.”
“You would’ve always wondered if they liked you for you or if they liked being related to… well, this,” Oliver says, gesturing to the view and my penthouse in general.
“They’re friends with people who have this,” I reply.
“Not the same as being related.”
“You know, don’t you?” I say to him. “The bigger reason I didn’t tell them.”
“Know? No. That’s too much thinking. Take an educated guess when my brain insists on being an asshole that wants to think about it anyway? Yeah. Yeah, I have a guess.”
Daphne grins. “Your brain likes thinking.”
“Stupid brain.”
Stupid brain.
My eyes start to water again.
My stupid brain is broken too.
Daph leans closer to me. “Are you really trying to destroy our father?” she murmurs.
“Yes. I mean—that was the plan.”
“Margot.” She squeezes my arm. “If that’ll make you happy, I’m here for it, but don’t do it if you’re doing it just for me.”
I glance past her at Oliver again.
He pretends he doesn’t know I’m looking at him.
Bea’s concentrating hard on her breakfast plate too.
“I dislike injustice,” I tell Daphne. “I don’t like that no one has ever held him accountable for any of the shitty things he’s done. So yes, I’m partially doing it for you. I’m partially doing it for me. And I’m partially doing it for the world at large.”
“Is that why the triplets are mad? Because you asked for their help?”
I shake my head. “They were mad that I lied about who I really am. I think they realize how much it might complicate their lives to be related to us. If I’d never taken that test, if we’d never found out we were related, if I hadn’t gone to Colorado—then they wouldn’t have to worry about what their sperm donor might do. ”
“Margot. Their mother knew who he was.”
“You can’t blame her for keeping that from them though. She—” I rub my eyes.
The pain and fear etched in her face last night—
I did that to her.
I’m not my father. I bear no responsibility for whatever happened between the triplets’ mom and my father.
But it is my fault they had to face it as a family.
“She was protecting them,” I finish softly.
Daphne sighs heavily, which is one more thing weighing on my conscience.
I don’t want to be the reason she worries.
“If you ask me,” she says, “they should be thanking you. What if our father had taken a DNA test to squirrel out any kids he didn’t know about? What if he’d gotten to them first?”
“And that’s why I have to finish what I’ve started. I need him to know in no uncertain terms that it’s time to pay for his sins and disappear from the public eye. Forever.”
She tilts her head at me. “Justice will always find a way, even if you don’t help it along.”
“I need to help it along.”
“You taking over Aurora Gardens?” Oliver asks me.
“That was the plan.”
“Was?”
“I’ve been planning this for four years. Since—since our parents demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they don’t know the real meaning of family.”
“Margot,” Daph whispers, her eyes going shiny.
I sling an arm around her shoulders and give her a side hug. “I was always Team Daphne. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Stop making me cry and finish your breakfast.”
“Whatever you’re still planning, I’m in,” Oliver tells me. “I’m Team Daphne too.”
“Don’t really expect I can do much, but same,” Bea says.
I stare down at my half-eaten breakfast. “I don’t know what I’m planning anymore.”
Oliver heaves another gigantic, exaggerated sigh. “Fine. Fine. You can use my brain to help figure this out.”
Daphne’s wiping her eyes. “My brain is hardly useless, you two jackasses,” she mutters.
“And I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve fantasized about how fucked our father would be if you just quit.
You could buy a few smaller hotel chains and build them bigger and better than Aurora Gardens, and you could do it in your sleep.
He thinks he’s so smart, and he thinks he’s so in control, but he never made you sign a noncompete, did he?
And any nondisclosures only mean you can’t share company secrets, right?
There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from using everything he ever taught you to beat him at his own game. ”
I swallow and tilt my head at my sister. “You know about the lack of a noncompete?”
“Being uninterested in business doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
“Daphne. I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“Smarter than half the rest of us put together,” Oliver murmurs.
She grins. “It’s nice to finally be recognized.”
“I get why she’s not allowed to come to the city now,” Bea murmurs.
“Same, but I don’t dislike it as much as I probably should,” Oliver says.
“So. First we destroy our father, and then we get you your man back,” Daphne declares. “Easy-peasy. When do we start? Or do you want to get your man back first, and then destroy our father?”
Now my eyes are stinging again. “I’m not getting my man back.”
“Margot.”
“I’m broken, Daph. My heart—it doesn’t work right.”
“Clearly, Ms. Spent Four Years Planning to Avenge Your Sister,” Bea murmurs.
“Revenge isn’t—it’s not—revenge isn’t good. It’s not—”
“Justice is always good,” Bea says. “Is it justice to let powerful people who hurt others for sport stay in their positions when you can take them down? Calling it revenge instead of righteousness doesn’t make it any less honorable and admirable.”
“Doesn’t it?” I ask.
“There’s no one else to hold your father accountable, Margot,” Oliver says. “There’s no one else in a position to make him pay. You can’t wait for karma when karma’s been waiting for you.” He cocks a brow. “Just like trickle-down economics. It starts with us, because there’s no one else.”
“How many more people will he hurt if you don’t stop him?” Daphne says.
God.
How many people has he hurt in the past four years when I’ve been planning revenge instead of seeking it?
The staff that he yells at.
The women he hits on.
The people who clean up his messes when he’s plenty old enough to quit making fucking messes?
“That?” Daph says. “That feeling in your gut right now? That question you’re asking yourself? That is all the proof you need that your heart works right.”
“I should’ve ended this years ago,” I whisper.
Daph hugs me. “Can’t change the past. Only the future.
Neither of us asked to be born into a family of fucknuggets or to be raised by people who didn’t know how to love us.
But how we handle it—that defines who we are.
Always trying to do better—that does too.
So. What do you need help with to do this job you never asked for but are the only person who can do it anyway? ”
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
I have the words now.
I know exactly what I need to say.
“You’ve already done it all,” I tell them. “Thank you.”
Daph grins. “Our pleasure. Think we can get in some trouble in the city now since our job here is done?”
“No,” Oliver and Bea say together.
She gives an exaggerated eye roll. “Jeez, who invited them? They’re no fun. Also, Margot, when are we calling your roommate to tell him you love him?”
My heart skips a beat.
Call Rhys.
Tell him I love him.
Risk—risk being happy. With him.
Or hurting him.
I’m not low-maintenance. My life moves fast. I’m in charge, and I’m about to embark on a brand-new adventure that will require so much of my time and energy and—
I shiver.
“Rocking chair test,” Daphne declares.
“Rocking—what?”
“Rocking chair test,” Bea says. “It’s how we decide if we’re going to do something scary so that one day we can tell all of our great-nieces and nephews and Simon’s grandkids about how much fun we had living.”
“Scary like falling in love so that maybe it’s our own grandkids we’re telling all of our stories to one day,” Daph says.
I ignore the sliver in my heart reminding me that Daphne and Bea have a connection that I don’t because they’re letting me in.
They’re letting me into this connection.
Daph nudges me. “So do you want to sit on the porch with us one day and tell whoever’s grandkids about how you bossed up and took a chance at falling in love with a man who turned your insides to goo and made your world bright and amazing and beautiful, or do you want to sit quietly by and know you weren’t brave? ”
“One, rude. And two—” I suck in a shaky breath, because two matters more. “Two, I don’t want to hurt him.”
She shrugs. “Hurting the people you love is inevitable because we’re all fucked up in our own ways, and it’s impossible to love someone without showing them all of your sides.
But when it’s real love—not manipulative love, not controlling love, but real love—then you take the bad with the good.
Love’s not perfect. And that’s why it’s beautiful. ”
“How did you get so smart?”
“I had a good teacher.” She grins at Bea. “The best, in fact.”
“I didn’t—” Bea starts.
“Yes, you did,” I say.
“It was definitely all you,” Oliver agrees.
“Thank you,” I add to Bea.
“Sincerely, thank you,” Oliver agrees.
“Dammit, you’re making both of us cry now,” Daphne says as she and Bea swipe at their eyes. “Margot. Call him.”
“I will.” I swallow. Probably. Maybe.
He truly does deserve so much better than me.
“But can I handle one crisis at a time? I don’t—I don’t want to wait any longer for what I need to do here.
If someone in Snaggletooth Creek slips now that the secret’s out—I can’t risk our parents hurting our brothers.
Where’s my phone? I need to call in a few other people for support.
I have some work to do, and I need it all done yesterday. ”
I flinch at my own words.
“You need it done yesterday to protect people,” Daph says gently. “Margot—this is when it counts. Don’t feel bad for asking for help to do the right thing.”
I throw my arms around my sister and hug her tight.
She’s right. And I have work to do.