21. James
21
JAMES
T he monthly calls from my financial advisor were a necessary evil. I usually tuned out for most of them to focus on more pressing issues, but this time Chris said something that stopped me cold.
“What do you mean, you’re happy that I took a chance on Jess’s business?” I asked slowly, hoping I’d misheard him. “What business?”
The door to the balcony was open, and I could hear the happy chatter of Harper, Kaitlyn, and my sister on the patio.
“Uh…wait, did you not know?” Chris stammered. “I assumed you knew.”
I could hear the confusion in his voice and the rapid shuffling of paperwork.
“Knew what ?” I demanded, struggling to keep my voice calm. “What’s going on, Chris?”
I drummed my fingers on my desk impatiently as I waited for him to answer me.
“Um… I got a notification from a bank that your sister had…well…had taken out a loan. I thought you must have helped her with it, talked her through it.”
“My sister has a trust fund worth tens of millions of dollars,” I reminded him. “Why the hell would she need to take out a loan? Did that really not raise any red flags for you?”
“Not really?” Chris admitted. “I thought maybe it was for optics. To show other potential investors that the idea was strong enough to get a bank to endorse it, so it wouldn’t seem like her investment was just a rich girl whim, you know?”
But it was just a rich girl whim. That was all it had ever been. Only instead of admitting that and moving on to something new, she’d decided to go behind my back and put herself in debt. Debt that she’d never be able to pay off without breaking into her trust fund after all. What a goddamn mess.
After I wrapped up the call with Chris, I stalked out to the patio and saw Jess, Kaitlyn, and Harper playing poolside. I strode out to them feeling my anger growing with each step closer.
“Daddy!” Harper stood up on her chair and cheered when she saw me. “We’re making floaty mermaid toys. Want to make one too?”
“Harp, please sit down.” I managed a strained smile for my daughter as she plopped into her chair and glanced at the mess of fabric and glitter on the table beneath the umbrella. “I wish I could, but Daddy is busy.” I turned my attention to Kaitlyn. “Can you take her inside? I need to speak to my sister alone.”
Jess sat up straighter as her smile disappeared. “No, I think I know what you’re here to discuss, and I want Kaitlyn to stay.”
I gritted my teeth and ignored my sister. “Kaitlyn, take Harper inside. Now, please.”
A shadow passed over Kaitlyn’s face as she nodded and took Harper’s hand. My daughter threw a concerned glance my way as they walked up the path, and I heard her say, “Why is Daddy so mad?” They were out of earshot before I could hear Kaitlyn’s reply.
I took a few beats to collect myself because all I wanted to do was yell at Jess for yet another bad decision. But yelling wasn’t my style.
“I just spoke to Chris, and he mentioned you’d taken out a loan with a bank for ‘your business,’” I began in a measured tone. “Would you mind explaining to me what he means? Because I’m confused since the last business we discussed was tabled.”
Jess pounced on me before I’d even finished speaking.
“Yeah, you made your decision before I even started my presentation because you think I’m an idiot. You didn’t even give me a chance ,” she shot back, already defensive. “And I worked hard on my presentation for you.”
“I don’t think you’re an idiot, don’t say that,” I sighed. “But putting together a presentation and actually running a business are two very different things. I said no because you didn’t put enough thought into what you want to do, Jess. You get ideas in your head and assume that everything is just going to magically work out.” I felt myself getting angrier the more I thought about it. “You don’t know business.”
“I know this business,” she countered. “And you always conveniently forget about my degree.”
“A degree in fashion means you know how to play dress up , Jess! If you really knew the fashion business, you’d know how often private labels like this one fail. Even the best business managers struggle to keep fashion labels going long enough for them to catch on with the public. Do you really think you could succeed where so many others fail? It’s not just about knowing clothes. How would you pay your bills? Hire staff? Promote it? You don’t know the first thing about launching a company. That’s why I said no.”
“Stop yelling,” she shouted back at me, glancing up toward the house. I knew the acoustics of the place meant that everyone inside might be privy to our conversation as well.
“I’m not yelling,” I responded, even though I was. “I’m trying to talk some sense into you—but you’re refusing to listen.”
Jess snorted, shook her head, and glared at me. “You’re so dismissive, as usual. But there are plenty of people who believe in me! Even the loan officer at the bank, a complete stranger, showed more trust in me than I get from my own family. Don’t you see how messed up that is? I could get a stranger to hear me out about the potential of this project when my own brother would barely give me the time of day.”
I let out a long sigh and rubbed my temples. “Of course the bank was cooperative. If the business succeeds, they get to take credit. And if it fails, they get to collect your collateral. What is your collateral? How were you able to get the loan in the first place? What did you put at risk?”
“The house in Raleigh.”
I took a few seconds to compute exactly what that meant and how it was even possible. It was one of our family properties, a gem in the south that we all loved but rarely had the time to visit.
“We both own it,” she said as if she’d read my thoughts, her chin jutting out in defiance. “I had every right to use my share of it.”
I took a few deep breaths before saying anything else, because I was angry enough to burn bridges with my impetuous sister.
“Does Mom know?”
Jess shook her head. “Not yet. But I’m going to tell her. She’ll be fine with it, I’m sure, since she believes in me.”
I paced along the patio, trying to vent the anger roiling inside of me.
“I know you’re upset but I promise you this is going to work,” she said in a soft voice, like she thought she’d actually be able to sweet talk me into this.
“You just don’t learn, do you?” I finally exploded. “I thought for sure after what happened with Lucas you’d be more responsible. I bailed you out of that mess, but I’m not sure I’ll have the patience to do it again once this venture fails.”
I hated myself for bringing Lucas up, but he still cast a long shadow on our family.
“This has nothing to do with him,” Jess shouted, her voice cracking. “Why does everything always go back to Lucas? And how much longer will I have to pay for my mistakes?”
I finally turned to look at my sister and saw the raw emotion on her face. For a moment I felt bad about blowing up at her, but then I remembered all of her many missteps throughout the years, and felt my anger rising again. She’d tried to launch a high-end vodka while she was still in college, then signed on to rep a skincare brand that had traces of lead in it, and even considered launching a singing career until someone finally had the integrity to tell her she couldn’t carry a tune. I didn’t have the time to babysit my sister as she tried to figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She was a representative of the Morris family, and we were supposed to be past this dynamic.
“You heard my perspective on the viability of this fashion business, and you went behind my back and did it anyway,” I said once I centered myself enough to speak calmly. “I never signed off on what you’re doing, and I still don’t. I want you to know that when things go south, I won’t be there to pick up the pieces, do you understand me?”
Jess didn’t answer. When I looked over at her she was sitting with her legs drawn up on the chair and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked tiny, vulnerable. But I knew firsthand that she was anything but. My sister was formidable when she set her mind to something. It didn’t mean I thought her ridiculous business was going to succeed, but I knew that she’d throw every ounce of her energy into it—along with throwing in piles of good money after bad—until it ultimately went up in flames. I just hoped the rest of the family wouldn’t end up burned again as well.
“Did you hear what I said?” I asked her.
She nodded, still refusing to look at me, which made me even angrier. Here she was, acting like the wounded party when I was the one with so much to lose. If anything happened to our Raleigh house because of what she did, there would be hell to pay. Not to mention the hit to our family’s reputation if it became known that we lost a fortune due to foolish investments.
I spun on my heel and headed back to the house, fuming. I was so caught up in what had just happened that I almost ran into Kaitlyn coming out of the classroom in the library.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked, her eyes searching my face.
I looked in the room to make sure Harper was occupied and out of earshot. “I don’t want to get into the details, but let’s just say my sister has poor decision-making abilities. Sometimes it impacts the rest of the family, and I’m left cleaning her mess. I’m tired of it. It comes down to the fact that I can’t trust her, and that’s a dealbreaker for me. I’m done.”
I knew that Jess and Kaitlyn had been hanging out quite a bit, and I wondered how much my sister had confided in her.
“But maybe she’s changed?” Kaitlyn asked haltingly. “I mean, you said the DUI happened a while back. It seems like she’s on a new path. I think it’s important to let people grow out of the mistakes of their past.”
“Not if it’s at the expense of everyone else,” I snapped at her. “You don’t understand how long this sort of behavior has been going on. I can’t tolerate people going behind my back, especially people that I care about.”
Kaitlyn took a step away from me and I instantly regretted my tone. “You’re not even giving her a chance. And it’s not like she’s goofing off, James. She’s trying to start a business. You should be proud of her.”
The way she was sticking up for Jess made it clear that they’d been talking, and for some reason that made me even angrier. It was like they were conspiring against me. “Trust me, she’s used up all of her chances. End of story.”
Kaitlyn’s mouth dropped open and she took a step away from me. She looked at me like I was a stranger.
“There’s no need for you to concern yourself with our family drama. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go, I have a meeting soon,” I said, hoping my tone made it clear that she needed to stop meddling.
I headed for my office, my footsteps echoing off the marble floor and making it clear to anyone within earshot that the man of the house had had enough.