Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
FINN
Finn wasn’t one to enjoy early mornings. He had always preferred the potential for trouble late at night much more than the ambition of the early morning, but Valerio seemed to be an early riser, so he was forced to adapt.
He showered and threw on a nice suit, making sure he looked every bit the part he was meant to be playing. Fuck, he really wished it would eventually stop feeling like he was pretending and instead feel natural, like he was meant to be in the role.
Finn headed out of his room, wanting to go to Gianna’s to say goodbye before he left, but was met with an overly cheerful Dante instead.
“What are you doing here?” Finn asked, confused.
“Thought we could carpool.” Dante wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they walked. “I go down to the office on certain occasions to help Valerio out, so does Allister.”
“And you’re both going today?”
“Yep. It seemed necessary to help welcome you to your new life.”
Finn rolled his eyes. “This isn’t new. You’re forgetting that I grew up an heir too. I know my way around this business bullshit.”
Dante threw his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’m sure you do. But now that we’re family, you’ve got to realize that we all support each other. I know that’s a foreign word for you, so I’ll spell it out. S-U—”
They had reached the kitchen when he was interrupted by Allister who was already awake and typing away on his laptop.
“Finally. Let’s go before we’re late. There’s coffee at the office,” he said, closing the laptop and standing.
Finn looked at the clock. “It’s not even seven yet.”
“Allister is a little anal about time management," Dante said.
“Dante just likes anal,” Allister snapped back.
“If I was drinking anything, I would have choked.”
Finn could already feel a headache coming on and they hadn’t even made it out of the house yet.
They walked to the garage, and there seemed to be no argument about who was sitting where.
Dante was driving, Allister was in the passenger, and that left Finn in the back seat.
It made him stop to consider if he would ever be a part of this routine where things fell into a natural order like this.
Hell, normalcy and routine hadn’t been a thing in his life since before his father died.
Even then, the days were always so unpredictable because of his father’s attitude.
In a split second, the way he felt would change the projection of Finn’s day from being the best to being the worst.
It was hard not to think about such things while they drove, and no one made any conversation.
Dante played music and Allister typed away on his phone.
Finn was bored. He pulled out his phone, sending a text to Gianna to wish her a good morning whenever she woke up.
Knowing her, she would probably be sleeping for another couple of hours.
He wished he had the ability to sleep as much as she did.
They pulled up to a skyscraper of a building. The letters at the very top and on the entrance spelt out ‘Vitali,’ letting everyone in the city know exactly who owned it. Finn wouldn’t have expected anything humbler from Valerio, but who was he to judge?
The valet grabbed the keys from Dante and soon the three were walking through the front doors.
Despite how early it still was, the building was bustling with people moving around, talking on their phones or with other colleagues, cups of coffee in their hands.
This looked like a legit business and less like the illegitimate shit their fathers had been running for so many years.
Finn followed Dante and Allister into the elevator.
The button for the top floor had been pressed.
The elevator was surrounded with tinted glass, meaning that as they rose up the many floors of the building, the skyline of the city with the rising sun came into view.
It was breathtaking to see and felt oddly motivational early in the morning like that.
Maybe there was some psychology between hope and sunlight.
The doors opened and they exited, grabbing coffees that were waiting at the receptionist’s desk for them. Everything was so organized and pristine; it kind of freaked Finn out. He knew that Valerio was set in his fucking ways, but this level of control was over the top.
Or was it because he had no structure in his own life? Fuck, how was he supposed to know?
The bitterness of the coffee immediately hijacked his senses. It was plain black, no sugar or milk anywhere near it. God, Valerio seriously was as bland as they came.
The three of them walked past a couple of cubicles that were lined on the sides of the walkway.
Finn cleared his throat. “Do either of you have offices here?”
“We both do. They’re next to Valerio’s though for obvious reasons. Up here are the more important staff members that work with him directly, and then those people usually delegate the work down to the floors below,” Allister said. “He has a very organized way of doing things.”
“I think that’s pretty obvious.” Finn snorted.
“I wish I could have gotten some of his organizational genes. My life is a fucking mess,” Dante said, huffing.
Finn couldn’t have felt that on a more personal level.
They reached his office finally and Allister knocked on it, waiting for the voice on the other side to let him in.
Immediately, Finn could tell that Luna had a lot of influence on the space.
The entire room felt like an old librarian’s office with the mahogany desk, the floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with law and business books, and even the dark brown leather couch that had a white throw blanket on it.
It all felt so homey and unlike the rest of the building, which was what immediately gave it away.
“Finally, you’re here,” Valerio said, looking up from his stack of papers. “I thought that when we had agreed on a time, you would have had the decency to make it at that time.”
Finn rolled his eyes. “It’s still early as fuck. You’re fine.”
“What’s on the agenda today, boss?” Dante asked, immune to any of the tension in the room. He plopped himself down in one of the chairs in front of Valerio’s desk, leaning back in it. “Is it a boring day or a fun one?”
“I never know how to answer that question for you.”
“So it’s a surprise?”
Allister shook his head. “Some of the contracts from the Irish came through last night. I was looking over them this morning, but I didn’t have a chance to finish them.”
“Get that done as soon as you can. I want to have a look and send back my feedback before anything is signed and confirmed,” Valerio said.
Finn stood there, confused about what any of them were talking about. “This isn’t Bring Your Child to Work Day. I’m here so you can show me what you’ve been doing with the Kingsley businesses. I’m not going to fuck off and twiddle my thumbs all day.”
“Of course not. Why would you make my life easier?” Valerio said, rolling his eyes. “Dante, help Allister with the contracts.”
Dante opened his mouth to argue but quickly shut it when a look passed between the brothers.
Some sort of understanding or something.
Him and Allister left the room, leaving Valerio and Finn.
Valerio motioned for him to take the seat that Dante had been in, and Finn did.
It was silent and awkward once again, the tension rising as neither one spoke for a good minute.
“What do you know about the Kingsley accounts?” Valerio asked, finally breaking the silence.
“What? Like right now?” Finn asked. “Jack shit.”
He let out a deep breath. “What did you know about them? Or how involved in them were you when your father was alive?”
“I wasn’t allowed to touch the accounts or move any money around ever.
The most I ever did was any pickups, but that was in cash, and I immediately had to drop the money off to him.
” Finn cleared his throat. “I sat in on meetings and met with his men, but he dealt with the money side of things on his own for the most part.”
“Did you ever ask for more involvement?”
He snorted. “Of course I did. I would have fucking killed to know more about the family business, but he hesitated and waited.”
Really, his father had always said that Finn wasn’t ready. The one fucking thing Finn had never believed in his life, but his father refused to backtrack on.
Valerio opened one of the drawers in his desk, pulling out a large folder and set it in front of him.
“What is this?” Finn asked.
“This is everything we had to do when we took over the accounts, the properties, everything.”
He placed his hand on top of it, hesitating to open it. There was something Finn was missing; something Valerio wasn’t telling him.
“What are you leaving out?”
Valerio huffed, leaning back in his chair. “When we took over the accounts, there was close to nothing in them. Your father had been reckless and drained everything. Multiple accounts were closed, several properties were being foreclosed on, and I had to pour money into it to save them.”
Finn felt his heart drop. “What?”
“Looking back at it, that’s probably why he wanted to sell Luna off to the highest bidder, and honestly, it doesn’t look like you would have been safe from it either. He was running out of money, becoming careless.”
He shook his head, running a hand through his hair.
There was no way. Their entire lives they had lived in a curtain of wealth with parties and galas and the nicest houses.
Reece Kingsley had thrown money around like he had it to spare.
He hadn’t allowed Finn to see or touch any of it as if he had something to protect.
Maybe this was his dark secret. The fact that he had run a multi-generational crime family into the fucking ground. Luna, Finn, their mother—they all had poured their trust into him, and he would have left them to starve, to die.
“The money I got when he died, where did that come from?” Finn asked.
“There was still some left over, so that was what you received. But there’s more to the story.”
“What? What could it possibly be?”
The look on Valerio’s face sent a chill down his spine. It was a look of pity, one that Finn didn’t want from anyone.
“Read the will,” was all Valerio said.
Finn threw open the folder, immediately finding the will sitting on top. His eyes traced every word, every line and he had to force himself to slow down so he could actually comprehend what he was reading.
All estates, accounts, money, investments, and life insurance will be left to the heir of the Kingsley family name. In the case of Reece Kingsley, this will be the husband of his daughter, Luna Kingsley, or whoever Reece Kingsley appoints otherwise, who will act in his stead after his death.
Finn let out a strangled gasp, nearly throwing the entire folder on the floor. He looked up at Valerio, feeling the boiling of his blood consuming every inch of his body.
“You? He left everything to you?” Finn screamed.
Valerio shook his head, refusing to get up.
“No, he didn’t want me to marry her, remember.
He’s probably in Hell right now cursing me for it.
But either way, if I didn’t marry her, it wouldn’t have been yours.
It would have belonged to whichever fucking freak your father had appointed or was going to get her to marry.
Luckily he didn’t have anyone appointed either, a mistake on his part it seems because everything was given to me. ”
Finn shook his head, a blinding madness settling into him.
For years he had stood by his father with loyalty and love.
He took the beatings, he took the screams, he took everything for the sake of becoming heir.
He killed for Reece Kingsley. He lost himself for Reece Kingsley.
He destroyed his fucking life and grieved everything for Reece Kingsley.
Heir was supposed to be his, not given to whatever asshole his father selected.
Finn had been born for it. He was destined for it. He shaped his entire fucking life for it.
For nothing!
The irony was so strong that even from the grave his father was still finding ways to attack him. He had to admit that this betrayal hurt worse than any beating ever had. Hell, he would take a broken rib, a broken femur, even a fucking broken spine over this.
Finn couldn’t control the rage that shook his body. He got up without another word, grabbing the folder with him and walking out of the office. He didn’t know where he was going, all he knew was that he was expelling himself of the Kingsley name.
The one that he no longer deserved.