Chapter 20
20
JACKSON
“ I ’ve been patient with you these last several weeks, when I’ve had every reason to be pissed with how you’ve handled the Knight situation. Not only that you’ve been out of the office at a crucial time for the company. The investors are getting antsy and now this.”
Gavin slaps a manila envelope on my desk. I don’t need to open it to know what’s inside. My mother’s handiwork no doubt. I ignored her threat by refusing to have anything to do with her event. I’m sure she’d told everyone her son would be in attendance, and I’d raised a lot of money for whatever the fuck it was she was fake supporting.
The truth is, Champion has changed and developed a lot in the last twelve years. Her social influence over the town isn’t as strong as it once way but it doesn’t mean she couldn’t still cause trouble. Like now.
I stare dispassionately at the envelope without touching it. I know what’s inside because all of the board members have received the exact same items and I’ve been fielding calls all morning.
My head is pounding and all I want is to go back to my Zora. I need the comfort of her arm. I need to be inside of her. I need to hear her voice to remind me the world still has some decent people in it.
“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Gavin demands when I don’t answer right away.”
I lean back in in my leather swivel chair with a heavy sigh. “What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me what’s in these documents isn’t true and this is some sick prank. Or at the very least tell me you’re going to take care of this.”
“I’ll take care of this.”
He storms over in my direction and slams his palms on my desk. “Fuck you! You don’t get to brush this off like it’s no big deal. I’ve fucking had it, man. I’ve put up with your bullshit these past weeks in the name of our friendship. I could almost forgive you for fucking with our livelihoods but I’m not going to let you treat me like I’m of no importance to this company. You may hold the majority of the shares but if I garner enough support with the other shareholders, we could oust you.”
I’m not sure what reaction he expects from me but I don’t have the will to argue right now. I’m taken back to those days when my mother would pull stunts like this to humble me and I’m reminded, I won’t be free of this until I stop running from my past.
She’s destroyed so many good things in my life. I’m not going to lose the first real friend I’ve had over this.
“If you think you’re up to running this company and it’s what you want, I’ll gladly hand over the reins. I’m not going to fight you for it.”
“Of course it’s not what I want. If I wanted to take over, I would have set that in motion after the Knight situation. Which by the way, I still don’t agree with. But you keep pushing me aside like I don’t fucking matter. I’ve been here with you every step of the way and I’m more than just a business colleague, but I’m also your friend or at least I thought I was until recently.”
“You are my friend and I’ve been shitty to you recently. Apologizing isn’t my strong suit but I’m sorry for being a dick.”
He gives me a long accessing stare before plopping down in the seat in front of my desk. “I think it’s about time you tell me about what’s going on.”
“Where do I begin? Do you want me to explain the contents of that envelope?”
“It’s a start. At least then we can strategize how to put the board and investors at ease with what they’ve received. And we have to figure out who sent it.”
“I already know.”
He furrows his brow and leans forward. “Who?”
“It was my mother.”
“What? Your mother? Why would she do something like this?”
“To be spiteful because I didn’t show up to an invite she wanted me to attend and because I’ve been avoiding her.”
“I kind of figured when you said you wanted to go back to your hometown you’d be visiting family.”
“No. There’s only my mom that I know of. I’m the last in line for the Champion family except for some distant cousins I’ve never met. My mother has no contact with her family so I don’t know much about them.”
“So why did you insist on going back to Champion?”
I place my elbows on my desk and rest my forehead in my palms. “Have you ever had an obsession?”
“In what way do you mean?”
“In the way that your every waking thought is consumed by that thing or person. You feel like you’ll go crazy if you don’t have it.”
“I mean when I was younger, I was crazy about baseball until I discovered girls.” He chuckled.
“My obsession is a girl. Not just any girl. The girl. The moment I met her, I knew she would be mine. But back then, I couldn’t even be friends with her let alone think of having a relationship with her.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say my mother made it difficult for anyone in my life she didn’t approve of. But now I’m in a position where she can’t hurt me anymore. Or so I thought.”
“So you’re telling me you’ve done all this for a woman?”
Now that that he knows the reason for my erratic behavior, he deserves the total truth. So, I proceed to tell him how I’d gone about my plan to entrap Langston Knight and to make Zora indebted to me.”
By the time I’m finished I feel a huge weight lifted from my shoulders because I don’t want to be dishonest with him. But I wonder if I’ve miscalculated because his fists are balled at his sides, and his lips compress to an angry line.
He doesn’t speak right away. Slowly he gets out of his seat and starts to pace the length of my office.
“I’ve fucked up,” I finally say to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between us.
“You think? You put our fucking company in jeopardy over some random pussy? Have you lost your fucking mind?”
I grit my teeth to hold back the angry retort on my tongue. I deserve to be berated but I won’t tolerate anyone talking down on Zora. When I was back in high school, I couldn’t protect her but now I can. “Once you have time to think about it, if you want me to step down as CEO I will. But don’t you ever refer to my woman as just ‘some random pussy’ or I will slam your fucking head through the wall, twelve years of friendship or not.”
Gavin stops pacing and his eyes go wide. “So you’re really serious about this woman? I guess you must be with the lengths you’ve gone through to get her.”
“I’ve never been more serious about anyone or anything in my life. I’ve gone about this the wrong way and I’ve fucked things up with her. She probably hates me but I can’t let her go.”
Gavin returns to his seat with a heavy sigh. “You’re a fucking asshole. Do you know that.”
“Yeah.”
“That being said, I don’t want you to step down. I know how much blood sweat and tears you put into this company. My threat was made in anger. You shut me out and I didn’t appreciate that shit. We’re a team and we’re supposed to have each other’s backs.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll make this right with the investors and the board members.”
“You’re damn right you will. And I’ll help you. I’m not going to leave you floundering on your own.”
“You don’t have to. This is a mess I’ve made so it’s only fair I take care of this myself.”
“When we started this business together, we both made a commitment to see it become successful and grow. You’re not in this alone so you don’t have to do this by yourself either”
I bow my head, humbled that he could forgive me so easily after what I’ve done. I nearly screwed up our friendship keeping secrets from him. “Thank you.”
He pauses for a moment and scratches the back of his head. “So…about that old newspaper article. The girl, Melody.”
“I hadn’t heard that name in years, but I sometimes think about her and what I could have done differently that night.”
“Do you care to share.”
I nod slowly. “My family had a vacation home on the lake and we’d spend a chunk of our summers there. The summer after my father died, I didn’t want to go because it didn’t feel right going without him but my mother insisted. She said it would look bad if we didn’t otherwise, although I think she wanted to go because she had a special friend who lived in that area. Anyway, there was a girl named Melody who lived in the area. She invited me to a party and my mother didn’t want me to go because she thought the townspeople were trash. I was angry and still grieving my father’s death so I decided to rebel and snuck out. I wish…for once I wouldn’t have been so stubborn.”
“Anyway, I go to the party and I don’t know any of the kids besides a few locals I’ve made small talk with. I had some drinks and Melody suggested we go out to her dad’s boat. I wanted to get away from the crowd so I went with her. When we were out on the lake we had a couple drinks and we talked and then we started making out but she made some offhand comment about her friends being jealous that she snagged the rich boy.”
“It turned me off and I pushed her off of me. She snapped and started attacking me. I restrained her while she tried to hit me. She called me some awful names. She was clearly drunk, and I don’t know if she would have stopped if I allowed her to get some hits in. I’m a strong swimmer and we were only two miles from the shore so I jumped in the lake and swam back. It was the last time I saw her.”
“And then what happened?”
“The town went crazy the next day because the boat came back but Melody didn’t. Her body was found a day later. People at the party pointed out I was the last person seen with her and there was an investigation. My mom paid a considerable amount of money to have this swept under the rug. She paid some false witnesses to say that they saw Melody way after the time I left her. But the damage was done. Those initial articles about me were damning.”
“Damn. I’m sorry man.”
That night still haunted me. Worse was the fact that my mother would use that incident to paint me as the worst person in the world. I wish I wouldn’t have left her out there alone. She was clearly inebriated and had I stayed, maybe she’d be alive.
“Does anyone know what happened to her exactly?”
“I can’t be one hundred percent certain, but I remember there being strong currents that night. I was a state champion swimmer, and it was a challenge even for me to get back to the shore. If she fell out of the boat, it’s possible she might have got taken under by one of the currents. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning.”
“What about the guy you beat up?”
I groan. “It wasn’t a fight. I caught him making out with Zora at the party and I went into a rage. I’m defending myself but I only hit him once but I ended up breaking his nose and couple of his teeth. His family sued. I assume those are the records my mother included in those envelops she sent out.”
“Yeah. I mean, we can explain it away. Initially it doesn’t look good but in that context we can sooth over the powers that be. We all do dumb shit when we’re younger. But if you have any more secrets you better let me know now.”
I shake my head. “There are no more secrets.”
“Good.” He nods, seeming satisfied. “It’s kind of fucked up what your mother did.”
“To be honest, it’s not the worst thing she’s done.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“You have no need to apologize. It’s something I’ve come to expect from her.”
“So, when do I get to meet your, lady friend?”
“I don’t know. When I get back, to Champion, we’ll have to talk. I want her to be with me not because I’m holding something over her head but because she wants to be.”
“I’m rooting for you. I’ve never seen you fail with the ladies before.”
“She’s different Gavin. She’s not just any woman.”
“You love her don’t you.”
I’ve never admitted it out loud before because I’ve always been too scared, afraid I’d lose her as soon as the words were out my mouth. But when I do say it, I want her to be the first to hear it. “Like, I said, it’s a conversation I’ll need to have with Zora.”
Gavin sighs and stands up. “I understand. I wish you luck. In the meantime, you should probably get started calling the board and the investors to head off any potential problems those envelopes have caused.”
Fixing the damage my mother had done was the easy part. Fixing the problems between me and Zora was going to be a challenge.