Do Overs #3
“Am I part of some inner circle now?” He took the glass from me before swirling it softly.
“You’ll see them all at the wedding. I doubt that it will be a secret. You’ve already been vetted—”
“As has Asha.”
I nodded because there was no use in hiding the truth. “Of course. There are a lot of things that we have to do to protect ourselves. I’m sure you of all people would understand that.”
“I do. It seems odd, though.” He was watching the whiskey swirl in the glass thoughtfully.
“What does?”
“Being in the room and not holding all the cards. I can’t lie it’s not a place I’ve found myself often in the last twenty-five years.” He looked up with a smile and I wondered if this was his way of giving me his stamp of approval for being with Asha.
“I’ve been there. I’ve been a part of the government and not able to be myself for seventeen years. Leaving now is more than enough for me to run away and never look back.”
“Don’t you have to make it to twenty years before you get full benefits?”
I had to smirk at him thinking federal benefits for life were ever my goal. “I’m sure you’re more than aware that I don’t need that military paycheck or the benefits. It’s not like I’d be going to one of their physicians for anything at this point.”
He laughed signaling he knew just how fucked up the situation in our government was. “This is true. Not much about people in government can be trusted.”
I set the bottle back on the shelf ready to get done with parental visits for the day. “What’s the deal with your son?”
He glanced around before he spoke up. “Where is Asha?”
“She isn’t here. She needed to go back to the university for some meeting but I met you here as a precaution. And honestly, you seem to be keen on keeping the situation pacified instead of trying to solve it.”
He didn’t mask how my observation insulted him. The glass he’d been holding hit the countertop and his eyes locked on me. “You’re to tell me how to raise my daughter after knowing her how long?”
I kept my stance neutral because he might be wealthy but I was deadly. He was no threat even if he had someone stationed outside with a gun trained on me. “You might have known her far longer but I’ve seen the sides of her that she hides from everyone else.”
“A father doesn’t want to hear things like that about his daughter, Ori.”
“It isn’t anything sexual, it’s all mental.
Asha is far stronger than you all seem to give her credit for.
She’s been through things, anyone can see that.
But she hasn’t shared them with me. I’m sure that you have a better idea.
I’m not asking you to divulge anything but I would think you all would know that she’s tough as shit. ”
His face was immediately pained a look so tortured I wanted to run out of here and find my fiancée and press her to tell me what was going on. “It’s because of what she’s endured that keeps us from being too harsh with her.”
“Your wife doesn’t seem to have that problem.” I couldn’t stop the sneer that came across my face and when William’s grew hard at the mention of his other half I had to wonder what was up.
“Jacqueline is upset because she wanted the perfect pair. One boy, one girl. That was all. Finding out that we were having twins made her unnaturally angry. It was even worse because Sasha was born first and was smaller than Asha was. She felt as though Asha had done something to her sister in the womb to make her smaller. Because of her weight, she doted on Sasha while letting nannies take care of Asha.”
“And you allowed this?” He was losing my respect left and right. First the marriage, then the jewelry, now her childhood.
His eyes were filled with regret and despite his remorse it didn’t change that he’d failed her.
“I stepped in as much as I could but this was around the time when I was working multiple jobs while launching my business from being a successful one to an international powerhouse. That type of success took a lot of time. It took me a while to catch on to what was going on but I ensured that Asha had around the clock attention.”
“And your son?”
He exhaled as though the weight of the failure of his namesake was too much to handle.
“William Jr. has had nothing to do with the business. Not that portion of it. His problem is like many second generation successful kids; he’s let money go to his head.
I’ve been doing what I can to change that mindset, but he feels like the hard work is done and everything going forward is just managing. ”
“Work never stops.”
William pointed a well-manicured finger at me like he was happy I understood his position. “Precisely. And since his mother is the one who has put the idea in his head, it’s hard to convince him otherwise, although it’s my company.”
“The family company.”
He smiled one that meant he was about to divulge information that would change a lot.
“No. Mine. There are a lot of moving parts going on that you might not be aware of. My wife is on a very short leash. For multiple reasons that have never been discussed or made public. But the leash is necessary, despite how stupid it sounds. It’s why she does that stupid social media stuff and had to get a set to film.
Despite the money we have, I’d rather spend it on something worthwhile far more often than she should.
There’s only so much consuming one can do before they become desensitized to it.
When the thrill of the ordinary wears off, that’s when you start to get into dangerous territory. ”
“I’ve seen people playing in that dangerous territory every day.” He was throwing out hints but he didn’t seem sure of what he was saying.
“I’m trying to save him from himself but he doesn’t seem to want to be saved.”
“Are you worried about him embarrassing the family?”
“I’d kill him myself before I let him ruin everything that I’d built.” Those words were spoken so flatly that I knew he meant every one of them.
Satisfied that he wasn’t going to be part of the problem I went back to the original question. “Why is he angry with Asha?”
“Because, as I’m sure you’ve surmised, she’s the person who I know is going to handle all our assets once I retire. It’s because of her help that he was put on a tighter leash.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “What did she do?”
He sighed and I could see he felt ashamed by his son’s actions so I waited until he was ready to speak.
“She found out that he was investing one of our clients’, a girl that was under my protection, funds.
Her father had been an early investor and I promised that I would take care of her.
My son didn’t like the way I’d turned over the money that had grown under our watch.
He felt as though we should still be making the decisions for her like we did previously. ”
“What did he do?”
“Tried to invest it in assets that she hadn’t approved in order to—”
“Churn his personal commissions by making trades.”
He grimaced then nodded with a sigh. “If she weren’t family and had caught it then it would’ve ruined a lot of our business.
Between private equity and stocks, you know that so much of what we do is all shadows and smoke and mirrors.
His creating unnecessary issues because he wanted to make himself look better was dangerous.
Pointless. Especially when his father’s name was on the building. ”
“His excuse?” The man in front of me was too moral to let his son get away with this without hearing him out.
“He was trying to carve out a place for himself and swore he would replace any losses she had if it came to that.”
“And did it?”
“No. Asha does audits of accounts and since we’re friendly with the client on a personal level she was alerted to the discrepancies. Despite not being an accountant, Asha can spot unusual activity easily. Numbers have always been her thing and came to her easily.”
“And he’s bitter he was caught.”
William shook his head refuting my conclusion. “He’s bitter that he suffered consequences for his actions and now feels as though Asha only brought it to my attention so that she could step into his place.”
The reason for his son’s bitterness was now clear. “None of it had been carved in stone.”
“No, it hadn’t. But you can’t make a man who feels entitled see reason about much. Especially when it’s not in his favor.”
“So you’ve got two snakes, a daughter who wants to remain neutral, which means she’s caught in the middle and then Asha.
“You let your son be treated like the golden child while Asha is the scapegoat. Your wife dotes on him like she’s fucking him and you do whatever you can for Asha out of guilt.
You both give what’s left over to Sasha who feels as though her accomplishments are the only way either of you are ever going to notice her.
She knows that her mother fawns over her to piss off Asha and that you love her but you don’t think she could handle the responsibility of your business.
You see past her mind and only worry about the superficial things that she has accomplished because you’ve unfairly placed her in a similar category as your wife.
You haven’t revealed the true reason that you wanted this alliance in the first place to your daughter.
It’s fucked up that you’ve put her in this position to be on the outs with both of her siblings because you refuse to man the fuck up and tell everyone that she’s who you choose to be your successor.
I don’t know why you haven’t divorced your wife but it’s clear that the only thing you feel for her is disdain and the type of loathing I could only imagine my father felt for my mother.
It’s the type that seeps into your every interaction with her and it’s toxic as fuck.
You’ve got a lot going on.” He didn’t like the summary of his life but that didn’t make it any less true.