Chapter Twenty
Orson
I stare at my father’s back, then turn to Scarlett. Her eyes are blazing, but she swallows hard as she focuses on me.
“What the hell was that about?” I demand.
Kingi and Marama hover. They obviously overheard Scarlett’s conversation with my dad and are probably unsure as to whether to give us privacy or not. Scarlett glances at them. Her anger fades and she looks suddenly worried.
I’ve never seen Dad walk away from someone like that. He always has to have the last word, and he wins every argument I’ve ever seen him have. His reaction is therefore completely unprecedented.
She chews her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I lost my temper, that’s all. I don’t want to spoil the party.”
“It’s all right,” Kingi says, “we’ll leave you to it. Come on, Marama, we’ll get a drink.” Marama shoots Scarlett a sympathetic glance, then follows him over to the bar.
I sit and gesture for Scarlett to do the same.
“What’s going on?” I ask, giving her a direct look.
She studies the table for a moment. Then she lifts her gaze to mine again. “Have you seen The Matrix?”
My eyebrows rise in surprise. “Um… yes.” I love the sci-fi movie. Neo, the main character, suspects that mankind is trapped inside a computer simulation. He’s offered the choice of a blue pill, which means he’ll stay blissfully ignorant of the truth, or a red pill, in which case he’ll confront the harshness of reality with the hope of seeking knowledge and understanding.
“Do you want the red pill?” she asks.
I hesitate, just for a couple of seconds. Then I nod. “Always.”
“You might not like what you hear,” she says softly .
I steel myself. “Do you know why they were enemies?”
She gives a reluctant nod.
“Then tell me,” I urge, my heart banging. “I have a right to know.”
She picks up her champagne glass and has a large swallow. “The day Spencer came to the commune, Ana was out, but I was upstairs with Mum. She was asleep, but I heard everything through the open bedroom window. When he knocked on our door, Dad answered, but he refused to let him in. They stood in the garden, arguing.”
“What about?” I ask, baffled. As far as I was aware, they hadn’t spoken in years.
“About my mother. Spencer wanted to see her.”
My eyebrows rise. “To see your mum? Not your dad?”
“Yes.”
I stare at her. “Why?”
“He said he’d heard that Mum had cancer and was very ill. I don’t know how, because I thought hospital information was confidential, but he’d found out that Mum hadn’t had Enhertu, and he asked why. Dad was furious and said it was none of his business, but Spencer kept asking. Eventually Dad admitted he couldn’t afford it. So Spencer said he wanted to pay for it.”
My jaw drops. I’m not totally shocked at the news, because at heart he is a good man, and he’s given a fortune to charities and helped many people. But Blake was the one person he hated more than any other. Why would he offer to help his wife?
“Dad refused,” Scarlett says.
“Jesus, why?”
“He said he didn’t want Spencer to have anything to do with Mum’s treatment.” She has another big mouthful of champagne.
“How do you feel about that?” I ask softly.
“I was angry then, and I’m angry now. Spencer said it wasn’t his choice to make, and he was being selfish, and afterward I told Dad that I agreed with Spencer. But he refused to listen.”
I can’t believe that Dad was willing to offer to pay for the treatment, but that Blake refused out of spite. Christ, no wonder Scarlett is angry. “So what happened after that?”
“Spencer said he wanted to talk to Mum. But Dad said no, that she’d chosen him a long time ago, and he didn’t want Spencer to have anything to do with her. ”
I stare at her as the words slowly sink in. “She’d chosen Blake?” No… it can’t be true. “You’re telling me that their thirty-year feud was over your mother?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing the answer is yes.” She tips her head to the side. “You’re shocked that love could evoke such passionate feelings?”
“No. I’m just stunned to think my father is capable of such an emotion.”
She frowns. “But he was married to your mother. They had two children.”
“Yeah, but I don’t remember them ever being affectionate in front of me. They didn’t even hold hands. It was like a business partnership.” The thought of him being in love and out of control makes my head spin.
“Well,” Scarlett says, “I think they both fell in love with Mum. She chose my dad, and your father never forgave him for it.”
“Holy fuck.” I’m completely blown away. “What happened?”
“Spencer tried to force his way past Dad. They had an ugly fight; it was horrible to watch. Dad made Spencer’s nose bleed, and Spencer gave him a black eye. I didn’t want to leave Mum, so I rang the office to tell them what was going on, and George and Richard came running over to separate them. Spencer told Dad he was a selfish bastard and drove off. That’s simplifying it—the argument went on for longer than that, but that’s the gist of it.”
I look away, not really seeing the pool or the guests. Is it true? Did Dad’s feud with Blake really start over a woman? At eighteen? But I know that Dad and Blake were competitive all through high school. Wanting the same girl could have turned into an extension of that competition.
I think about what Scarlett said, about Dad going over to the commune and wanting to pay for Amiria’s treatment. Could it be that all these years he’s continued to harbor feelings for her?
Dad was eighteen when I was born, so he must have met Mum very soon after his original argument over Amiria. Now, I wonder whether he dated her on the rebound. Did Mum know he’d been in love with someone else?
Young people are often mocked when they say they’re in love, and told it’s just a crush, and it can’t possibly be serious. But clearly his feelings for Amiria must have been powerful for them to have carried on through the years. Her illness and death must have hit him hard.
I study her face, wondering how much she’s like her mother. She told me that Amiria ‘belonged to everyone, in a way, not just to me.’ I didn’t give it much thought at the time. What did she mean by it? I thought I had a difficult relationship with my mother because she was so reserved, but now I wonder whether it would have been harder to have a mother who was warm and friendly to everyone, and with whom every man fell in love.
Although Blake and my father were friends at first, and I know they were both smart guys with a similar talent for mathematics and finances, their core beliefs were obviously very different. Blake set up Kahukura in his early twenties with Amiria, so she must have been attracted to his socialist tendencies. No wonder she chose him over my father.
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett whispers. “I shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, you were right to, and I’m glad you did.” I get to my feet and kiss her forehead. “But I need to speak to him.” I gesture to Marama, who’s hovering just out of hearing. “Chat to Marama for a bit,” I say to Scarlett. “I won’t be long.”
“Oh no…” she says, clearly worried I’m going to cause a problem, but I just kiss her forehead again and walk away.
After all this time… I need to talk to my father.
I walk through the lobby and turn into the corridor to the offices. I walk past mine and Kingi’s to the next one. Sure enough, my father is in there, looking out at the gardens, his hands behind his back. His dark hair is threaded with silver, which makes the flashes at his temples less noticeable now, but they’re still there.
He sees my reflection in the window, but he doesn’t turn. I close the door behind me and walk over to his desk. He always uses old-fashioned fountain pens, and one is lying next to an empty notepad. I pick it up and turn it over in my fingers.
“Seventeen and a half million for the Waiora?” He turns to look at me. “Is it really worth that?”
“We’ll make the extra money back easily,” I reply. “The pool is going to be a huge attraction for the guests, and it’ll also smooth things over with the locals. It’s a good investment.”
“So their ploy worked. She got them what they wanted.”
Anger bubbles in my stomach. “It wasn’t like that. ”
“So she didn’t open her legs for you?”
I toss the pen onto the desk and put my hands on my hips, but don’t trust myself to say anything. He holds my gaze for about ten seconds.
Then he winces, runs his hand through his hair, and says, “That was rude of me.”
“She doesn’t deserve that.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“She’s a nice girl, Dad. And I thought you’d be nicer about her, if only out of respect to her mother.”
He looks at me then, startled.
“Yeah,” I say. “Scarlett told me that your feud with Blake was because she chose him and not you.”
He sighs, sits down on a nearby armchair as if his legs have given out, and massages his brow with a hand.
I sit opposite him. I’m still angry at what he insinuated about Scarlett. But I also know he thinks attack is the best form of defense. And I know him well enough to see that he’s hurting.
“Did you love her?” I ask. “Amiria, I mean?”
He lowers his hand. Leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, he links his fingers and studies them. “Yes,” he says eventually. Then he gives me a mutinous look. “I know we were only eighteen. But I was crazy about her.”
“Will you tell me what happened? With Blake?”
He sighs and looks out of the window. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.” His gaze is distant. “We met in Year Seven. We were both in the top classes for all subjects. We had lots in common, and we became friends immediately. But we were also fiercely competitive. As we got older, I tended to get higher marks in tests, I was chosen for sports teams before him, I was a faster sprinter, I nearly always had the upper hand… until I met Amiria. We were all in our first year at uni. We met at a party after the first trimester. Blake wasn’t there; he was away in the South Island, visiting family.”
He leans back and sighs again. “She was stunning, even at eighteen. I asked her to dance, and then at the end of the evening, I asked if I could see her again. She said yes, and I took her to the cinema. A few days later, we went to our favorite cafe. We walked a lot. Just innocent stuff.”
“Did you introduce her to Blake? ”
“Not for six weeks. Eventually he came back from the South Island, and I told him I’d met someone. They met at another party, the night before the second trimester started. They got on well, and I was pleased—I wanted them to like each other. I didn’t worry at first. She was warm and friendly to everyone. Then toward the end of the evening I went off to get us all a drink. When I came back, Blake and Amiria had disappeared. I asked a friend where they’d gone, and he said they’d left. When they didn’t come back, I went home alone, confused and angry. I rang both of them, but both their phones went to voicemail. The next day, at uni, he announced they were dating.”
“Jesus,” I say.
“I was furious at him and said he’d only asked her out because he knew I liked her. He denied it, but he was so fucking smug… I knew I was right. So I hit him. We got in a fight, and we were both suspended. We hardly said two words to each other after that, until the day at the commune.”
I don’t say anything for a moment. He dated her for six weeks, so it must have only been one factor in the pre-existing feud between him and Blake. After saying that, I know the effect that Scarlett had on me that day at the law firm, so I can’t blame him for being captivated.
“So was Mum just a rebound?” I ask softly. “Did you ever really love her?”
His gaze comes back to me. “You can’t have two kids with someone and not love them.”
“Are you sure? You never seemed in love.”
He gives an impatient frown. “Loving someone and being in love aren’t the same thing. You must know that by now.”
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but with some surprise I realize he’s probably right.
“Your mother was beautiful,” he says. “And she knew how to use her beauty and her love as currencies to get the things she wanted. Namely, me. Even at that age, she recognized my ambition and drive, and knew I was going places, so she got pregnant on purpose because she knew I’d do the right thing.”
I stare at him. “Seriously?” I’d guessed I was an accident, but I hadn’t considered that my mother engineered it.
“Yeah. She told me she was on the pill and I didn’t need to use a condom if I didn’t want to. I, like a fool, believed her. ”
I give a short laugh. “You grilled me relentlessly about using a condom when I was a teen.”
“And why do you think I did that?”
With some surprise, I realize it was because he didn’t want me to make the same mistake that he did. I’d just assumed it was Dad being Dad, trying to control me.
“I was angry at your mother at first,” he says. “But in many ways we were well suited. She was an astute businesswoman, and a suitable companion socially. So I asked her to marry me, and we stayed together. But she doled her love out sparingly, both to me and to her children.”
I’ve only ever thought about the way she treated me and my siblings; I’ve never given any thought to how it must have felt to be married to a woman who could withhold affection the way she did.
It’s the most open and personal he’s ever been with me and, while he’s in the mood to confess, I ask curiously, “Did you ever have an affair?”
“No, never.”
I think about how it must have been for him to be trapped into marrying a woman he wasn’t in love with, someone who only wanted him for his fortune and social connections. It explains why he was so worried about Scarlett being attracted to my money. Once again, he was only looking out for me. The thought shocks me.
“Is there anyone else now?” I ask. I’ve never seen him with another woman since Mum died.
“No one serious. I don’t trust easily.”
I guess that’s understandable if he was tricked into marriage.
He frowns then. “I’m not sure I should have said that about your mother. She was a good woman, on the whole.”
“It’s okay,” I say. “I’m under no illusions about her. But it doesn’t mean Scarlett is the same. She’s not like either of our mothers. She’s very much her own woman.”
He gives me a wary look. “You might not think so, but you can’t always trust your instincts. She did get the extra two and a half million out of you.”
“I agreed to that so she didn’t feel she had to sleep with me to get it.”
His eyebrows lift; he hadn’t considered that.
“I know what I’m doing,” I say softly. “I had a good teacher. ”
His lips quirk up.
We study each other quietly. The sun has set, dusk has fallen, and it’s semi-dark in the office. I’ve always admired both his business and personal instincts, and I’m like him in many ways. I would trust him with my life. But I’ve never really considered us close. We can’t mend that with one conversation, but for the first time I feel we’ve healed some past rifts. And I have Scarlett to thank for that.
“We should get back to the party,” I say. “I don’t want to leave Scarlett for too long.”
“You go,” he says. “I might head up to my suite.”
“Ah, come on. Rangi’s there, and I saw Huxley and Mack just now. It’s going to be fun. Come and have a drink with us.”
He hesitates. Then he says, “All right.”
We stand and leave the office. As we enter the lobby, we see that the solar lights around the pool have all come on, and the place glows like a beacon through the far windows.
“We did well here,” I say to my father. The resort is beautiful and popular, but more than anything I’m proud of the fact that we’re able to funnel so much of the profit here into charitable causes.
“We should talk about Kahukura,” he says as we cross the lobby. “You were right. We should offer them funding.”
I nod, pleased at the thought of telling Scarlett. “Kingi’s carrying out an audit of their finances next week.”
“Why?”
“The commune is struggling financially. Scarlett told me that their finance director, George, has sole control now Blake’s gone, and I said it made sense to get the books checked. I don’t know… I have a gut feeling.” He stops walking. I stop too when I realize he’s not with me, and I turn to face him. “What?”
“I’ve got something else to tell you,” he says.