Chapter 8
Gabe
The clink of Tori’s keys informed me she was ready to leave.
Now that she’d passed her exams, the company had assigned her a permanent schedule, one that included Saturdays and second shift weekdays.
It left me more time to work on my businesses and plan the next steps, but it kept her from me when I’d grown attached to having her with me so much.
“I’m leaving,” she shouted from the living room.
Rushing from the bedroom in just my boxers, I scooped her up and swung her around before kissing her goodbye. She teetered, grabbing my shoulder when I put her down.
“No leaving without a goodbye. Remember?” I said, loving the smile that lit her eyes.
“How could I forget?” She brought my head down and gave me a peck before heading out. “Dinner when I get back?”
“I’ll have it made and waiting.”
“You’re cooking tonight?” she asked, holding the door open.
“Gotta keep you spoiled.”
With a laugh, she shook her head. “That’s all you do, Gabe. You spoil me nonstop.”
“Good.”
“I love you,” she said.
I pressed my hand to my chest. “Love you, too. Go put those clients in their place.”
“Can’t wait. Another day of talking people through pin resets and giving stock quotes.”
“You’ll get there, Tori. Give it time, and you’ll be running the company one day.”
Her laugh echoed long after she closed the door.
There was always an emptiness to the apartment when she left.
Five months had passed. Five months since the day she had entered my life and changed it completely.
I rubbed my neck, making my way to the shower to get ready for a day of work.
Without Tori there, I could work freely.
There was no need to hide browsers from her when she came to look over my shoulder.
Hiding the spreadsheets and internal workings of my LLCs.
The business emails and dark web searches.
Given the multiple screens involved in my day job, she never questioned why I had so many monitors and screens open at once.
I peered out the window, seeing her climb into her car.
We’d been spending more nights with each other, and I was contemplating taking the next step and asking her to move in with me.
Scratching the back of my neck, I returned to starting my day.
Her shift would last until four, and I had plenty to do until then.
As I dressed, my phone buzzed. Liv. There wasn’t anyone else it could be this early on a Saturday morning. I’d been ignoring her calls for the last two days, and I knew she was pissed and worried.
“Morning,” I said, waiting for her to rip into me.
“Morning? Where the hell have you been, Gabe? I’ve been trying to reach you for two days, and before then you could barely spare me five minutes. I was about to send one of Dad’s men down to make sure you were still alive.”
Pissed was an understatement. I walked into the kitchen and filled a glass with orange juice.
“Don’t be dramatic. I’m fine. Just busy with work.”
She stayed quiet, and I could just picture her gnashing her teeth. “Talk.”
“I told you work—”
“There’s something going on, Gabe. I’m not stupid. We’ve been checking in consistently for years, and suddenly, you're AWOL. What are you up to?”
The couch cushioned the drop of my body, and I leaned on my knees.
“Gabe.”
“I met someone.”
“Good for you. Glad you’re finally getting laid. What the hell does that have to do with ignoring me?”
“Don’t be a bitch, Liv. I didn’t hook up with someone. I met her and…”
I heard something drop before she snarled, “Don’t, Gabe.”
“Liv, listen to me. She’s the one. I can’t walk away from this.”
“Are you shitting me? We have one rule. No relationships past a one-night stand. No attachments, Gabe. That’s what we’ve always done. You can walk away from this, and you will.”
I raked my hand through my hair. “No, I can’t.”
“You can. Just like I did. Or are you forgetting that I had my one when we started this thing? We were planning to get married. I walked away from that for us, and you promised it would be worth it.”
I caught the emotional break in her words. She had never admitted it, but I suspected she had never gotten over Hudson, the man she’d dated for four years and turned her back on when she graduated college.
“That wasn’t just us. That was Dad, too. You can’t put all that on me.”
“Yeah, Dad. Think about that one. There is no future with this girl, not if you want to keep your inheritance. Break it off with her. If Dad catches wind of it, he’ll crush it.”
I heard the threat in her voice and picked my head up. “He won’t find out. Let me have this, Liv. I’ve been down here running the business off his radar all these years. Keeping our plan out of his sight. I left everything behind so we could make this happen. Let me have this much.”
As much as she loved to tease me about my living the sunny beach life, Florida had provided enough distance to allow me to stay out of our father’s sight while I continued to build the network of shell companies that hid our identities.
Acquiring smaller companies and using them to cover my steps as I strategically set us up to crush my father.
With Liv on the inside and me prepping to join in less than two years, we were in place to start demolition.
A strategic unraveling of his companies, one by one until we left him no choice but to sell to any bidder willing to risk their neck on his failing business.
“Please, Liv.”
Her sigh came through, and in it, I detected her frustration. “Fine. You can play until it’s time to come home. That’s it. Don’t get serious with her.” Too late. “Don’t think this is anything more than a fling. When your time is up, you return home and leave her in Florida.”
The thought sent a blade through my chest. My silence caused her to continue.
“If you can’t do that, Gabe. End it now.
Trust me, you don’t want her to get attached.
It will haunt you forever.” Her voice cracked, her pain still raw after all these years.
Just like I imagined mine would be if I had to leave Tori.
“I need to go. Dad has me working on a new project. He’s researching a resort in New Hampshire he wants to bring under his control.
Don’t do anything stupid, Gabe. End it if it’s going to hurt too much. ”
I clutched the phone in my hands long after she had hung up.
I’d gone into this knowing it would crush me.
After one day with Tori, I was lost, and I had known there was no coming back from it.
Placing the phone on the coffee table, I slumped back into the couch.
I couldn’t leave her, couldn’t walk out.
I was too far gone. One year and seven months.
That was how much time I had left before my father’s deadline for me to return to New York and work for him.
One year and seven months to figure out how to make this work.
To be selfish and hypocritical. To choose Tori and break my sister’s trust.
“Damn it.” I threw the closest thing, the couch pillow, sending my juice tumbling and spilling all over the carpet.
There went my deposit. Storming to the kitchen, I tore a handful of paper towels off the roll.
I rested my hands on the counter, fighting the wave of exasperation and anger that battered me.
This was my father’s fault. Just like everything in my life had been.
It didn’t matter how far I was from him, his shadow lingered, infecting everything I touched.
If it weren’t for Liv, I would have given up the inheritance.
I had enough, and the business ventures and investments had made us both millionaires on our own.
I didn’t need his money. But Liv and I had made a promise to each other.
On the day of my mother’s funeral, with the rain pouring down on us, we had sworn our revenge.
I couldn’t turn my back on her, not after all we’d done to get to this point.
My phone buzzed, and I returned to it, tossing the paper towels onto my mess. A text from Tori.
If I have to explain what a browser is to one more person, I’m going to scream.
I chuckled as I texted her back, the stress lifting with just the thought of her.
Patience. In six months, you’ll be on to a better role. You’re earning your stripes.
Easy for you to say.
Yup, get back to work, and I’ll erase the annoyance of the day from you when you get home. I’m thinking spaghetti and meatballs with a side of The Hobbit?
No response, and I knew she’d taken another call. I focused on cleaning up the juice, and the answer came when I was tossing the soaked paper towels into the trash.
With your homemade sauce?
Of course. Nothing but the best for my girl.
It’s a date. Ugh, another call. Love you!
And that was why I couldn’t give her up. Just thinking about her was a balm to my spirit.
Placing my conundrum to the side, I spent the rest of the day buried in my computer until it was time to make dinner for the woman whose very presence would erase everything else from existence.
Tori’s fingers ran a pattern over my stomach before tracing the scar on my side as she often did.
I knew she was curious, could sense her hesitation every time she touched it.
With another month having passed, I’d continued to separate my heart from my mission.
Refused to give Tori my secrets and avoided speaking of her when I talked to Liv.
Keeping the two parts of my life separate gave me a semblance of peace.
A way to pretend the inevitable wasn’t waiting for the right time to send my house of cards tumbling.
When I was with Tori, it was easy to live in the fairy tale, to believe I could have my happily ever after, and I lived every moment with her like I would, denying the reality that sat outside of that bubble.
"Glass," I said, thinking I could let her in just a little to appease her curiosity.