Chapter 12 #2
My eyes flew up, looking for the source of his information but not finding it.
“Correction, your girlfriend’s apartment. You’ve been busy down there, William. Maybe you can explain why my men saw her taking a wedding dress home today?”
Ire surged in my veins. “Are you having her followed?”
“Of course, I am. Now answer the fucking question.”
My teeth gnashed as my mind searched for the correct answer, Liv’s confession halting any admission.
“Awfully quiet now, aren’t you? Always quick to come back at me, yet you have nothing because you’ve broken my rule.”
I scraped my hand down my face as he continued.
“Almost broken. I want you home. No more playing around in Florida. I expect you in my office on Monday morning.”
“Are you delusional? I can’t do that, and that wasn’t the agreement. My time at the firm isn’t over.”
“You broke the agreement when you proposed to that girl.”
“She’s not a girl,” I snapped.
“It doesn’t matter. You know the rules. No attachments. The company is your focus.”
“I’m not doing anything that jeopardizes your precious company, Father.”
“Love, attachments, relationships. They jeopardize everything I have built and everything you will inherit from me. You are my heir, William. That comes with expectations.”
“Your expectations.”
“Exactly. The only way you can run this company is by remaining cold, calculated, and unattached. I realized too late that your mother was a weakness. I won’t let the same thing happen to you. Get your ass home.”
“Mother was a weakness?” I wanted to reach through the phone and punch him. My hatred for him continued to grow every time he opened his mouth.
“Yes. All women are.”
“God, you’re a prick.”
I could feel the tension through the line, envisioning his scowl. He hated when I talked back or called him out. Those were the times he reined in the leash tighter, cutting off my oxygen until I could only get back in line.
“Pack your shit and return home.”
“And if I don’t? If I give it all up?”
“Then I’ll show you what a prick I can really be. Since you spent the holidays with the Hent family, I’m sure you realized they own a successful resort in the western part of Connecticut. The one your mother loved so much.”
My body tensed, my grip on my phone so tight it was leaving indents in my skin.
“I have plans for that resort that include demolishing the original structure and building a multi-level hotel catering to the more elite skiers.”
“You’ll never do it. That resort is successful, and they already have an elite clientele. They would never sell to you. Besides, you promised Mom.”
“She’s been dead for almost twelve years.
I don’t give a fuck about promises that no longer hold meaning.
” My hatred singed me, and I strained not to throw my phone in the lake.
“It would be a shame if they suddenly started having problems. Unhappy lodgers? Failed inspections? Faulty equipment? God forbid they have a tragic accident on their property.”
And the true depth of my father’s viciousness was there for me to see.
“You wouldn’t.” But I knew he would. When my father had an eye on a company or a location for one of his hotels, he got it. His hands had been dirty long before I’d even been a thought.
“I would. Did you know her mother was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago? That their medical bills drained their savings? That they paid for her college with loans they didn’t tell her about because there was nothing left?”
Tori had told me about her mother, how she’d been in remission after battling breast cancer, but nothing of the finances. She’d spent two years working on their books for them and running the finances of the resort, but that didn’t mean they’d given her insight into their personal finances.
I rubbed the space between my eyes. My father was boxing me in, giving me no way to escape.
“Leave her, and if you don’t and decide she’s worth the risk, not only will I take her parents down, I’ll ensure her career spirals. I’ll lock her out of every firm and ensure she never makes it further than answering service calls for the rest of her life.”
He’d blocked any chance of me finding that escape because I would do nothing to hurt Tori, and he knew it.
“And if you dare tell her about any of this, I’ll ensure it happens at the same time as I change the stipulations in your trust to make you wait even longer to find her again.
I’m sure that by then she’ll have moved on.
” The thought had me struggling to breathe.
“Love is a weakness, William. I told you that years ago. It blinds you and leaves you vulnerable. Hard and uncaring, cruel and vindictive. It’s the only way you’ll ever step into my shoes. ”
I didn’t want to step into his shoes. It was something I had never asked for but that he had expected since the day his only son was born. He wanted my obedience while he molded me into another version of himself.
“I hate you,” I snarled.
“I never asked for anything different. Hate fuels. Love destroys. Pack your things. I expect you in my office ready to work on Monday morning. Your outside training is over. It’s time to return to the fold and accept your destiny.”
He was gone before I could say anything else. There was nothing to say. No way I could stop the train that had derailed again. I had done this to myself. To Tori. And she would be the one who suffered because of my selfishness.