Chapter 23
Gabe
Two weeks passed, and in that time, the tension between me and Liv didn’t cease, and the uncomfortable silence from Tori continued. I was stuck between the two women I loved but who currently hated me.
I stepped into Liv’s office, trapping her before she could dodge my attempt to talk.
“I have Pilates at noon. If you make me late, I’ll empty every bottle of that high-end scotch you like.”
“Ouch, that’s uncalled for.”
Her mouth twisted as she sat back and crossed her arms.
“I thought I made it clear I wasn’t talking to you anymore.”
“Come on, Liv.”
She stood and rested her hands on the desk. “Go away.”
“No.” I moved to the desk and placed my hands on the other side, staring her down. “You can’t continue to not talk to me. It’s bad enough I have to walk on eggshells with Tori, but adding you and your emphasized silence doesn’t help.”
“Too bad, backstabber.”
“Are you kidding me? So I told you I would have gone back to her. I didn’t, and things worked out for you. You have your inheritance, and we had our revenge. It worked out.”
“But you would have given it all up for her.”
“I didn’t.” Even if it was still killing me.
She lifted her hands and crossed her arms. “But you would have.”
“I have a son, Liv. Your nephew. A boy I don’t know because I turned my back on them.” I let out a sigh. “I know what you gave up to do this, but there was no child involved. If there had been, would you have made the same choice to leave him?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, her sight falling from mine.
“I think it does because I don’t think you would have.
What you did was difficult, Liv. Just like what I did was.
We got what we intended, but I no longer think the payoff was worth what we lost to get here.
” Straightening, I reached over and moved a curl from her cheek.
“Maybe you should look him up. You never know.”
She shook her head, giving me a small smile. That was enough to know she forgave me.
“By the way,” I said, fixing my shirt where I’d rolled the sleeves. “Thank you for talking to Tori. For telling her the truth. I know how hard it is for you to be humble.”
She laughed and threw a pad of paper at me. “Get out of my office, little brother.”
I picked up the pad and tossed it on her desk before I headed out.
“Did it help?” she asked as my hand was on the handle.
“For a moment, until she started hating me again.”
“Give her time. I see the way she looks at you. She’s still in love with you. You’ll just have to find a way to win her back.”
“Nothing like a challenge I have a zero percent chance of winning,” I mumbled as I walked out.
Heading to my office, I heard Tori talking to our assistant, her voice carrying so that it inched its way into my chest, causing an ache I couldn’t ignore.
Changing direction, I left the office, taking a walk to clear my head.
I thought about Liv’s observation that Tori still loved me.
The idea caused fluctuations in my pulse, and I swallowed back the hope.
Paired with the small hints she’d dropped in her frustrated conversations with me, there was hope, but I didn’t know how to win her back.
It seemed an impossible feat, but the possibility was too exciting to ignore.
After a brisk walk in the late October air, I found myself standing in front of the daycare, watching Reid play with the other kids in his class.
The director had informed me that a new teacher had started last week, a rehire whom she had cut when my father had insisted on slowly dismantling the center.
Something I had argued against and had now rectified.
Reid was playing cars with a redheaded boy and a very animated girl with braids. His smile warmed a place in my chest that only Tori had ever reached. I wanted to know him, to hear his stories, to learn his likes and dislikes, to watch him continue to grow.
The scent of vanilla and cherry blossoms and the familiar sensation of Tori standing in my presence had my nerves buzzing.
“Give him a car and he can play for hours.”
“I was the same way,” I said, watching him laugh so hard he was holding his stomach.
“Had a collection of miniature cars until…” The memory of my father taking them all away when I’d left one in the kitchen returned.
His voice had cut through me like barbed wire as he scolded me and the spanking he’d given me had left my bottom sore for two days.
“I’m hoping he doesn’t want to be a racecar driver when he gets older,” said Tori, filling the silence. “I don’t think I could handle the worry.”
“I’ll buy the cars he wants to feed the addiction,” I blurted, wanting to kick myself for assuming she would let me give him anything. I rubbed the back of my neck. “I bought my first when I was sixteen and still have it in my garage.”
“Guess your Jacksonville car isn’t part of that collection?” An acidic tone laced the question.
“No. I donated it when I returned home. My father would have disowned me if he had seen me driving that.”
Awkward silence let me know it was time to leave. It had hovered over us since the night she’d confronted me.
I turned to leave when she said, “I’m taking Reid to the zoo for his birthday.”
“The zoo?” My voice squeaked at the memory of Tori at the zoo. Her smile in the Florida sun, tanned skin, and hidden kisses. I clenched my hands to stave off the need to touch her.
“Yes. This weekend if you’d like to come.”
I swiveled around, meeting dusty blue orbs. The air rushed from my lungs, and I struggled to reply. “I’d like that.”
She nodded, swallowing. “Saturday morning, before I head to my brother’s for the birthday party.”
Something I knew I wouldn’t be welcome to attend. I was certain her brother hated me even more than she did. Anyone who had hurt my sister the way I’d hurt her I would loathe.
“Sounds like a…” I almost said date but caught myself. “A plan.”
She gave me a forced smile, then turned back to watching Reid. It was only Monday, but I headed back out of the building and made my way to the toy store, buying every miniature sports car they had.
Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I stretched my tired muscles.
The gym in the building was always empty this early, and having a full bathroom in my office made it easy to get my workout in before turning my focus to the day.
I pulled a suit from the small closet in the bathroom and returned to lock my office door only to find my father standing across from me.
“I’ll need to have a talk with security if they’re still letting you in here. How did you get to this floor?”
“I have my ways.” He strolled across the room and took a seat.
“What do you want?” I asked, noting the more laid-back look of khakis and a polo shirt. My father had never been one to go without a three-piece suit.
“I admit it took me some time to understand how you did it. Dismantling my empire piece by piece under my nose. And even more time for my anger to simmer.”
I folded my arms and glared at him, waiting for whatever devious plan he had concocted to bring me down.
“I’m impressed, William. All this time I thought you were squandering all I gave you, fooling around with that woman in Florida.
” I sucked in air between my teeth, holding back my sharp retort.
“Insisting on moving there after you finished school when you could have worked at any firm in the city for experience. But you were paying attention, manipulating, scheming, cheating, just like I did.”
“I never cheated.” Although I had done some underhanded things to make him fall.
“Whatever you want to call it. You learned it all from me.”
I snorted, looking down at him. “I learned what not to be from you.”
“Maybe,” he replied with a shrug, “but that final move and all the ones you played to get me to that closing table, those you learned from me. And I’m proud of you.”
My jaw dropped. “I don’t need your pride.”
“No, you needed me to pay for something you and your sister blamed me for.”
“Because you were at fault.”
Standing, he stroked his hand over the desk. “Your mother struggled with depression her entire life. She was on anti-depressants when I met her. It was a constant battle, and I supported her through every downturn.”
“By beating her son in front of her every chance you had? By berating her daughter and belittling her every chance?”
His head snapped up, eyes going dark. “You needed discipline, and the last thing she needed was your whining and messes. I made you what you are today, William. You and your sister. You’re tough, focused, and driven.
Without me to guide you to that point, you’d still be in Florida despising your life. ”
I grabbed him by the collar. “I would be happy. That’s what I would be. Not here alone and miserable while the woman I love is no longer mine.”
He brushed my hands away. “You were always emotional. That’s why you needed discipline. Too soft and clinging to your mother’s skirts. She didn’t need you underfoot while she was trying to have good days. She needed you quiet and in your place.”
“You’re delusional. How did I never see that? You drove her to kill herself. You are the reason she’s dead.”
His features went rigid, a flash of surprise the only sign of emotion.
“I loved your mother. She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved, which is why I never remarried.
She killed herself because she went off her meds, and I didn’t realize until it was too late.
Hate me all you want, but it doesn’t change the truth. ”
“Why are you here?” I couldn’t take any more of his delusional excuses.
He smoothed out his collar. “Carl Bradman has been talking about your new CFO. I saw him while I was at a dinner last week, and he was his usual arrogant self. Pissing away the liquor and hitting on the staff while his wife tried to keep him contained.”
“What does that have to do with Victoria?”
“Seems she left on terms he didn’t like. Did Tina do a check with her former employer?”
“Yes, they gave her high praises. I spoke to Carl the day I interviewed her. He gave me the same accolades.”
“Watch him. He’s someone I’ve never trusted. If he has something on her, he won’t hesitate to use it to his advantage.”
I scrunched my forehead, trying to think of what he would have on Tori. My suspicion that she’d left Bradman in a hurry returned. Secrets. She’d accused me of still having them while she had her own.
“Why are you telling me this? I thought you hated me.”
He chuckled, looking entirely too relaxed. In fact, I’d never seen him look so relaxed. “Because you may hate me, but you are still my son. The heir to my empire, one I know you’ll rebuild because I watched you build your own.”
I tried not to stumble back.
“Where do you think you learned everything from, William? Hate me all you want, but I told you I would make you CEO, and I did. Maybe not in the way I intended, but as my company was crumbling around me, you and your sister looked entirely too calm. There were other bidders for the hotel and the last of the holdings, but I made your mother a promise the day you were born, that you would have everything. You and your sister. You may not like the way I went about it, the way I raised you, but I fulfilled my promise to her, just like I imagine you did. Both brought you to where she wanted you. A billionaire with an empire to pass down to your children.”
I couldn’t grasp the words to respond, too stunned that he’d found us out yet still let us have our victory. “That day in the conference room?”
“I knew it was you, but hearing you admit that you’d betrayed me, that you hated me so much that you wanted to see me fall still hit hard, and my reactions were honest. I suppose we’re even now.”
“We’ll never be even. You abused me and defended it as discipline. I can promise you I will never treat my children the way you treated me, and they’ll still grow up to be adults I’ll be proud of.”
“We all have our ways.”
He sauntered to the door. “I’m selling my apartment in the city.
The money I accumulated through every sale and this last one is enough to let me travel.
What’s left will go to a trust for your son.
There’s already a trust in his name with a substantial amount in it; the rest will pass through to him and any other children you have when I die. ”
“You knew?” My knees threatened to buckle. “You knew about him and never told me?”
“I wanted to make sure you didn’t break your word, so I kept my eye on her. I wasn’t sure he was yours until I saw the pictures two years ago. That’s when I established the trust.”
“You made me leave her and never told me I had a son?”
Steel eyes with no kindness met my astonished gaze. “You had a job to do, and the terms of your trust were still in place. If you had known, it would have jeopardized all I worked for and you worked for. It was better this way.”
“Better that he doesn’t know who his father is? That I never knew he existed?”
“Yes. This is business, William. That’s all it has ever been. One business transaction after another. She was one, and you understood that seeing it through would have cost too much.”
“Get out.”
He shook his head. “You’ll thank me one day. Besides, she’s working for you now. Yet another business transaction that presents you with an opportunity.”
“I’ll never thank you. Now get out of my office.”
He opened the door, throwing a look at me over his shoulder. “I’ll be in Greece for the winter if you need me.”
“I won’t.”
“Of course you won’t.” The door closed behind him, and I stared dumbfounded at it as my mind attempted to make sense of all he had told me.
The most startling piece, that he’d known Tori was pregnant yet he’d kept it quiet, denying me yet another chance of happiness in my life.
Taking one more thing from me and replacing it with money and titles I would have traded in a heartbeat to have the two things in my life that I valued more.