Chapter 34
Tori
My eyes moved between Liv and Gabe. Two siblings raised to compete, to hunt, to defeat.
They had spent half their lives plotting revenge and enacting it in a methodical takedown that even the most talented thief would have struggled with.
And they’d done it all legally, albeit through questionable means.
I had stepped into a life with Gabe unaware of this side of him, but I could no longer claim innocence.
I knew exactly who he was and what he’d done.
But did that mean I wanted to be part of it?
To bring Carl Bradman down after what he’d done to me, and let Gabe manipulate a master manipulator while I stood by his side?
Resting my palm on my temple, I said, “Call your father back.”
“I’m not letting him near Reid,” Gabe said. I looked up to see the clench in his jaw. His feelings for his father were still raw, and I didn’t blame him. I had already seen what a better father that would make him.
“Neither am I, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a bargain.”
He squinted at me, trying to figure out what I had planned. I honestly didn’t know. I was still struggling to make sense of what was happening between the two of us, and now this.
“Oh, I like her more every day. I’m so glad we hired her,” Liv said, sitting further on the edge of her seat.
Gabe took his phone out and called his father, placing him on speakerphone.
“That didn’t take long,” his father said. “And I’m on speakerphone.”
“Hi Dad,” Liv said, with no emotion in her voice.
“Victoria’s with us,” Gabe added.
“Ah, Victoria Abigail Hent, daughter of Thomas and Amy Hent and future heir of The Haven Resort. Graduated summa cum laude with a finance degree from the University of Connecticut, earned your master’s from Boston University while raising my grandson, and climbed to a senior position at the same financial firm where you tempted my son.
Left the coveted position as CFO at Bradman Holdings after three years at a particularly suspicious time to leave. ”
“You’ve done your homework,” I said, hating how he knew so much about me and the stab at my relationship with Gabe.
“I needed to know who was distracting my son.”
My eyes lifted to Gabe. “Did you go to this extreme with every woman he dated?”
Liv snickered, and Gabe frowned.
“Only you. The others never lasted, but you were persistent and impressive enough to know I needed to vet you.”
I tried to stop my jaw from gaping. Gabe took a step back as if his father had reached out and slapped him. Even Liv looked flustered.
“What do you want with my son?” I asked, needing time to process that admission.
“To see him. He is my grandson, after all.”
A grinding sound came from Gabe, and I saw the tension in his jaw. He didn’t like the idea of his father near Reid as much as I didn’t. Protective, just like he’d been with me.
“No. You can’t think I’d be foolish enough to let you walk into his life after what you did to Gabe. You need to earn that trust, and nothing you’ve done tells me you deserve it.”
“Then this conversation is over.”
“But I’ll compromise,” I said before he could hang up.
“What?” Gabe and Liv said at once.
I put my hand up to silence them. “You give Gabe the information he needs, and I’ll give you a chance to prove yourself.”
“Such as?”
I looked at Gabe and Liv, the two people this man had shaped with abuse but never neglect.
They had everything they needed, everything but their father’s love.
Had wanted for nothing, and in the end after all he’d done, he had given them his fortune and a company he would have handed to them if they hadn’t stolen it from him first.
I picked up the phone and took it off speaker, walking out of the office.
“Tori,” Gabe called.
“Stay and let me talk to him.”
His brows knitted, his eyes questioning.
“Trust me.”
I closed the office door and returned to my office, closing the door behind me.
“You repair the relationship with your children, right your wrongs, make amends for the damage you sowed.”
“I don’t need to repair anything, and I regret nothing I did in raising them.”
“You beat him. Pushed him through a glass window. There’s a history between the three of you, especially you and Gabe, that needs to be fixed before I will let you step foot in my son’s life.
He is innocent and na?ve about the wickedness of this world.
Like I suspect Gabe was before you laid your hand on him. I won’t let you hurt him, too.”
Silence. Long and nerve-inducing. This wasn’t my business, but he had made it mine by demanding to see Reid.
“You really love my son, don’t you?”
“Yes, and I hate what you did to him. I hate that he still carries it with him. You prove to Gabe and Liv that you're worth letting back into their lives, and I’ll consider letting you into Reid’s.”
“Until then?”
“You stay away from him. I’ll allow a Christmas present if Gabe agrees, but no visits, no phone calls. Not until you show us you’re worthy of it.”
“I can see why my son loves you. Why he was willing to give so much up for you.”
“If you hadn’t interfered, he wouldn’t have had to.”
“But then he wouldn’t be the man he is today.”
“No, he’d be better. Without the scotch habit, without the guilt he carries, without having missed so many years of his son’s life. He’d be happier.”
“I don’t strive for happiness, Miss Hent. I strive for ambition and power, and that’s what he has. Now put me back on speakerphone. We’re done talking.”
He was frustrating, and I didn’t know why I’d offered anything to the man. Why I’d thought Gabe or Liv would care to have any relationship with him. But when I stepped back into the office, their worried hazel eyes met mine, and I knew it had been the right thing.
“I see we’re keeping our own secrets now,” said Liv, feigning indifference.
I put their father back on speakerphone. “They’re here.”
“Good. Bradman kept you on board for three years. Longer than any female officer he’s had.
The rest lasted as long as he kept his dirty hands to himself.
He keeps his affairs quiet, and when he’s done with them, he slaps an NDA on them.
Now, I’m not saying all his advances were unwelcome, like I imagine those made at you were, but he plays the power card with promises of promotions and favors. ”
“How do you know all this?” Gabe asked.
“Because I’ve known Carl since he was an aggressive, spoiled brat in college. His parents let him get away with everything and covered up his mistakes with money. There’s a reason I was hard on you two, and you turned out nothing like Carl Bradman for that reason.”
“Like that makes it all better,” Liv griped.
“Get to the point before I end this call.” Gabe’s voice came out almost like a growl, and my eyes jumped to his. He hated his father, and now I questioned the proposal I’d made.
“The NDAs have been a recurrence in his rise to the head of the company, but his parents handled his early misadventures with payoffs, including the girl he raped at a frat party and got pregnant. Not even his current wife, or any of the prior ones, knows about it.”
“But you do?” I asked, uncertain what to do with the information.
“The girl was friends with my girlfriend at the time, William and Olivia’s mother.”
Gabe and Liv exchanged looks. “What aren’t you telling us?” Gabe asked, and I didn’t know what else he was looking for.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
Gabe slammed his hands on the desk and hovered over the phone. “Why do you want revenge on Bradman, Dad? Why give me this information?”
“So you can avenge what he did to cause him to slap an NDA on the mother of your child.”
“I don’t think so. There’s more to it. You’re not that altruistic.” His muscles were tense, the vein in his neck prominent.
“All you need to know is that Carl Bradman and I have not been friends since that year. He knows not to step into my world, and I make it damn clear he’s not welcome in it.”
“Well, he stepped into mine,” Gabe said, wrenching his hand through his hair.
Silence. Again with the silence, and I took the time to think about Bradman’s company and the Icinda’s.
The holdings were similar. Mostly real estate, hotel chains, resorts.
Bradman inherited his company; Icinda built his from the ground up.
Beginning in his twenties. He took calculated risks that paid off and made a name for himself that far outshined and outperformed Bradman’s.
All while keeping his company private. His investments were sound and legitimate, just like Gabe’s were.
“Do what you do best, son. Bring him to his knees like you did me.”
The phone disconnected, but my mind was still racing.
“Well, that was as helpful as a pair of suede boots on a snowy day.” Liv grumbled, standing with a stretch.
“I hate to say it, but I agree with Tori. Bradman is too big, his network too extensive and too public. We eat up small companies, Gabe. It’s a risk hitting at Bradman, and what Dad gave us isn’t enough to make him flinch. ”
She sashayed from the office, mumbling about needing coffee, and shut the door behind her.
“Were you really planning to keep me in the dark on this?” I asked Gabe.
Hands still resting on the desk, he rolled his neck toward me. “Yes, but I know now it was the wrong move. I didn’t think. This stuff has always been mine and Liv’s.”
“You promised to let me in, Gabe.”
“I know, and I will.”
I moved over to the desk, sitting next to where he was still leaning. “What’s your next move?”
“I really don’t know. You and Liv are right, but he has a weakness. It’s women, and his track record shows it. My father’s story confirms it, but he didn’t tell us everything.”
“Your parents went to school together?”
“Yes. They were college sweethearts. My mother adored him until…”
“When did the depression start?” I had a theory I wasn’t certain I wanted to present. Not wanting to bring any more pain to Gabe.