28. Chapter 28
“So,” Asher starts, clapping his hands together and rubbing his palms. “Do you guys want me to go in there with you? I could dazzle them with my alarmingly straight teeth and perfectly coiffed hair.” He runs his tongue along the front of his teeth, grinning.
“No,” Honey and I say simultaneously as we stand outside of the Sanderson and Nicks head office.
Both our chins are tipped up, staring at the glass house that’s confined us since we were born.
With one hundred floors, thousands of lawyers work here, all practicing in every type of law that will make the firm money.
The place has held so many plans, and our fathers' hopes for us, it almost feels wrong that we're planning on metaphorically burning it down.
“This is something we need to face together,” I say.
Asher’s face drops as he holds onto his suit jacket. “Okay. Okay. I get it. My sculpted hockey shoulders in this suit would be a distraction. That’s cool.” He leans back against his chauffeured car, kicking one leg over the other. “I’ll just wait out here and be your getaway car.”
“Thanks,” I mumble, still not moving.
Honey rolls her head toward me. “You ready for this?” she asks. Her eyes are dark, her face drawn. She feels like a different person now. Gone is the girl who believed love would conquer all. Left in her place is a woman tired of our parents’ shit.
“No,” I laugh bitterly, taking her hand. “You?”
She links our fingers and takes a deep breath.
“No,” she says softly. “But I’m done letting them decide things for me. So… ready or not, here we come.”
She steps forward first, pulling me with her toward the doors. Her shoulders are squared, and she stands tall even if her fingers are still trembling in mine.
I follow behind her, walk through the glass doors, and give the receptionist, Becca, a nod. She gives me a coy smile, but I don’t dwell on it. She’s one of the many girls I cheated on Honey with to let the time pass quicker in this hellhole.
I’m not that person anymore. I never want to go back to it.
Honey heads to the employee entrance and presses her key card to the gate, opening it. I follow behind her quick enough to get through too.
When we’re at the elevators, there are a couple of associates whispering and looking at us. Honey doesn’t flinch. Of course she doesn’t. She’s used to this shit. She’s so fucking strong, but gives herself no credit for it.
As we step into the elevator, it’s just us. Still holding hands and silently counting the floors as we travel to the top.
It’s funny, we practiced everything we were planning on saying today, but as the floors creep up, I forget it all.
My heart starts to beat faster, and I squeeze Honey’s hand out of habit.
She squeezes it back.
“We’ve got this,” I whisper.
“That we do,” she says as the doors ding open and we step out.
“Ms. Sanderson?” the secretary outside of her father's office says.
The same one I'm almost certain my dad has been fucking on the side to get back at Honey's father for being first in the business name.
“Jamie?” Her voice cracks before she shakes her head.
“I mean, Mr. Nicks. What are you two doing here? Your fathers’ weren't expecting you—”
“Good,” I say as we head straight to the door. My father’s secretary, Lucy, stands and heads toward us, but then I see her falter.
Ah, she must be doing the math in her head. There are two of us, and one of her.
“I think they're busy,” she says lightly, but we're past her at this point and already barging into the room.
“I don't think—” Honey's father is talking to mine as we enter. He stops immediately when he sees us, and grins. It’s slow, and calculated.
“Hunniford? Jamie? What a pleasant surprise.” He takes us in before gesturing to my father. “See, Jonathan. I told you all she needed was a little time away from that quarterback and she’d come to her senses.”
“Quarterback?” I breathe.
“Not just the quarterback,” my father counters. “We also needed a parental injunction to get these two to realize they are best suited for each other.”
“What are you talking about?” Honey asks.
Her father's gaze drifts down. “The fantastic news. Your mother will be happy all her wedding plans didn't go to waste.”
That's when I realize I'm still holding Honey's hand, and they naively think there's more to it than just supporting each other. Giving her hand a little squeeze, I let go.
“Honey and I aren’t together,” I say through gritted teeth. “Haven’t been for a long time.”
The confidence of men who’ve never been told no is astonishing.
“And you might want to tread a little lighter when you talk about that quarterback, Mr. Sanderson. He’s probably your future son-in-law.”
I shrug. “Would be a shame if that made access to your grandkids… complicated.”
Did I cross the line mentioning him like that when they're on a break, or broken up, or whatever shit they've got going on?
Yup, but Honey doesn't even flinch at the assertion.
She's so fucking locked into this, she'd let me say anything to get them to back down.
There might also be a tiny part of her which knows I'm right.
She and Zach are endgame, they are just taking the long way around to get there.
“Jamie,” my father scolds. “I taught you better than to speak to your superiors like that.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “You also taught me to treat women like shit, and I've learned to stop doing that. It's called growth, Father. Something you might want to try before you lose everything.”
Both of our fathers’ stare at me like I've lost my mind.
Good.
I have. They've made me lose it with their incessant meddling.
“While we're on the topic, if you really thought sending legal papers to the mother of my child would bring me back here, you're severely mistaken.”
“Am I?” My father tilts his head, taking me in. “You're here, aren't you?”
I—don't know what to say because—technically, he's right.
“You weren't answering my calls. You were ignoring your mother. Asher was useless, but that's not his fault. He is a Hastings, after all. You didn't care that I stopped your money, blocked you from getting a job… I did the only thing that would get your attention.”
I stare at the man who's become a stranger to me. My father. He never cared about me. Only what I could provide him. Legacy. Stability. Money.
“Keep her out of this.”
He raises his hands and looks at Honey's father before blowing out an obnoxious breath. “Wish I could, but I can’t. She’s keeping you away from your legacy.”
Legacy?
“Pfft. You mean your legacy, right?” I shake my head. “Grandfather won’t give you your share of the business if I don’t sign my life away to this place. Does he still think I’m your real son?”
“You are and always will be my son, Jamie.”
“So does that mean you’ve told Grandfather that I’m not a blood Nicks?”
He visibly swallows, telling me everything I need to know.
“Thought so. Stay away from Tiff and my daughter, or I’ll expose everything.”
My father takes a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. “Sorry, son. That’s not going to work. See, when you stopped answering your phone, I did a little more digging around Tiffany Bright.”
I hate the way he says her name, like he has some kind of control over her.
“Her drunk father is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that girl. Did you know, I found a CPS report from a neighbor, financial statements that show she accepted hush money and then decided to go against the terms. Do you really think a girl like her is fit to raise your daughter?”
Hush money? CPS report?
It's all fabricated. I know that for a fact because I know how my father operates.
I shake my head. “No. It’s all lies. None of this is true.”
He shrugs his shoulders. “Doesn't mean it can’t be used against her.”
Fuck me.
That’s when I realize it. The DNA secret was never the leverage I thought it was. He’s always had something worse to hold over me.
My real family.
Tiff and Ella. The two people who deserve the most from me will be dragged through court and drained of any life I could have offered them. All because of me.
My fists clench and unclench. I want to be there for them, and I want to be with them, but if being with them means putting them in danger, am I really any better than my father?
“This can all go away…” my father drawls out.
“Jamie—” Honey touches my arm, but I shake her off and step forward, ready to do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
“What do you want?” I ask, already knowing the answer, but hoping there will be some way to negotiate.
“You.” It’s simple and short. “Come back to the firm, fulfill your legacy as my heir, and I will leave that girl and her daughter alone. She seems immune to my cash offers, but that might change when you’re here, especially when she has signed documentation that I waive any rights to sue her again. ”
Me. He wants me to give up everything for him.
“Don't listen to it, Jamie. That's what my father said when I joined the firm. He went back on it.”
Honey's father raises a hand. “Woah, wait. That's not fair, Hunniford. I said I'd get him to drop the current legal proceedings. There was no arrangement about future ones.”
“Are you serious, Father?” She glares at him.
“Sorry, Hunniford. You should have read the fine print. That's what a good lawyer would have done anyway.”
It’s a sharp dig, and I feel it because it’s her father saying it. I know how it feels to never measure up, no matter how much you try.
“But the semantics over how you got here isn't what matters,” her father continues. “What matters is you're here, already working. We just need Jamie to finally fulfill his legacy too.”
“Y-you want me to?” she asks, surprised.
“Don't worry, we'll hold off on any more marriage talk. Arranged marriage isn't your thing, we get it, but with the girl and that quarterback out of your way, maybe you'll come around to the idea of it sooner-or-later.”