Chapter 23 Xave
XAVE
Damon is quiet while we clean up, and I can tell he’s distracted as we head back into the living room.
“Do you want anything to drink?” I ask as I turn the heat option on the fireplace off but leave the flames on.
“Yeah, thanks.” Damon settles on the couch and rests his head against the back cushion.
We don’t keep a lot of supplies in the cabin, but there’s always drinks and nonperishable food stocked, and I open the pantry to check our options.
“Do you want water, a sports drink, or soda?” I ask.
“Water’s good.”
I grab two bottles and bring them over to him.
The sectional is huge and has lots of spaces where I could sit, but I plop down next to him and hand him one of the bottles.
“Thanks.” He takes it and presses his thigh against mine.
I shift closer to him, and he rests his head on my shoulder.
“How are you doing?” I ask.
I’ve never really been the cuddling type, but this casual contact is nice.
“Confused and tired, but okay.” He lets out a heavy sigh. “Today has been a day.”
“Did something happen earlier?” I ask. “With you and West and that’s why you weren’t with him tonight?”
“Not really.” He pauses for a few beats. “He just forgot about our plans and told his fiancée he’d hang out with her instead. And I didn’t find out about the change in plans until we were studying together this afternoon.”
By the resigned tone of Damon’s voice, it sounds like this is a recurring thing. “Does he do that a lot?”
“Yeah.” He gently taps his bottle against his knee in an absentminded way.
“I’m not mad that he’s spending so much of his time with her.
They’re engaged; I get that she has to be main priority.
But it would be nice if she didn’t take up all of his time.
And it would be really nice if he could at least remember when he makes plans with me.
” He lets out another soft sigh. “It just sucks that we never get to hang out anymore.”
“Did anything else happen today?” I ask.
I can’t be sure, but it seems like there might be more going on than just what went down with West.
“You mean before I was almost shot and found out that someone is trying to kill me?” he asks, his voice tinged with humor.
“Yeah,” I say with a soft chuckle. “Before all that.”
“My sister called.” He pauses for a few beats. “She told me that my stepmom is thinking of sending her and my other sisters to Hendrix next year.”
“Hendrix Academy?”
He nods against my shoulder.
“Does she not know about what goes on there?”
Hendrix Academy has a great reputation, but everyone I’ve ever met who went there has nothing but horror stories and bad things to say about it.
“I don’t know. Apparently her boyfriend suggested it to her.”
“Wait, your stepmother has a boyfriend?”
“Yeah.” He rolls his bottle over his thigh so the water catches the firelight and emits little prisms of light. “They’ve been on and off for a while now. I want to say four years, but I’m not exactly sure when they first got together so it could be longer.”
“And she’s still married to your father?” I ask, trying to wrap my head around what he’s saying.
“Yep. Me, my sisters, her family, and her friends know, but my father is so busy with work and being an asshole to everyone that he has no idea. And considering his track record of who he sticks his dick in, it’s nothing he doesn’t deserve.
I don’t blame her for having a side piece while she waits for him to get deleted from the census. ”
“How old are your sisters?” I know that he has three and they’re much younger than him, but I didn’t look up their ages.
“Sophia is thirteen, Isabella is twelve, and Olivia is ten.”
“And you’re close with them?”
“They’re the only reason I’m at this stupid school.”
“What do you mean?” I ask as he lifts his head from my shoulder and leans back against the couch.
“I never wanted any of this crap.” He rolls his eyes to meet mine.
“I hate my father, and I hate his life. I would have peaced out the second I turned eighteen if I didn’t have my sisters to think about.
Silvercrest, going to work for him after I graduate, taking over the family business; I never wanted any of it.
But I have to stay in his, and my stepmother’s lives to stay in my sisters’, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. ”
He flicks his lip ring with his tongue a few times.
“At first I wanted nothing to do with them. I was grieving not just losing my mother, but also my grandparents and pretty much everything I’d ever known.
I had to move across the country and leave my friends, my school, and my entire support system, and I was pissed off about all of it.
“I don’t make friends easily,” he continues.
“And being the bastard mistake of someone like my father didn’t make things any easier, but my sisters were different.
They were always so happy to see me and they followed me around the house like I was the most important person in the world.
They came to me when they were scared or hurt and were always ready with hugs if they thought I was sad or upset about something.
And they’re the only people who’ve ever said they love me other than my mom and my grandparents.
I wanted to hate them, but they were my only friends for a long ass time, and they’re the only family I have left. ”
“Do you get along with your stepmom?” I ask when silence stretches between us.
“Yeah. We’re not especially close, and I don’t think of her as a parental figure or anything like that.
But we have a good relationship.” He pauses for a few beats.
“She was twenty-four when I moved in with her and my father. She had three kids under five, and she didn’t even know I existed until a week before I moved into her house.
She always made sure to include me in things and never made me feel like I wasn’t welcome or like I was a burden or anything like that, but she had her own life and the girls to worry about, so I wasn’t really a priority for her.
And my dad paid about as much attention to me when I lived in his house as he did when he pretended I didn’t exist, so I pretty much raised myself even though I had two ‘parents’”—he makes little air quotes with one hand— “Around.”
“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” I muse. “I’m an only child, but I wasn’t raised like one. My cousins were always around, and my aunts and uncles too. And we have a pretty big extended family, so holidays and stuff are always crazy.”
“My life used to be like that,” he says wistfully. “Not the big extended family part, but things were a lot different before I lost my mom and had to cut her side of the family off.”
I didn’t really look into his mom’s side of the family outside of having Jace see if any of them would have a reason, or the means, to hire people to kill him, and he came up blank.
“My grandparents tried to get custody of me when she died,” he continues, his voice soft and a bit faraway.
“But my father wouldn’t allow it. He used his parent card and no one gave a shit what I wanted or who I wanted to live with, so I had to move in with him, and he cut off all contact I had with them.
We reconnected when I was away at boarding school, but they died when I was seventeen, in a car accident.
” His voice goes thick, and he clears his throat.
“My mom didn’t get along with her family so I didn’t spend much time with them growing up.
It wasn’t until she died and my rich daddy claimed me that her relatives came out of the woodwork to try and get a piece of my newfound fortune, so I cut them off.
It wasn’t that hard since I didn’t really know any of them, but now my sisters are my only family, and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to stay in their lives. ”
I gently put my hand over his, and he quickly laces our fingers together.
“Do you know what my plan is?” he asks softly. “After my dad dies and I get full control of his companies?”
“What?”
“I’m dismantling it all.” He shoots me a wry smile.
“I don’t need his money. I have my mom’s life insurance in a trust I can access when I turn twenty-five, and I make good money with my music.
I’ll keep enough assets so my sisters will never want for anything and will always have a viable source of income, but I grew up with a socialist mother who got fucked over by a billionaire who knew exactly what he was doing when he took advantage of her.
I’ll play the game for as long as I have to, but once I’m in control, I’m burning it all to the ground and doing my own version of wealth redistribution.
Fuck my dad and fuck his legacy. He’s spent his life destroying people for his own gain, and I’m going to make sure that there’s nothing left of his empire and it helps as many people as possible.
I only wish I could do it while he’s still alive, but I can play the long game.
” He shoots me a wary look. “Does that change things between us?”
“Why would that change anything?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“Because I’m guessing you don’t have plans to dismantle your family empire and that’s not a popular thing to say around here.”
I run my thumb over his hand in a slow arc. “No, I don’t plan on dismantling my family business, but I don’t give a shit if you do it. In fact, I think it’s pretty bad ass. And it’s not exactly a shock.”
He his brow furrows in confusion.
“I know about your foundation,” I tell him.
“I know you’re already doing that sort of thing, so it makes sense that you’d keep doing it.
And everything I’ve read or heard about your dad makes me agree with you.
He’s an asshole who deserves every bad thing that’s coming to him and for his legacy to be destroyed. ”
He smiles, and I can see the relief in his eyes as he gives my hand a squeeze, then gently lets go so he can crack open his water.
I do the same and take a few long gulps.