Chapter 7
He was honestly just going through the motions at the moment.
It wasn’t getting any easier. Grief…could destroy a man, be he good or bad.
He had always considered himself to be somewhere in the middle.
Now, he was just a man who did what had to be done.
He had barely gotten through the last few days. Since…his son.
He considered himself a family man, though his wife had been gone for decades.
Since his son had been but a small boy. He hadn’t raised his son himself.
His career had made that nearly impossible, back then.
His boy had been raised by his sister, even taking her husband’s last name in his teens.
Just to prove a point to him. They had had a contentious relationship back then.
His son had thought he knew everything. He had always been that way.
So arrogant and proud and somewhat rude.
So sure the world would give him what he wanted, because he was owed something for being so special. His son had been an arrogant fool. It was what had gotten him into the situation he was in now.
And there would be no getting out of it for his boy now. Or ever. There were going to be lasting consequences for his son’s actions. Lifelong ones. Consequences that could ruin things for him as well as his son. And his son’s three children.
He was just glad now that those children were all female. Had they been male—the fallout from his son’s actions would have been more devastating. Harder for a son to live down.
He checked his phone. It was almost three-thirty.
His eldest granddaughter should be arriving home soon.
He paid a guard to make sure she was where she was supposed to be.
The man acted as a bodyguard and de facto babysitter for the girl.
At fourteen, she was the exact opposite of how her father had been.
She was studious and awkward. Bookish. And shy.
She struggled to make friends. He knew that bothered her, but she was going to just have to get over it.
Get herself out there. She had a lot going for her, least of all was her position as his granddaughter.
But she preferred to hide out in her room, reading and studying.
She attended Finley Creek Academy; it was one of the most prestigious schools in the state.
She didn’t seem to appreciate that opportunity at all lately.
Riely’s grades had been slipping lately. Even before what had happened to her father.
She had withdrawn even more, after he had told her what had happened to her father.
The two had never been close. She had never lived with her father.
His son hadn’t even known the girl existed until her mother had been…
killed…almost five years ago. His son hadn’t wanted the child then.
Of course he hadn’t. He was a young man building his own career and future.
A grieving nine-year-old hadn’t factored into his plans at all.
But she had needed someone—and he hadn’t wanted the questions. So he had taken her in, claimed her as his granddaughter in name—even if he would never admit she was his granddaughter by blood as well.
He just hadn’t wanted the questions. Not about his son. By the time his granddaughter had needed him, he hadn’t wanted questions about the girl’s father. Now he was glad he had kept that relationship to himself.
It protected her to some degree. And he had protected himself.
No one he worked with even knew she was his granddaughter by blood.
They thought she was one of his late wife’s relatives, that he had taken in out of the goodness of his heart.
He was going to leave it that way. Those who had asked—he had said she was his late sister-in-law’s granddaughter, and left it at that.
He would raise her appropriately. She would inherit what he had built through his lifetime. But he would never claim she was any more to him than that.
He looked at the young woman in front of him now.
He listened to her as she spoke about how the lab was run, how Dr. Harris and that damned Coleson girl were both doing. Everyone was being polite.
No one there particularly gave a damn about those two young women. He certainly didn’t, considering. But the inquiries were expected.
So he would play the game.
Like he had played it so many times before.
When did the games ever end?