4. Kiera
KIERA
The cup of tea was warm in my hands, surprisingly comforting despite the warm spring day. Leo and Spencer moved into the living room, following Viv’s lead as Dom stayed in the back. She was still hesitant, despite the warmth Vivienne was showing her.
A pang of anger rushed through me.
Ungrateful. I would’ve given anything to see my father again. And here Dom was, handed another silver spoon and all she could do was turn up her nose.
I rolled my eyes as I sat on the couch, a simple gray velour with a more modern frame. It was cozy, like it would be perfect for a summer nap with the windows open to the chirping birds.
Leo and Spencer sat on either side of me. Spencer placed a protective hand over my knee as everyone got settled.
Looking over at Dom, who was leaning against a wood post at the edge of the room, Vivienne nodded toward Leo and Spence. “You trust them?”
It was a fair question. Vivienne knew me, at least a version of me. And since she was the lawyer we were told to find, she knew I would be here eventually. For whatever reason, The Oracle needed me for their plan.
But Leo and Spencer… They were add-ons.
Dom’s jaw tightened as she answered, “More than my own blood.”
Viv’s thin lips pulled tight as she nodded.
“Okay.” Taking in a breath, Vivienne leaned back in her armchair, her eyes warming at the memory.
“I met Isaac Dumont in undergrad. He was a young, charming, energetic business major. Everywhere he went, his nerdy best friend was trailing behind him. Trying to keep up.”
“My dad?” I added. I’d known they’d known each other since childhood, that they’d gone to college together.
“Yes, Brennan Tierney.” Viv sucked her teeth as she held the image of my young father in her mind. “Isaac was a challenge, cocky and bold. But I was a young woman aspiring to be a lawyer. I was used to a fight and I knew how to give him one.
“I saw through his bravado. I didn’t fall for his tricks which of course made him more drawn to me. And I only fell for his charm a little.”
Shaking her head, Viv laughed as she tried to comfort herself. “He was kinder back then, funnier.”
From my periphery, I watched Dom bristle. I couldn’t blame her. All of this was hard to listen to. This version of Dom’s father wasn’t the one either of us really knew. Maybe he was some distant memory of a man I knew once.
But it certainly didn’t resemble the monster we were tasked with destroying.
Leo and Spencer leaned forward, intrigued by the tale.
Going on, Viv sighed. “I kept that young man on his toes. He wanted to get married when we graduated but I wouldn’t budge. He proposed three times. But I wanted to go to law school, with a fervor that matched his — and Brennan’s — ambitions to build a tech company from the ground up.”
Viv turned her attention to me as she stirred her coffee. “I’d seen far too many women lose their careers to ‘going back to school later.’ I wouldn’t let him take that from me. No man could.”
With a shrug, she took a sip. “So I made him propose a fourth time after I graduated law school.”
Leo, Spencer, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
This was no ordinary woman. Which was exactly how I remembered her. She was always fucking cool, the kind of woman I hoped to be. Not like my desperate, man-obsessed mother who would drop all of her interests for any guy who deigned to look her way.
Marriage didn’t change Vivienne. She was who she was and any man who didn’t like that would have a hard time changing her.
As if on cue, Dom growled from the corner. “How did you end up here?”
Even across the room, I could tell that Dom was struggling to listen. The last thing she wanted to hear was some love story about a man deadset on ruining her life.
Waving her daughter off, Viv turned back to the three of us who were enjoying her storytelling.
“By the time I was graduating, Brennan and Isaac were ready to found their company. They wanted to name it Zeus, a company that would capture data to help people, to make the world a better place with access to information that could save lives.”
“So much for that.” Dom sneered, licking her teeth.
Viv nodded. “Brennan built the tech, Isaac created the business model. But they needed a lawyer, someone to write a charter and be their legal advisor in exchange for a third of the shares.”
Surprise washed over me. “Why would my dad agree to that? He’d be outnumbered.” It didn’t make sense. Even if my father was a bit naive about his best friend’s true nature.
But the suggestion made Vivienne laugh. “Oh, dear Kiera. I was never the type to side with my husband when he was wrong. And Brennan knew that.”
Another giggle escaped her lungs as she looked out the window, her eyes shining as she heard my father’s laugh or saw his smile in her mind. “Besides, your dad and I ended up being better friends than either of us were with Isaac.”
It was Leo’s booming voice that interjected next, finally catching up. “Is that how you ended up supposedly dead? You knew he did something wrong?”