Chapter 43
I”m in my office, toying with a pen while staring off into the distance, when Sam knocks on my open office door. I look up with some surprise and straighten from my slumped posture.
”Knock knock,” Sam says. Without waiting for me to invite him in, he steps into the room and closes the door behind him. He waves toward the reception area. ”There was no one at the front desk, so I just came on back.”
I clear my throat, waving to the chairs. ”Have a seat. I figured that Mom would send you or one of my brothers to scold me sooner or later.”
Sam sits, his expression grave. Not a particularly good sign, if I”m being honest.
”I did come to talk to you. Your mother didn”t send me, though.” He presses his lips together in a thin line. ”We need to have a talk about how you”ve been behaving lately.”
I can barely repress an eye roll. ”Great. Sounds like a good use of my time.”
Sam rocks back in his chair. His bright blue eyes burn into my face. ”You”ve been an outsider since I met you, River.”
Confusion snarls my guts. ”That”s not what I expected you to say.”
He gives me a prim smile. ”Ever since you first walked into my house, you were skittish as a new colt. I always felt like I was at a loss for how to reach out to you. I guess... I could”ve tried more. But it always seemed like you were fine. You had good grades, you had friends. It was easier to focus on my kids who outwardly needed things. Rex with his baseball games, Lucy wanting to learn how to ride a bike. But with you... you and I never had anything in common.”
I narrow my eyes at Sam. ”No, we didn”t.”
Sam frowns and steeples his fingers. ”I have a lot of things I would do differently if I could do them again. But not connecting with you was a big oversight. As adults, we have a lot in common.”
I cant my head curiously. ”Where are you going with this, Sam?”
”Bear with me for a minute.” He waves me down. ”We are both cunning. We share a certain ruthlessness that makes other people nervous. But most of all, ambition burns bright in both of us. Wouldn”t you agree?”
”Yeah...” I nod my head slowly, trying to guess what his point is. ”We both see the world the same way, I think.”
Sam appears thoughtful. ”I think a lot of that comes from the same place with you as it did with me. I always felt like I didn”t quite belong. Like I was outside, looking in at all the people in my life. I felt like no one cared about me. And I wondered if it might not be the case that there was just something unlovable about me. Like I was just broken.”
I swallow tightly. ”That”s not the Sam I know.”
”No.” He smiles a bit sadly. ”I felt that way before I met my first wife. She was really the change in me. She helped me see that I wasn”t broken. I was just an oddball.”
I look down at my desk. I often feel that I am broken, or that I”m an outsider. It”s a little like Sam telling me my own story. I clear my throat.
”I appreciate you telling me all of this, but what does it have to do with me?”
”We”re getting there,” Sam says. ”Since the moment that your mom and your family moved in, I knew something was off about you. I should have taken more time to investigate. But if you remember, it was a pretty chaotic time for all of us. My attention was pulled in a lot of different directions. But that doesn”t change the fact that the second I married your mom, we became family.”
I tap my fingers on the smooth wood surface of my desk. ”You did a great job stepping into a fatherly role for Brooks. You went to all his debates and all his swim meets. But it was obvious enough that I wasn”t a Bennett. Not really.”
”Your mom wouldn”t let me adopt you kids. I wanted to give you my last name.”
I snort. ”That wouldn”t have made me fit into the family any more.”
He sighs. ”It would have showed you that you belong here, River. You always have. I should have pushed for adoption more. It would have been a way to signify that you were one of my kids.” He picks a speck of lint off of his shirt. ”Because you are one of my kids, River. I know I don”t say it enough, but I love you. I care about whether or not you are about to burn your whole life to the ground.”
I roll my eyes. ”My current predicament has nothing to do with you not paying enough attention to me as a child.”
”I think it does.” Sam stabs his finger into my desk. ”You needed to know that you belonged to my tribe. I let you down. And now you”re seriously about to screw up your chances at having a happy ending with a girl you love.” He raises a brow. ”You love Pearl, don”t you?”
My face grows hot. ”Desperately.”
”Well, then you”re going to have to do something to try to fix this situation before it is too late. But first...”
Sam unzips his jacket and pulls an innocuous file folder from his jacket. He slides it across the desk to me.
I look at him, a little confused, and open the file folder.
PETITION FOR ADOPTION is splayed across the top. I look back at Sam, my brow furrowing. ”What is this?”
”A first step. River, I know there is no going back in time to correct my mistakes. But going forward, I”m going to treat you as though you were my son from birth. Brooks, too. That should start with you getting all the benefits of being a Bennett. And continue with me helping you work out favorable terms with Ray Kendrick to give Pearl’s family a big chunk of money as part of their agreement to sell their lands. It”s not the best outcome, but it”s the most favorable to Pearl”s family, now that we are this far down the rabbit hole.”
I don”t quite know what to say. ”You don”t have to do any of this,” is what I come up with.
”I do. You”re my son, River. I want what”s best for you.”
I suck in a deep breath and look down at the form because it”s easier than enduring Sam”s gaze. If I signed this form, I would finally be one of the Billion Dollar Bennetts.
I stare at it for several seconds before I look at Sam. ”Can I think about it?”
Sam”s lips twist with a flash of humor. ”Of course. It”s there for you to think about forever, if you want.” He exhales. ”I think we have bigger problems to deal with at the moment.”
I can”t stop staring at the contract, so I close the folder and break my gaze.
”You”re worried about Pearl?”
He bobs his head. ”I am.”
I stand up and walk over to the window, peering out at the lighthouse in the distance.
”Do you think I have pushed her away?” I ask, my voice going to gravel.
”Hard to say, son. I don”t really know her like you do. But I know some information about the property tax lien.”
My head snaps around. ”What kind of information?”
He smiles. ”I heard that Delta Jackson owes less than seventy-five thousand dollars. So if I were a romantic guy, I would find a way to gift that amount to my beloved. The only string I would attach to the gift is that Delta has to sell the land. She obviously struggles to pay the taxes.”
”And the property is in disrepair.” I purse my lips. ”I wonder if Ray will work out a deal that affords them a ton of money.”
”Ray will be more than fair. But I was thinking about what I would want if the deal were being made on my behalf.”
I arch a brow. ”And?”
”I would push for a minority ownership stake in whatever is being developed. Even one percent would probably be tens of millions per year.”
My heart starts beating fast. ”Would Ray go for that?”
”I think he”d love it. You just paint a picture of him as a benefactor that allowed a Black family that”s owned the land here for a hundred years to continue on owning a piece for a hundred years to come. Between that and offering to lend Pearl the money to pay the IRS--”
I hold up both my hands to stop him.” I think we”re way beyond that. I”ll cover it and if Pearl takes me back, that”ll be money well spent.”
Sam scratches his chin. ”Are you planning on using the money in your trust fund to cover that?”
I shrug my shoulders. ”Yeah. It”s the only money I can get my hands on right now. Unless you say otherwise, I guess...”
”No, no. The money is yours. I just wondered if that wasn”t going to put a dent in the money you were going to personally invest in this project.”
I make a face. ”There will always be more projects. But I only have one shot to get Pearl back.”
”Atta boy.” Sam nods. ”I”ll fill in any gaps in funding. You just have to sweet talk Ray.”
My stomach fills with lead. ”Right.”
”It”ll be fine. Just use an upbeat tone and keep emphasizing that he”ll save a piece of historic property from falling into the hands of outside developers. That’s Ray’s soft spot.” He pauses, then zeroes in his gaze on my face. “I wouldn”t encourage you to talk to him if I didn”t believe in you.”
I push out a breath and nod. I believe him, but the prospect of talking to Ray Kendrick and asking him for a favor has me rattled. I pull myself together. ”Okay.”
”Okay.” Sam stands up, a tight-lipped smile on his face. ”Just remember. You”re my son. Bennetts can do anything they put their minds to.”
I nod. ”Uh... yeah. Thanks.”
Sam eyes me for a long minute. ”You”ve got this, son.”
And with that, he lumbers out of my office. I sag into my chair, rocked by all the things that have just been revealed.