Chapter 40 #2
He hums and glances over at me before pulling his chair close to his desk.
Arms resting on the desktop, he says, “I’m prepared to walk out the door with you.
I actually think we should go in there and lay that on the line for him.
We will both leave the firm. He needs a rude awakening.
” He rubs his temples. “I still can’t believe he did that to Kendall.
If he did anything close to that to Theresa, I would have lost my mind. ”
“Well, I have officially lost my mind, and losing Kendall is not an option. I need to make this right, no matter what the cost. I have to hope she comes around and sees we are meant to be together.”
Logan smirks and laughs.
“What?” I stare back at him.
“You’re smitten and determined. It looks good on you.” He laughs some more.
“Asshole…now what?”
“If he truly wants to see us happy, then we need to make our own decisions without him interfering. Mom hurt him, but he needs a different hobby than controlling our lives, thinking he’s protecting us from getting hurt.
Now we make our own threats to him; he will not like it, but it’s the only way.
He’ll make the decision. We know where we stand. ”
“Come on, he must be at the office by now. We’re not giving him a heads-up.”
We both hop into our cars and drive to the office in record time, park, and walk in. I hear his voice the minute I walk down the hallway.
I knock on the doorframe of Dad’s office with Logan right behind me. “Do you have a minute?”
“This must be serious if you both are here,” Dad says, leaning back in his chair and gesturing for us to come in.
I resist the urge to shake my head, doing my best to keep emotions out of the conversation as much as possible. “It’s important,” I say flatly.
He points to the chairs in front of his desk. “Come on in and close the door.”
We take a seat. I’m glaring at him right before I say anything.
“I suspect you heard about my visit to see Kendall, and that’s why you are here?” Dad asks, his voice giving nothing away, sounding almost bored.
“Yes, exactly,” I say curtly. I want to hear it from his own mouth. “But why?” I place the contract and the torn-up check in a neat pile in front of him to make a point.
He sighs. “I’m protecting you. It’s as simple as that. Look what happened with Maggie; she broke you. I thought you’d never give another woman the time of day. But I was wrong.”
Shaking my head, I say, “I don’t need protecting, Dad.”
“When I overheard your conversation with Logan, I thought it would be best to make an offer.”
Logan jumps in. “I’m not sure what part of the conversation you heard, but it’s not your job to protect us.
And it sure as hell isn’t your place to threaten and intimidate people, especially those we care about.
Can’t you act like a normal parent? Just ask us what’s going on.
Let us make our own mistakes. Instead, you take things into your own hands, thinking you’re doing us a favor, but you aren’t. ”
“She’s not right for Dane,” Dad says with confidence. “People are talking.”
My heart rate is picking up, so I breathe before saying, “People always talk. Did you ever consider verifying the information before using it against Kendall? For the record, I went down to the town hall on my own. She never asked for my help.”
“Does that even matter? You still did it.”
I shake my head, about to get up and walk out the door before we can even give him the ultimatum.
“Bigger picture, you don’t have the right to threaten and intimidate Kendall, and then to top it all off, you tried to pay her off,” Logan says, straight-faced and with no emotion. “You have a serious problem, and we will no longer sit back and let you run unchecked.”
I then say, “She’s exactly right for me. You don’t even know her, only what you overheard and what gossip is around town. Did you even think of talking to Gram about what you heard? She knows everything in town.”
“No,” my father says almost petulantly.
“Well, think about this…Gram was planning on setting us up, but things fell into place for us all on their own. Kendall is Gram’s stylist and has been since the salon opened. Did you even think about anyone else but yourself when you decided to make a power move?”
He doesn’t have a quick comeback to that. He scratches his jaw, probably thinking of a way to weasel out of this. All he can come up with is… “Dane, she has a lot of baggage.”
I throw back, “Don’t we all!”
Complete silence fills the room.
Before it gets too heated and I fly off the handle, Logan says, “Dane and I spoke…”
“Go ahead.” He nods for Logan to continue.
“We drafted a contract that would remove us as part owners of the firm.” I hold it up and toss it onto his desk as Logan says, “And you might think, we can’t do that.
There’s a clause that states if one of us walks away from the firm, the other has the option to do so as well.
We agreed on it back when you and I didn’t see eye to eye. ”
“Are you two considering leaving the firm over this?” His mouth downturns, and his brows furrow.
We say in unison, “Yes.”
“What about our legacy here? Your inheritance?”
Logan is on a roll. “We want nothing more than to stay here, but there have to be boundaries. My relationship with Theresa is significantly better now that you haven’t been trying to micromanage at every turn.
I want you to extend the same to Dane. Dane and I agree, we’ll walk away from our inheritance if that’s what it comes to.
The language you have there is archaic.”
As my baby brother, I’m thankful he is sitting next to me, going to bat for me. I might have already lost it on Dad, but he’s been even-keeled this entire time.
Dad stares out the window like he’s not even here anymore. “I want the best for you two, and the last thing you need, Dane, is another woman cheating on you or using you again. It’s the worst feeling in the world…it breaks something inside of you.”
I feel bad for my dad, but it still doesn’t give him the right to do what he did to Kendall.
“It did break something inside of me, and I’m a better man, a better boyfriend now than I ever was with Maggie.”
Still staring out the window, he doesn’t say another word. Logan and I look at each other and shrug, unsure of what to do next, so we sit and wait for him to speak.
He slowly turns his head without making eye contact with us and flips through the document we drafted.
Rubbing his forehead, he glances up. “You’ve already signed this.
” His eyes jump between mine and Logan's like he can’t believe we’d walk away.
Hurt flickers in his eyes. But this isn’t about him.
It’s about taking control of our lives instead of having him intrude and hold the inheritance clause over our heads.
Picking up his pen, I think he’s about to sign it.
If he does, then Logan and I walk out the door for good.
It’s the right decision, and if he doesn’t want us in his life anymore, then that’s on him.
I’m content with the decision. I’ll give it all up for her.
Logan and I have a reputation in the community; it wouldn’t take us long to build our own firm.
Dad flips to the signature page, and the pen hits the paper. Waiting for him to sign, I’m shocked that he would let us walk away so easily.
The pen doesn’t move. “I need to think about this.” And he drops the pen. Logan and I let out a sigh. Please tell me he is not dragging this out to find a way to convince us to stay.
With that, I stand, and Logan follows. “You have until the end of the week. Dad, I’m serious.”