A block of ice solidifies in my chest. I know what my father’s vendettas look like. Ruined careers. Lost fortunes. Shattered lives.
“Let me make something abundantly clear to you, Warren,” I say in a low rumble of danger I don’t even recognize as my own voice. “You think things have been bad between us the last fifteen years? Touch her and I will make the worst you’ve ever done look like child’s play. Do you understand me?”
A frigid silence accumulates across the miles, as cold and densely dark as the Antarctic winter. Snow starts falling, huge crystalline flakes that land on my hand and melt before I can touch or appreciate them.
“You’d choose that little bitch over your family?” my father asks, his voice tight and furious.
“I’d choose her over you.”
He replies with a disgusted huff of breath. “The only reason I’m tolerating her at the announcement is because Owen seems to believe she knows what she’s doing and won’t listen when I tell him to fire her ass.”
“I don’t want to see you within ten feet of her on New Year’s Eve.”
“You won’t see me within ten feet of her ever if I can help it,” he says, his voice taut with rage. “Goodbye, Maxim, and Merry Christmas.”
The line goes as dead as any affection I thought I’d salvaged for him. Every time I think we might be able to fix all the things that have gone wrong between us, my father does something to remind me why I left in the first place.
This isn’t how I saw Christmas going. Somewhere in my mind, I hoped Lennix and I would have worked things out by now. She said each Christmas she goes to the site where she whispered her mother’s name and laid her to some kind of rest. She probably sees the Cade Energy pipeline there and remembers all the reasons she shouldn’t trust me. My father. My family’s business. My lies.
None of those are things I can fix or change. How I hurt her, deceived her, is in the past, but standing out here in the cold alone under a Yuletide moon and falling snow, I wonder if we’ll ever find our way to the future.
46
Lennix
“Everything’s incredible, Mill,” I say. “And the house looks beautiful.”
An army of servers circle the room carrying trays laden with champagne. Christmas lights sparkle overhead and along the stairwell bannister. The branches of a huge tree in the corner stretch toward the ceiling, its decorative cheer adding to the festive atmosphere.
“Even more beautiful with all these students here.” Millicent scans the room, packed with so many young faces, with young leaders from all over the country. “This was such a great idea. Everyone’s excited, even though they don’t know what’s coming.”
“I’m sure some suspect. CNN, MSNBC, Fox and every major news outlet is at this party.
They know we wouldn’t have them here just to ring in the New Year.”
“After tonight, everything changes, huh?” Her blue eyes find mine, and they’re sober in this festive scene. “Once he makes it official, our lives change forever.”
“We’re just announcing the exploratory committee tonight. He’ll announce he’s running in February, and then we’re off.”
“You wouldn’t have taken him on if you didn’t think he’d win,” she says, her smile knowing. “You bet on the winners, don’t you?”
I think of all the battles I’ve lost. All the pipelines that got built anyway. All the young men still languishing in prison despite Kimba’s and my best efforts.
“Not always, no,” I reply, staring into my champagne. “I just fight for the ones I think should win.”
“Hey,” Kimba says, appearing beside us. “CNN wants an interview after.”
“Excuse me, ladies. I need to go find my children,” Millicent says by way of exit. “See you in a bit.”
“What time do they want to do the interview?” I ask Kimba.
“’Round midnight, and you know I don’t do that shit.”
“Okay.” I laugh and roll my eyes. “But one day you’ll get shoved into the spotlight, so you better be ready.”
“Not if I can help it.” She pulls an iPad from where it’s tucked under her arm. “So Owen starts his speech at eleven thirty. He makes the announcement. We do the countdown to midnight and then the interview.”
“Right. I’ll be ready.”