“You have your own bloody company now, don’t you? Isn’t that because of me? Because of the things I taught you?”
“You didn’t teach me anything.”
“Because of the people you took from me?”
“I didn’t take them from you,” I point out. “They realized I was a better boss, a better leader, and they followed me.”
“But I was still the one who trained them, and you’re benefiting from that training now, so don’t you say I never helped you.”
“And don’t you act like you’re some benevolent god. You only let me come here because my mother asked you to. And until then, I never heard from you. You were never a father to me.”
“Well, you never gave me a bloody chance, did you?”
“Really? Didn’t you have plenty of chances in the past twenty-eight years? You had one just yesterday when I came to see you. But what did you do? Even though you nearly died and all, you still couldn’t treat me as your son. Or as any human being worth anything.”
Walt looks away.
I draw a breath. “Do you know that in spite of that, Jenna still wanted to get to know you, that she still believed there was some good in you? And you know the hardest part? In spite of everything, I wanted to believe there was some good in you, that there was hope for you, for us. But not anymore. Now, I just wish you had died.”
With those words, I leave my father in the room. I don’t care about him anymore. I turned my back on him once, and now I’m doing it for good. I don’t need a father. I don’t want a father.
Not Walt Willard.
“Dax!” Chloe calls after me as I go down the stairs.
I hear her footsteps behind me but I don’t stop.
“Dax, wait! Please!”
I stop on the steps and let out a deep sigh.
“Chloe, I’m not in the mood right now.”
“I know.” She touches my arm. “I know Jenna left you. And I know why. It’s not your father’s fault.”
I shake my head. “Chloe, I know you’re supposed to take his side…”
“I’m not taking sides.” She pulls on my sleeve. “I’m telling the truth.”
“What? Did you hear them talk?”
“No,” Chloe answers. “But the nurse did, and he told me everything before he went home at the end of his shift.”
Now she has my attention.
“What do you know?”
“That you and Jenna can’t be together.”
I feel a growl rumble in my throat as I glare at her. I step forward and she steps back against the wall. I place my hands on it and stare her down.
“Why? What did Walt tell her?”
Chloe swallows. “That she was his daughter.”
The words feel like icy water being splashed on my scorching skin. For a moment, I feel numb. I can’t move.
When I can feel blood flowing through my veins again, I take my hands off the wall. I step away from Chloe slowly and sit down on a step. My head hangs from between my shoulders. My hands hang between my knees.
What the fuck?
I look at Chloe, who’s still standing against the wall. “Are you sure about this?”
She nods. “Jenna showed your father a picture. She asked if he was the one in it. Walt said yes. She asked if he knew her mother and he also said yes. She ran out of the room.”
And went straight to the airport. She couldn’t leave London fast enough.
And now, I know why.
“So Jenna’s mother was also one of the women Walt slept with?”
“It seems like it,” Chloe answers.
Bastard. I wish my mother had chopped his dick off after he got her pregnant.
But she didn’t, and as a result, my father got another woman pregnant three years later. Jenna’s mother. But wait. Wasn’t she already married by then?
Well, I wouldn’t put sleeping with married women past my father. I wouldn’t put anything past him. What surprises me is learning that Jenna’s mother cheated on Arthur.
I wouldn’t have believed it. But Jenna did. Jenna believed it so completely that she ended things between us even if she didn’t want to, knowing she had no choice. That’s why she said we should never have been a couple in the first place, that our relationship was wrong from the start.
And as much as I hate to admit it, it was. There’s no way we can be together now.
Can the world be so cruel?
With heavy feet, I go down the steps. Victor is waiting at the bottom.
“Are you okay?” he asks me.
I don’t answer that. Instead, I ask him a question of my own.
“Are there other potential partners I can meet while I’m here in Europe?”
Victor nods. “I can make all the arrangements.”
“Good. Do that.”
“But what about operations back at home?”
“I’m sure Dwayne can handle it. Tell him to hire back Leon as well to help him.”