“The letters I sent her?”
“What are you, a parrot?” his dad barked at him. “Yes, she came asking to see them.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her that I’d disposed of them.”
“Is that true?”
“No.”
“Does she know that?”
“Yes, she’s got them now.”
“She’s got them?” John asked in disbelief. He hadn’t thought that she’d ever get hands on them. He’d thought that his father would have long since thrown them away.
“Does that even matter?” His dad glared at him. “I’ve spent thousands on that girl, getting her ready for a place in my company. And, now, that’s all gone to waste. She’s refusing to take the position and that’s all because of you and your big mouth.”
“It’s all because of me?”
“You know damn well that it is.” His dad slammed his fists down onto his desk. “You had to tell her about why you got sent away, didn’t you?”
“She had a right to know.”
“What, after all this time?” His dad turned to him. “Did you really think that you were going to help the situation? I meant what I said. If she does decide to take that job, then she’s on her own. I’m not going to help her. She isn’t going to get another cent of my cash. She can find her own place to live and suffer for her choices.”
“You think that she will suffer?” John shook his head. His father really was short-sighted. “I don’t think Amy really cares about your money.”
“Then the expensive education she’s had has failed her,” his dad said with certainty. “You won’t get anywhere in this life without cold, hard cash.”
John shifted in the spot he was standing on. It was time. The conversation had led to it perfectly. “Dad, I need to ask you something,” he tested the water hesitantly.
“What?”
“I’ve come across this idea and I was hoping you’d invest. I don’t really need much to get off the ground, but I need more than I have.”
His dad started to laugh. “You really think that I’m going to help you?”
“Yeah.” John nodded. “I mean, you owe me.”
“I owe you?” His dad looked amused. “And how exactly do you work that out?”
“You sent me away. You took away my childhood. You took away the one girl I’ve ever loved.”
“Stop,” his dad cut in. “The only girl you’ve ever loved? Don’t you know how sick that is? She’s your sister. You grew up together. What is wrong with you? Why can’t you see that I did you a favor by keeping the two of you apart?”
John couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could his dad believe that? How could his dad think that what he felt towards Amy was anything other than beautiful? “You know she isn’t my actual sister,” he said finally, because it was the only point that mattered.
“Do you think my friends will see it that way?” his dad asked. “Do you know what they will say about this family if they ever find out about it?”
“Is that all you care about?”
“You think it’s bad for me to care about this family’s reputation?”
“No,” John said quickly. “But that’s not what you’re doing. You only care about your reputation.”
His dad laughed. “Well, you’ve got me there.” He sat down at the desk. “Look, I know you think I owe you some great debt, but the truth is that I don’t. If you want me to invest in your business, then you’re going to have to do something for me.”
“Like what?”
“Well,” his dad leaned forward, “you’re obviously still close to Amy.” John felt his stomach sink. “So, I’m guessing that she listens to you. If you want the investment, then you’re going to have to convince Amy to work for me.”
“I can’t do that,” John started, but his dad quickly cut him off.
“If you really want the investment, you’ll find a way.”
“You’re asking me to ruin her chance to get her dream job. I won’t do it.”
“Then you obviously don’t want your business badly enough.” His father shook his head. “That’s a real shame. I would have thought you were brighter than that.”
“How would you know?” John asked, turning to the door. “It’s not like you’ve been around for these last eight years.”
“That isn’t my fault,” his father called after him. “I offered to come see you, but you refused.”
“Don’t you dare try to turn this around on me,” John could feel eight years’ worth of anger ready to come pouring out. “You sent your only son away so that you would one day have a lawyer you could trust. That’s not on me.”
“That doesn’t change the fact I tried to see you, son.”
John laughed. “Like I would ever want to see you. The only reason I’m here now is for the investment.”
“That might be the case.” His dad shrugged. “And, if it is, then you know how you’re going to get it.”
“I told you,” John said firmly. “I won’t do that.”
“Then why are you still here?”
********
Chapter 13
Amy
Amy put down the final letter into the pile of letters she’d already read. It had taken her hours to read each and every one of them. She sat back on her bed. The task might have taken her hours, but she felt like she’d just travelled through eight years without a wink of sleep. John hadn’t been lying to her. There were at least two hundred letters. He’d tried writing to her up until the last few months of college.
She wondered whether knowing about them changed anything. She’d spent so long thinking that John had simply just forgotten about her that she’d never even considered the thought that perhaps he’d been trying to get in touch.
She
sifted through the letters until she reached the ones that were clearly the oldest. The first few months that he’d been gone, he’d written to her a lot. She scanned the pages. His handwriting was messy and hard to read, but she managed to decipher it. He’d been writing to tell her how much he’d missed her. He’d written to tell her about how awful his first few weeks had been and how he longed to come home and see her again.
It hurt to read. It hurt to imagine that John had been sitting far away from home, writing letters that would never get a response. It was hard to believe that he’d kept writing to her for years, even though he must have known that she wasn’t getting them. She put the letter that she was reading down. He’d been telling the truth. He’d been telling the truth about how he’d felt, she realized as she stared at the small passage through history that she’d just taken.
What did it change? Did it change anything? Did it change the way that she felt about him? No, it didn’t. She felt the same way that she always had about him. The letters had done nothing other than tell her that it was okay to feel that way. The letters had confirmed to her that she wasn’t some stupid, silly girl who’d got the wrong impression. She hadn’t been dumb for believing that they’d shared something between them. Everything had been real.
She didn’t have time to think about any of that, though. She had to get ready for her dinner with Liam. She only had a couple of hours left to sort herself out. She hadn’t realized that reading all the letters was going to be an overnight job. She didn’t regret it, though, even with the half-moon purple patches under her eyes.
She picked out a tailored gray pinstripe suit and put in on, before inspecting herself in the mirror. She looked good. She looked like the kind of adult that she’d always hoped she would be. She took a little turn, checking out every angle, before heading for the stairs so she could get a car to take her to the restaurant.