My father pauses. Then an icy wisp of air stands between us. “We have more important things to discuss, Darius.” He goes to turn around. “Let’s go—”
“Don’t fucking move,” I growl.
My father slowly glances over his shoulder, eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Answer the question,” I say through gritted teeth, shaking on the inside, even though I refuse to let him see it. “Did you make up allegations against my mother?”
A pause. Then, “I did what I had to.”
I inhale deeply, resting against the edge of my desk, gripping the wood to stop myself from lunging forward and ripping out his throat. “Which was to tear a young boy away from his mother?”
“No,” he retorts coldly, planting his feet wide. “It was to not tarnish your good name, your lineage, your status. She would’ve ruined you and all that I had built for you.”
Just like I thought Allie would ruin you, too, is what he doesn’t have to say.
My stomach roils, and I know that everything my father ever told me was a lie. I’d been so caught up in my pain, so shadowed by his lies, I hadn’t once listened to Allie when she told me the truth about our mother.
Why hadn’t I listened to her?
Obviously he doesn’t know how close I am to lurching forward, because he adds, “What I did gave you all of this.” He waves his hand around my office.
I snort. “I gave myself this. There’s nothing you touched here.” Right then, staring at the man who ruined so many lives, I realize Allie couldn’t get close to me. Taylor didn’t have a chance in hell either. I kept waiting for the ball to drop, for my world to come crashing down, because when I was four years old, my world did exactly that.
My blood begins pumping rapidly through my veins, heart hammering. But I’m not done. My questions will be answered today. “Did you ruin her because you were embarrassed she divorced you?”
“She ruined herself,” is all my father says.
I drop my head, shutting my eyes, absorbing that, as it’s all the confirmation I need. For years, I’d hungered and hunted down success. I’d fought to be better than the man standing in front of me. When all along, I’d always been better. And the thing I wanted most and spent years fighting for, the money that made me powerful, destroyed the lives of every single woman in my life.
My father punished my mother, then I’d been punishing every woman in my life for his sin.
Not anymore, whispers inside me.
“What happened with your mother was a long time ago,” my father says coolly. “Forget about it. We have business to discuss.” Again, he goes to leave my office.
I growl, “Get the fuck out of here.”
“Darius.”
I lift my head, seeing my father standing there, face ashen, eyes dead. “Go. Now.” I walk past him and open the door, noticing Charlotte rise from her seat, clearly hearing my loud voice. I turn back to my father. “Get out of here and never come back here or I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.” I move to my desk and stare out at the gloomy dark cloudy sky, dismissing my father like he probably dismissed my mother many times.
“You’l
l regret this,” is my father’s final remark before he leaves my office.
But I won’t regret anything, especially not this.
I have many more regrets that don’t involve my father. I press my hands against the cool window in front of me, dragging in a rough breath. I don’t even know what to do next, how to think straight. I have no idea how to right all the wrongs. I don’t even know where to start.
“Sir…” Charlotte’s gentle voice speaks through the intercom. “I know you said not to interrupt you, but an urgent phone call has come in.”
I turn around, staring at her sitting at her desk, emotion in her eyes. “Who is it, Charlotte?” I call out to her.
“Your sister, Allison. Line one.”
I reach over and pick up the phone, pressing it to my ear, not in any mood for Allie’s lecture, when a soft voice easing all the tension inside of me spills over me, until that voice says, “Yes, I’m Taylor Erickson, and I’m ready to tell my and Darius Bennett’s story.”
Taylor