Chapter 26

Eight months later

Nash

I swirled the finger of whiskey around in my crystal-cut glass, and it twinkled when it caught the light from the floor lamps in its ridges. Father was in his usual business suit, even though he probably hadn’t left the house all day. He was sitting across from me, in his spot on the couch, under the portrait of my great-great-grandfather, who had been an English Duke.

“So how do you spend your days now?” Father said, and I swirled the whiskey around some more, taking my time with that question. I was in no hurry to please him.

“On site, helping with the engineering work. On most days,” I replied, after several seconds. I hadn’t seen him in many months, probably four or five, and even in that short span of time he looked like he had grown older. A new woman, this time much closer to his age, who had greeted me at the door when I came to the house.

“So, you’re never actually in the office? Who is looking after the business?” he asked, in a sharp accusatory voice.

“I am. I give the business side of things my equal attention,” I said, taking a sip of the drink in my hand.

My father’s blue gaze skewered me; he was extremely displeased. “But you can’t give up the engineering, is that it? You have all this wealth, the success of the company depends on you, and yet you have to pretend like you’re some kind of blue-collar working-class man,” he said, sticking his nose up in the air and looking away from me.

I shook my head and smiled into my glass. I knew exactly what he was going to say next.

“It’s because of that Bonnie Calhoun. She’s the one who’s gotten you involved in all this,” he said.

I met his eyes, arching an eyebrow. “You’re right, Father. She’s the one who gave me the strength and inspiration to pursue my passion. I couldn’t have done it without her.” I knew that the smile on my face bothered him. He jerked his head away from me again, and this time I nearly laughed.

“So, you’re still cohabiting with her?” he asked, looking up at another one of our ancestor’s portrait. It was like he was praying to the regal old man with his eyes closed. I couldn’t believe I had been so afraid of this man in my childhood. That I had allowed him to affect my life this much.

“Yes, I live with Bonnie. She’s my girlfriend,” I said, placing the empty glass back down on the coffee table in front of me.

“You better watch out, son. Women like her, they’re only ever after our money. She lost her company and now thinks she can just milk the loss out of you,” he said.

My temples throbbed. This was why I’d stayed away from him for so long, because I couldn’t bear to hear him be nasty to Bonnie.

“She doesn’t need my money, Father, and she’s not after yours either. She’s managed just fine without it for twenty-eight years. And she isn’t like the women you cohabit with either. Luckily for me, I have better taste,” I said and stood up.

Father looked up at me, visibly offended by what I’d said. “I worked hard for this company, son. As did my father. We came to this country to establish an empire and we did. And now my own son is going to run it to the ground. I should never have asked you to take my place. I should never have signed it over to you,” he thundered, his voice choking in a fit of coughs. He was getting old and frail, and I felt a pang of guilt for not sympathizing with him.

I clenched my jaws and pushed my hands into my pockets, giving him a few moments to compose himself. If he hadn’t been such an asshole to me all my life, I might even have felt a little sorry for him. But I couldn’t, not after all the ways he had found to make me feel like I was never good enough. The truth was that he wasn’t good enough. At least not a good enough father.

“You didn’t ask me to take your place; you forced me to. You emotionally blackmailed me into giving my career up to run this business. And now you can’t trust me to run it well. It’s mine now anyway, Father, and I can do with it as I please,” I said and, without waiting for a response, I walked away from him, toward the door of his living room.

“You were fine before you met her!” he cried from behind me, and I forced myself to not turn around.

No, I wasn’t fine before I met Bonnie. My father didn’t know how I had felt all my life. He didn’t know how everything had changed when I met her in college. How I strove to impress her, how I studied hard so she would have some reason to look at me, even if it was to pass me a look of contempt. My father had no clue how my life had changed after Bonnie moved in with me.

I didn’t need the approval of my family anymore. I didn’t need to sleep with faceless countless women to numb the feeling of insecurity I constantly felt.

Now that I had Bonnie in my life, I was a satisfied man. I was free to live the way I always wanted to, and I had her by my side.