“I need to tell you something…” He trailed off and scrubbed a hand across his scruffy jaw. “I don’t even know how to tell you-”
“Get to the point,” Will gruffly interrupted.
My dad seemed shocked to hear his voice, as if he hadn’t noticed Will was in the room in the first place. This was only the second time they had been in the same room for two decades, but the first time Will had spoken to him.
My dad took a steadying breath and rested his palms on the table. “It was me.” His voice was just above a whisper, but the words cut like knives.
I closed my eyes, wanting to hold back the tears. “You killed him?”
“Yes.” I opened my eyes again at his admission. My dad was holding back tears of his own. “It was all me. I… I was in a lot of trouble. I was trying to build a better company, a biggercompany than this one. I wanted to do more and be more. But it failed.” He laughed without humor, “I lost everything.”
“It was just money,” I interrupted, utterly disgusted.
My dad shook his head, “No, it was more. I lost everything. I lost your mom. I lost you two. I lost who I was in the pursuit of greatness. When the company failed… it meant none of it had been worthwhile. The sacrifices I had made amounted to nothing.”
“You sacrificed your own children,” I argued. “You have no one to blame but yourself.”
My dad nodded in agreement, “I know. I didn’t understand that at first. I was floundering, and I wanted to fix it. I thought if I could dig this new company out of the hole, what I lost wouldn’t matter. I panicked. I-I thought if I ruined your chances at running this company…” He swallowed hard, pained by hearing his own words, his own actions, “I thought I could make back the funds.”
“We know,” Will interrupted. “We figured it out months ago.”
My dad was surprised, “I should have expected that. You two were always so smart. Your mom raised you both so well…”
“So the notes? The kidnapping attempt? The rumors to the media about Rome, about me? Was it all an attempt to make me fail?” I asked, interrupting, needing to hear the truth from his own mouth.
“Yes,” my dad explained. “None of it was my idea, but I approved it. Paid for it. Facilitated it all.”
Will looked perplexed by the statement, but I kept questioning my dad.
“So you… killed,” the word came out strangled, “Rome? To what? To make me unstable?”
My dad sighed, “I was desperate. In business, you have to make sacrifices…”
“He was a person!” I shouted. “He was worth so much more than to be sacrificed for your greatness! For your money! Is money really more important to you than a person’s life?”
“He wasn’t supposed to die!” My dad exclaimed. He took a steadying breath, quieting his tone. “He wasn’t supposed to die. I shot him in the shoulder. It was just supposed to scare him and scare you. I saw how you looked at him, Rebecca. You loved him more than anything—more than this company. I thought… I thought that ifhewere the one in danger, you would finally act. I started with you, but you did nothing. You didn’t even seem to care; you just worked harder. I thought if the person you cared for the most were the target, you would maybe even resign. It wasn’t supposed to kill him.”
“It was an accident?” I asked in shock.
My dad nodded.
“Wait,” Will interrupted, “you said none of this was your idea?” My dad nodded, and thus Will continued, “Whose was it?”
My dad swallowed and looked at me with guilty eyes. “I tried to warn you… she was too easily swayed.”
I thought over his words, trying to understand the clue, when it hit me. He had always commented that Andi could be swayed by the wind. It was his own warning. “Andi?” I choked.
My dad nodded, “She’s worked for you for so long, I figured she would know best on how to shake you.”
My hand covered my mouth as I thought over the last few months. I hadn’t noticed anything different about her. She was still the Andi I had always known… I had always trusted. But now I could see the inconsistencies. The bear spray that went missing from my purse, and the incorrect car being called when I was taken. The notes weren’t just coming from someone internal; they were coming from her. It’s why she hated the new bodyguards Rome had hired. They had gotten in her way. She nolonger had as much access to my life, which could explain why she went after Rome.
“Was it her idea to hurt Rome?” I asked through clenched teeth.
My dad nodded, “All of it was.”
“How did you convince her?” Will asked.
My dad shrugged, “It was easy, honestly. Too easy.”
