“And you missed and hit her. So hard she had to be hospitalized for a fractured cheekbone. And you wouldn’t calm down. They sedated you.”
All Axel remembered was hurting his mother, the way his father had too many times. He’d lost control. “And I have never forgotten that. Ever. We left Germany and stayed in the U.S. She made sure I got a dual citizenship but never got one for herself.” He paused. “Because she knew she was going home. I never understood why she wouldn’t stay here. But at least she had her sister and nephews to help. Not you or Father.”
“Yes, she had that.” Maksim put the coffee down, his gaze sober. “Father intends to force you to turn over your shares in the company to him. And Mother’s as well.”
“The fucking shares. Of course. But how will he force me? I don’t give a shit about his money. I don’t want it.”
“But you have it. And unless you do something with the shares at the next shareholders meeting, yours and Mother’s can revert to him. And he can vote me out.”
“Ah, so that’s what this is all about. Keeping a place in the company so you don’t lose it all.”
“Axel, I’m a wealthy man in my own right. The original dealership is mine. But the company isn’t a hundred percent his. Give me yours and Mother’s shares, and I’ll invoke my right to assign subsequent parties to handle them, namely Aunt Hester and Erik. Let them deal with him from now on.”
“You expect me to believe that? That you’ll just turn everything over to them?”
“No, I don’t. But you don’t have the authority. You can only vote the power to me, him, or the minority vote, and they’ll never give everything to anyone but Father.” He sighed. “I want you to think about this. I will see you next week when Father comes. But if you would, keep this between us. I don’t want him to have time to prepare when I take everything he ever cared about.”
Maksim walked to the door and switched to English. “And your girlfriend? Be warned. He’s going to hate her.”
“Fuck him.”
“Is that why you’re with her?”
Axel answered in German, “I’m with her because I love her. Not that I owe you any explanations.”
“Of course not. But I’m happy for you, Little Brother.” Maksim let himself out.
Confused and not knowing what to believe, Axel stared at the back of the door, lost in memories. The feel of his fist hitting his poor mother overwhelming.
“You don’t know what I want,” he yelled at Maksim as they stood on their aunt’s farm on a crisp fall day. The sun shone overhead, and the pigs and chickens made noise as his cousins saw to the feeding. Jannik had spent the weekend in the city, leaving them with their mother, who’d taken them to be with her family farther south. “You and Father always planning my life, trying to order me around. I just want to be with Mother and work on the farm.”
“Well, you can’t. We have responsibilities.” Even at fifteen, Maksim was well aware of the Heller name and all that came with it. “Father says you grow soft around our weak mother. That you—”
“Father says this. Father says that. Maksim, can’t you for once stop being his puppet?” Axel got up in his brother’s face, nearly as tall as the older teenager, and pushed him. “He hurts Mom. Why do you always defend him?”
“He does not.” Maksim shoved him back. “He works hard for us, putting food on the table, doing all he can to support his family. She’s a liar.”
Axel gave an angry laugh. “We have enough support, you idiot. And that’s thanks to Grandmother and Grandfather and you know it! Dad is just a proud asshole who only inherited his money. What has he done to earn it?”
Maksim slugged him.
And it hurt. So he hit back.
The fight turned vicious, as it normally did when Axel grew angry. Even though Maksim tried to pull away, Axel wouldn’t let him.
Their mother found them rolling around outside. “Maksim, no. You know Axel can’t handle his aggression. Son, stop. Both of you. Please.”
Enraged, Axel fought without thought or care. Tired of always being the one everyone dumped on. The stupid brother. The ill-disciplined brother. The disappointment.
He rolled and bit, kicked and punched. And when someone pushed between them, he didn’t distinguish his mother’s body from his brother’s. He struck out.
The crack reverberated down his arm and bruised his hand.
But to the beautiful, thin, almost frail Ilse Heller, he did so much worse. She sailed back to the ground, in a daze, and lay there.
“Mom? Oh no. Mom?” He scrambled to see her, but his brother, and soon his aunt and cousins, pushed him back.
“Axel, what have you done?” Aunt Hester asked.
