“I can’t leave her, Liv. She’s my everything now.”
“I had my everything once, and I left him behind. It’s your turn. Focus on the plan, Gabe. You’ll be twenty-eight in three months, then it’s only four years and you can find her again. You’ll be a billionaire and CEO of what’s left of our father’s dynasty after we send it crumbling to the ground. Our chance to rebuild it the way Mama would have wanted and in her name. Remember why we started this.”
She disconnected, and the silence was deafening.
I continued my walk around the pond, debating what to do. Coming clean to Tori made the most sense. This had gotten out of hand. I’d gotten caught up in her excitement and the thrill of knowing she would be mine forever. The wedding was in two months; she’d sent the invitations and bought her dress. All the while I’d justified it, telling myself I could give up the inheritance, the vengeance, the work I’d done for the last eleven years of my life. But I couldn’t.
My father had leashed me, just as he had my entire life. No matter how many secret businesses Liv and I had built, no matter the fortune we had amassed and stashed in secret offshore accounts, no matter how many companies we’d swallowed under our umbrella, I would always be under his finger. Only when I could walk into that conference room and watch him sell off the last piece of his dynasty, see his expression when he realized it was his children who had pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy would I ever be free of him.
My phone rang again, and dread strangled me. No one else called me. Liv was it. My friends knew to text. With hesitation, I pulled it from my pocket, my fear validated when I saw my father’s name.
As if the dashing of my happy ending hadn’t already ruined my day. I was clinging to the thought that if I confessed everything to Tori, she would forgive me and stay with me until I could give her the wedding I’d promised. That if I walked back into that apartment and told her the truth, she would willingly wait for me. I stared at the phone, each ring like a sledgehammer to that last piece of hope.
“Father,” I answered.
“William.” I hated that name. The reminder that I would always be his son, his namesake.
“I’m in the middle of something.”
“No, you’re not. You’re walking around the pond of your apartment complex.”
My eyes flew up, looking for the source of his information but not finding it.
“Correction, your girlfriend’s apartment. You’ve been busy down there, William. Maybe you can explain why my men saw her taking a wedding dress home today?”
Ire surged in my veins. “Are you having her followed?”
“Of course, I am. Now answer the fucking question.”
My teeth gnashed as my mind searched for the correct answer, Liv’s confession halting any admission.
“Awfully quiet now, aren’t you? Always quick to come back at me, yet you have nothing because you’ve broken my rule.”
I scraped my hand down my face as he continued.
“Almost broken. I want you home. No more playing around in Florida. I expect you in my office on Monday morning.”
“Are you delusional? I can’t do that, and that wasn’t the agreement. My time at the firm isn’t over.”
“You broke the agreement when you proposed to that girl.”
“She’s not a girl,” I snapped.
“It doesn’t matter. You know the rules. No attachments. The company is your focus.”
“I’m not doing anything that jeopardizes your precious company, Father.”
“Love, attachments, relationships. They jeopardize everything I have built and everything you will inherit from me. You are my heir, William. That comes with expectations.”
“Your expectations.”
“Exactly. The only way you can run this company is by remaining cold, calculated, and unattached. I realized too late that your mother was a weakness. I won’t let the same thing happen to you. Get your ass home.”
“Mother was a weakness?” I wanted to reach through the phone and punch him. My hatred for him continued to grow every time he opened his mouth.
“Yes. All women are.”
“God, you’re a prick.”
