“It does, but I didn’t ask you to come here today to talk about Garrick. We need to talk about Dad and how he’s blackmailing me into working for the business.”
“Finally,” Sarah says, clasping her hands in her lap.
“What do you meanfinally?” Esther asks, looking thoroughly confused as her gaze bounces between her older siblings.
“You wouldn’t have noticed because you’re younger and you’re not at the office, but Beck is fucking miserable working for dad.”
“You knew?” Shock filters through my words.
“I have eyes. I know you hate your job, but I know nothing about blackmail. What has the asshole done?”
I fill them in on how Dad’s been holding their trust funds and their futures over my head as a way of forcing me to do his bidding.
“That fucking bastard,” Esther seethes, clenching her hands into fists. “How dare he use me to make you do something against your will.” She leans forward, resting her hands on her knees. “I hate that you’ve been dealing with this for years. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Sarah snorts. “That part is obvious.” Her features soften. “Beck has a savior complex, and he’s always been overly protective of us.”
Emotion floods Esther’s eyes. “Because of Mom.”
“What happened to Mom was not your fault, Beck.” Sarah drills me with a look. “You couldn’t have saved her. You were only a kid, and you’ve punished yourself enough.”
“Does Stevie know?” Esther asks, and I shake my head.
“She has enough on her plate without me adding to it.” Ironically, I was planning on telling her, and then she found her father’s family, and she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her, and I don’t want to bring up my depressing story and have her worrying about me.
“Tell her,” Sarah says. “You have carried it with you long enough.”
“Therapy is helping, and I will tell her when the time is right.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever properly thanked you,” Esther says. “I was so little when Mom died, and I barely remember her.”
“I hate that for you,” I croak.
“Me too,” she whispers, and sadness seeps from her pores. “But I remember you stepping into that parental role and ensuring I wanted for nothing. It wasn’t Nanny Claudia who raised me. It was you.” Tears pool in her eyes. “You were always so protective, so patient, so kind.”
“You’re the best big brother,” Sarah agrees. “You couldn’t have done more for us.”
“It ends now.” Esther straightens up and steely determination glints in her eyes. “Father has preyed on your vulnerability for the last time.”
“He knows how protective you are of us, and he played you perfectly,” Sarah says.
“He will probably cut you both off to spite me.” I rub at the tight pain spreading across my chest. “But I’ll make sure you’re looked after. With full-time dedication to my writing, I’m sure I can make enough to support us, and we have our inheritances from Mom, and I got my full trust fund. We can make it work.”
Sarah turns to look at Esther. “Will you tell him, or shall I?”
Esther glues her gaze to mine. “We’re grown women, Beck. It is not your place to support us, and I will not take a single penny from you.”
“Nor I,” Sarah says, tossing waves of dark-blonde hair over her shoulders. “And it won’t be necessary. By the time I’m finished with Father, he’ll be kneeling at all of our feet.”
A look of glee appears on Esther’s face, and she rubs her hands together. “You have a plan. I knew you would! What are you going to do?”
“We”—Sarah enunciates the word as her gaze skitters between us—“are going to teach that manipulative dick a valuable life lesson.”
“How?” Anxiety churns in my gut at the thought of Dad calling our bluff, changing the terms of my sisters’ trust funds, and cutting them off. It’s always been my biggest fear.
“Think of this logically, Beck. If you’d done that at the start, you would never have let Dad manipulate you. He won’t ostracize his three children as that would leave him without any heir. Think of how it would look. He won’t risk that.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. He’s a stubborn old goat.”
