“A present.” I offer him a cunning smile.
He hesitates for a moment, looks at me skeptically, then grabs the envelope and begins pulling out photos.
“I guess old habits are hard to break. How does wife number three feel about that?” I pretend to think as his face turns pale. “Oh. She doesn’t know, does she?”
My father’s sight is set on the photos of him and his bikini-clad twenty-year-old intern, who is a board member’s daughter, in a compromising position on a beach in the Bahamas.
“Really failed on discretion there. Then again, you prefer indiscretions, right?”
He zooms his gaze to me, and he isn’t impressed with today’s antics. His jaw tightens, and his silence says a thousand words because he doesn’t have the upper hand, but a concerning-to-me sly smirk forms on his face.
“Pot kettle, no?You’ve done a shitty job of hiding the fact that you’re screwing your assistant.”
My body tightens from a protective instinct that he is dragging Savannah into this, and a bit of anger that he’s trying to compare me to him. I don’t want us to have any resemblance, and deep within, he might have stung me with partial truth. I keep my face unfazed because I don’t want him to see an ounce of unease.
“No need for such language. We might have met while working together, but Savannah and I are more than that. I’m not afraid for the world to find out about Savannah, and I know it’s clearer than ever that we most certainly aren’t afling. Besides, I don’t have a wife that I’m cheating on, let alone sleeping with the daughter of the board member who has a sole interest in making money off a river.”
“The owner of that restaurant, isn’t she related to your girlfriend?” he counters, and it’s evident that he is trying to spin this.
“Not the same. Wanting to preserve a perfectly established location is the opposite of greed.”
“Well, Son, you were not so smart letting your sister use your vote.”
I lift my shoulders, still unnerved. “Unlike you, we live, and we learn. Oomph, I hope that pre-nup of yours is strong.”
“Anything else? Throwing this at me is the oldest trick in the book.” He’s agitated; I’m breaking him down.
“I mean, I would say ensure the deal doesn’t happen and the photos will be burned. One problem with that…” I slip out of my seat and stand, taking pleasure in the fact that I’m towering over him. “The photos were already sent to the board, and yikes, apparently, the investigator found a video of you two. I’d say you might want to call your wife, but that might have already been done.” I hold my hands up in surrender. “That one wasn’t me. You can thank one of the women on the board for reaching out to her in your wife’s time of need. Of course, there is the optics of why you are pushing such deals.” I cluck my tongue. “Yeah, nobody wants to be involved in the mess of an agenda getting pushed, all because of the owner’s shitty behavior. And oops, a few decided even to leave the company because they disapprove of the morals. They’re expecting your resignation as a parting gift.”
My father shuts his eyes, then opens them, his teeth grinding. His downfall all happened in one minute with me.
I set my hands down on the table and stare him straight in the eye. “Getting the rug pulled from under you doesn’t feelso great, does it? This is how it’s going to go. Enjoy your resignation, take whoever the hell you want on a long holiday, and stay the fuck away from Savannah. You so much as go near her, and I’ll find another way to ruin you,” I threaten.
It clicks in a moment of pure protectiveness. Savannah is the only thing that matters. The future is her. She’ll take me back, and one day she’ll be my wife.
I can hang onto a cliff about to fall, holding on to whatever tiny piece I can to stay alive. But I come to the conclusion that I need more stability, something long-standing, strong, and that grips me so hard that I can’t go anywhere. And I don’t want to go anywhere because she is actually someone who gives me all of those things.
It's her.
My dad stifles a chuckle. “You’ll screw up somewhere. Love and marriage are the biggest bullshit they feed us.”
A gruff sound comes from deep in my throat. “I guess you and I are looking at two different menus. Stay away. I don’t ever want to see you or hear from you,” I warn with almost a snarl. Straightening my posture, a tiny smile of gratification forms. “You can keep those. I have copies. We all do.” Smirking, I turn around and walk away.
Knocking that domino down, I need to reach my ending.
30
SAVANNAH
“You don’t have to make that face,” Aunt Bea says gently, not looking up from her mug of coffee as we sit at her kitchen counter. “I know what you’re thinking.” She has a familiar softness in her voice.
I exhale through my nose because I don’t believe that she does. Anger consumes me, and I still wilted into his open arms. Sometimes at night, I touch the pillow next to me, wishing he were there. But then I remember why he’s not.
“I shouldn’t have gotten involved with my boss. I probably blew up my career,”I quietly note.
“That’s not what is really bothering you.” My throat is dry, and I save my words.“Savannah.” She waits for my gaze, and when she receives it, the half-line on her mouth is comforting. “It’s fate. The Riverbell, I’ll remember only great years, including you working there in the summers as a teenager and messing up many orders.” She bubbles a laugh. “But maybe it’s time.”
My chest tightens. “Julian didn’t let fate happen,” I say. “He tried to take the Riverbell away from you. The place with rave reviews because people love it.”
