My doorbell rang. For a wild second, I thought it might be Shelby. That she had been feeling the same way I was and had come to find me, to tell me she couldn’t stand to be apart from me either.
I had an app on my phone that showed me who was at my front door and I pulled it up with trembling fingers. If this was someone selling solar panels, I was going to run them off with very little manners.
The image came up on my phone and my spirits sank. It was so much worse than someone trying to make me spend money I didn’t want to spend. It was my fucking father.
I marched down the hall to the door and flung it open, letting all the years of anger and resentment show on my face. I didn’t need to play nice with him anymore. Not after everything I had done for him and the way he had treated me. Not after how he had treated other people when he ran Allory.
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here like this,” I told him.
“I’m not here for a fight,” he said, looking old and more tired than I could ever remember seeing him.
“That would be a first.” I crossed my arms over my chest, not inviting him inside.
“Yes, and today was the first time you quit and blackmailed your father all in one board meeting.” He laughed dryly. “To be honest, I’ve never respected you more.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, not trusting him. “You’re not mad at me?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Yeah, because that’s how normal people process emotions.” I shook my head bitterly.
“I mean I haven’t decided if I’m angry. I want to understand what you’re doing first. On the surface, it appears you’ve had a mental break, perhaps as a result of some kind of Kentucky mule parasite, but on the off chance you’re still the rational and level-headed son I’ve come to know over the years, I was hoping you might talk to me and explain what’s going on.”
His expression showed no signs of deception. There was no indication he was waiting to spring some kind of trap on me. I stepped to the side and gestured for him to come in. He did, and it occurred to me I couldn’t remember the last time he had come over to my house. I had often been summoned to his obscenely large home, but he never graced me with his presence here. Ijust hadn’t noticed because I had never wanted him here. His company hadn’t been wanted or missed.
It was just another sign there wasn’t anything here for me in Los Angeles. Leaving the city wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice at all, now that I thought about it. And the pot of gold waiting for me at the end of the rainbow in Kentucky would make any sacrifice worthwhile.
My father came into the kitchen with me. I didn’t offer him a drink. “If you have something to say,” I told him. “Just say it. I have a plane to catch soon and I’m not missing it.”
“So you’re leaving?” he asked.
“I am, and I don’t think I’ll be coming back around too much,” I said.
“What the hell happened in Kentucky, son?”
“I fell in love.”
The simple statement hung in the air between us, and I waited for my father to process the information.
As usual, he reacted poorly. “I don’t believe you.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Lucky for me, I don’t care what you believe. I’m done with you and I’m done with the company.”
“I can’t believe you’re just going to walk away, just like that,” he said. “This must be some woman to make you turn your back on everything you care about.”
“That’s just it, Dad, I don’t care about any of this.” I ran my hand through my hair, frustrated. “I joined the company because you insisted. I did everything you told me to do, and it never made you happy. It was never enough to earn your approval, and the big joke is that I have no idea why I ever wanted your approval in the first place.”
“It’s the family business, son,” he said. “I built it up so that you could take over one day. And now you’re just quitting?”
“You say you wanted me to take over, but that’s never been true, has it?”
“I stepped down as CEO,” he said defensively.
“And yet you’re still running things from your seat on the board. I’ve been trying to take the company in a better direction and it feels like every time I make any progress, you step back in and steer us back to doing things your way. Which is the shitty way, to be clear.”
“The shitty way, as you call it, had made us very rich men,” he said, shrugging. “I won’t apologize for being successful.”
“I think the fundamental problem is that you and I see success very differently. You think money is the ultimate measure of a man, and I think all the money in the world is pointless if you’re still a miserable old bastard like you.”
