Sebastian
The second day was harder than the first.
I had barely dozed all night. For a moment, I thought it had all been a bad dream. Then it hit me. Alfie wasn’t coming back.
I swung my feet out of bed and padded down the hall to his bedroom. I sat on his bed, which had a Star Wars comforter. Little bits of artwork and collages he had made hung on the wall. It was messy, but it was him.
“I’m not going to survive this.”
* * *
I didn’t eat breakfast.I couldn’t. I hadn’t eaten anything since the sandwich Hunter had force-fed me the previous night. I was spaced out when I walked into my office. I robotically answered my emails and attended the day’s meetings.
Hunter was right. I needed to start appealing the ruling. But it all felt so hopeless. I didn’t have the energy.
“You want me to bring you lunch?” my secretary asked me in concern after my eleven o’clock meeting.
“No, thanks,” I said, waving her away. “I’m not hungry.”
I closed the door and locked it. Then I sat at my desk, staring at the computer screen. I didn’t accomplish anything except worrying about how Alfie was doing. Was he eating?
There was furious knocking at the glass door. Hunter was standing there, banging his fist on the glass.
“Go away!” I told him.
“Dude, get your shit,” he yelled through the glass.
I didn’t have the patience to deal with him, but the Svenssons were relentless. I sighed and opened the door. Hunter grabbed my suit jacket hanging on the coat rack and threw it at me.
“Get yourself together,” he said, pulling out a comb and running it through my hair.
I tried to shove him off.
“You have your ID? Good. Good.” He rubbed his hands together.
“What is it?”
“A miracle, my friend. Eric just called me. Harrington Thurlow told them to come down to the judge’s chambers to discuss the case.”
“What? Why?”
“Not sure. My brother sounded cagey over the phone. They may have threatened your father with bodily injury. Who knows,” he said cheerfully. “I got ahold of Crawford, but he just laughed at me when I asked then hung up.”
We headed down to the lobby.
“Do you think it’s good news?” I asked, not daring to hope.
“Maybe it’s visitation,” Hunter said. “They probably want a free babysitter.”
* * *
I wasn’thopeful as Hunter sped to Manhattan. He seemed to think we were about to be handed a win, but I knew my father. He was probably using the opportunity to gloat.
Though I had felt sick in the car ride over, as we walked through the lobby of the courthouse and were escorted down the hallway to the judge’s chambers, the dread was replaced by anger.
How dare my father do this to me?I was going to get payback. I was going straight to Svensson Investment after the little chain jerking my father was engaging in.
The Svenssons knew how to play dirty. I was going to start with bribing my father’s former students, who I knew couldn’t be landing high-paying jobs with their antiquity degrees, to tell their stories of his sexual harassment. Then I would sue the university and have my father fired and his reputation ruined. Then I was going to take down whatever company had been stupid enough to hire Tatiana. I would drive both of them into the ground with lawsuits and make them regret that they had ever fucked with me.
