Page 126 of Tanner

With the utmost reluctance, Austin grabs the drink and places it on the desk. Father lifts it and has a sip. His eyes are fixed on the liquid as he swishes it around the glass, and then he looks up to us, his three sons glaring down at him, standing in a semicircle around his desk, waiting for our answers.

“She started blackmailing me the first time I tried to break it off with her. It’d started out casual. She was in high school, for Christ’s sake. As she got older, she became more available. Needier. I called it off, and she showed up at the office with the photos and videos, threatening to press charges. I figured, what the hell? I’m already in this deep.”

His thoughts trail off as he takes another sip.

He continues, “The relationship was good. I spoiled her with fancy things, and she spoiled me by … well, you know what. The problem was, she got greedy. She wanted me to leave your mom. I told her no. Marina was my wife. We had a good marriage—”

Austin mock laughs in disgust.

Father points his finger at him. “It was good. Until it wasn’t,” he explains. Austin looks away as Father sits back in his chair and says, “Your mother was obsessed with this business. She thrived on the success and was adamant that she needed to create it for you boys. Her parents had fucked her up that way. They didn’t care about her and left her with nothing. It ruined our marriage. This company ruined us.”

“It made you.” Bryce slams a finger on the desk. “You were nothing, and she gave this to you, so you could be the great and powerful newspaper magnate Edward Sexton.”

“She didn’t give me shit. The business was in her name alone. I begged her to give me half, but she refused. When we drew up her will, she wouldn’t even leave it to me after death. Said her boys should be part of it. It was Missy’s idea to put in that clause about the arrests. She said it was my insurance policy should I ever need to keep you boys in check,” he says.

Austin speaks up, “All that bullshit about Mom wanting us to ride the straight and narrow—”

“Was bullshit,” Father states with a wave of his glass.

I do a double take. “You were planning to take the company from us before it was even ours.”

“I needed to know I had a way to keep you kids in check. Austin was always a hothead, and, Tanner, there was no way of knowing what kind of man you’d become. I wanted to make sure you didn’t squander your fortune,” he says.

“You’re the one who is trying to sell it!” A vein is popping out of Bryce’s throat.

“Missy wants to sell it. She blackmailed me into giving her the shares and is blackmailing me into selling the company. She blackmailed me into loosening those fucking bolts off that tire!”

His admission silences the room.

Father’s jaw trembles as he takes the last sip of his scotch. Liquid falls down his chin, and he doesn’t bother to wipe it off.

“You loosened the bolts on the tire?” I ask with a shaky breath.

Father looks up in fright. His widened eyes look at each of us, and then he curses before pinching his mouth tight and throwing the empty glass across the room. It shatters against a canvas painting of Missy.

“You’re an absolute piece of shit,” Austin yells.

“I didn’t want to do it.” He tries to defend himself. “It was all Missy. You saw the pictures. The videos were enough to send me to jail for twenty years. I can’t go to prison. It was follow through or risk losing everything.”

“I was supposed to be with her that day!” Austin leaps for our father.

Bryce and I hold him back. He’s like a rabid dog.

“For years, you tortured me with the fact that Mom was going to that appointment because I hadn’t done what I was supposed to do. You wanted to kill me, too!” His body goes slack as the hurt fills his muscles.

Bryce places a protective arm around his back.

Father shakes his head. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d thought you were going to be in the car. That was an unfortunate coincidence.”

“There was no deer.” Bryce looks for our father’s confirmation. “We saw the photos from the accident. We know the bolts were messed with. Why didn’t the detectives see it?”

He gives a simple explanation. “I paid them off.”

In twenty-four hours, my life has changed dramatically. A day ago, I had a family I knew was riddled with drama, but I could deal with it. They were mine, and I accepted them as they were.

That’s the funny thing about families. You accept their flaws in a way you wouldn’t with your friends. You make excuses for them and hide the secrets.

Here I am, in a home that is so far from the one I was raised in, standing in front of a man who is far from the one who raised me. He’s a shell of himself. I used to look up to the man who placed my mom on a pedestal.