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He grunts, releasing me and taking a step backward. His eyes find mine, and he jerks his chin up in the air. “The group we’ve been dealing with?” he asks.
“Yup. They have reared their ugly heads, and Samson is taking a percentage,” I murmur.
“Fuck,” he hisses. “But you’ll figure it all out, my genius son.”
“I’m going to try,” I say with a smile.
I don’t tell him that I’ve asked for both Coleman and Wells’s help. I’ll tell him after we get everything figured out and hand him the report. He’ll love that shit, his three kids working together. Although right now, I don’t think he would be happy about it since I’m pulling them away from their own work.
When my parents leave, I decide not to run out of the condo and go in search of Allison, which had been my original mission. Instead, I head back to my office, and when I sink down, I realize that my parents came here today not just to give me the house but to make sure I ate something.
They’ve probably been worried, considering when I’m holed up in my office, I don’t eat. Then a thought pops into my head. Allison and my mother. I have to know what’s been said about me. What’s been said, period. I need to know where she’s at, and I’m fucking aching for any piece of her, even if it’s in writing.
Grabbing my keys again, I set off on another mission. It doesn’t take me long to get to the back of my mother’s building. And it takes me even less time to jam her security cameras and make my way into the building, up the elevator, and into her office.
Searching through her filing cabinet, I find Allison’s notebook. My heart is racing as I sit down in my mother’s chair and crack open the book. There it is, Allison’s name. Below that is some stuff that is all psychological babble, but then there’s something that causes me to pause.
Allison is clearly upset but afraid to talk to me about Hendrick. Allison feels guilty. This is important. She is feeling guilty about the child, about everything she says, although she is not quite opening up. In a few sessions, I believe I will have the truth.
I should not feel sorry for her. She is not Hendrick’s prize. However, I can see she is clearly upset. She appears as if she isn’t sleeping. And there’s the fact that I know Hendrick holds strong affection for her.
Are they soul mates? Twin flames? Star-crossed lovers?
Will they find their way to one another, or will Hendrick do his duty? Will Allison do what she’s agreed to?
Time will tell, and I will document what I can in the meantime.
My mother is looking at this situation from a scientific point of view, and that pisses me right the fuck off. She’s not usually like that, but it’s clear she’s trying not to invest her feelings in this, so she’s going to make a work experiment thing out of it.
Fuck.
Fucking shit.
Closing the notebook, I lean back in the chair and look up at the ceiling. I don’t know what to do. My mother is trying to disconnect herself, which is what I should be doing, but I can’t, because I still love Allison, no matter what the circumstances are.
Fucking shit.
ALLISON
Brenda has asked me to come in again, but I don’t want to. However, that’s exactly where I find myself, sitting directly across from her. She arches a brow as she looks across the room from her book to me, waiting for me to say something.
“I really feel much better now,” I state. “I’ve hired help at the shop, and she’ll be starting after her honeymoon. I have decided that wallowing in self-pity is stupid and to just enjoy the life I have instead of wondering what could have been.”
None of that is a lie.
Not a single word.
She nods, her gaze flicking down to the notebook to scribble something in it, then she lifts her gaze to meet mine. “This is quite a change of perspective in just a few days. Did something happen?”
I don’t tell her that I almost ran away again, that I felt so desperate and depressed that I wanted to, then curled up into a ball and cried my eyes out. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, I’m going to fake it until I make it. Although I don’t think that’s how that saying goes, for me, it’s applicable.
“I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and my situation. I can’t change my life, so I’m going to embrace it.”
She dips her chin, scribbling some more shit down. Then, only after a discussion about my baby and the plans for the shop does she let me go. It’s a far cry from the hours I spent in her office the last time, but I take it and run with it.
Leaving her building, I step out onto the sidewalk, the warmth of the Dallas sun instantly beating down on me, and I smile. It’s a fake smile, but it’s a smile, and I’m going to try and get on with my life because it’s clear to me that Hendrick is going to be doing that. Plus, I took the money to move on—so move on, I will.
At least I tell myself that’s what I’ll do.
