“Yes.”
“I can never decide if I like that man.”
“It’s not true, right?”
“It is true.”
“Do you realize what that could’ve cost us?”
“I calculated the risks very thoroughly. I did what’s best for you.”
“And Dad continuing to go unchallenged is best for me?”
“Being the CEO of Green is everything I never wanted you to have. You told me on your sixth, seventh, eighth birthday, your sixteenth birthday, yourtwenty-thirdbirthday, that taking over your father’s company was your idea of hell.”
“Until it became a survival decision. One I would make again and again, a hundred times over.”
“I did what I thought best for my son.”
“But you could’ve consulted me.”
She turns back to the towels, away from me. Away from the discussion. Guilt rolls in, blanketing my anger.
“Maman.”
“Laisse-moi tranquille.”
A small voice filters in from the kitchen. “I’m bloody starving.”
Our laughter shatters the tension. “Where does she pick up these things?”
“Ophelia might be responsible for that one.”
I wrap my mom in a hug, inhaling the scent of the perfume she’s worn for as long as I can remember. “I’m sorry.”
“I just want what’s best for you, Alex. And I didn’t think that was Green.”
I grab the cereal box and pour two bowls, pulling out a stool to sit beside my littlest sister, who is getting alarmingly un-little. “Cerealafterbedtime. Don’t you ever say I’m not good to you.”
“This should be every day.”
“So, you’re not too sure about Scotland, huh?”
“Well … I have a thousand million billion questions.”
“Oh my god. We’re gonna need more cereal.”
She giggles, leaning her head against my arm, asking me questions until past midnight.
ALL THREE GUARDSare stony faced as the middle one wheels my father into the visitation room at a high-security correctional facility upstate. I quash the myriad emotions that bubble up my throat, fighting hard to meet him eye to eye.
I can’t believe he’s alive. That he lived yet my mother’s time is running out.
“Cain,” I say, as the guard kicks the brake on the chair and steps back.
He looks pale. Tired. His frosty blue eyes are dull, hair fading to silver.
“Alex. I didn’t think you’d visit.” He looks almost hopeful, like I might’ve forgiven him. Better extinguish those hopes quickly.
