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Bitter anger shot through my veins like poison, my muscles tensing to lock up, but I forced myself to push away from the door and woodenly accepted the drink. I tossed back half of it in one long swallow before I met his gaze.
“Given the welcome I just got, I know this is about Dad,” I spat quietly. “Just tell me. When is he getting out?”
Colin didn’t deny it. He took another long sip of his own drink before he sat down on the chair behind his desk and motioned me into the one across from him. “Sit down, Holden.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to.”
His eyes moved slowly from one of mine to the other, but he nodded and smoothed his tie before finally setting the glass down. “I know this is a sore subject for you, but we really do need to talk about him.”
“I’d really rather not.” I held his gaze. Court Thayer had never been a positive influence in either of our lives. First, he’d been the demanding, exacting, yet unreachable patriarch. Then he’d become the architect of our ruin. “Say what you need to say, but don’t expect me to be happy or to contribute to the conversation in any way.”
“Fine. Here it is. The board finalized the logistics this morning,” he said in the same tone he used to defuse any crisis before it started. “Thanks to our legal team, the paperwork is being expedited. We still don’t have an exact date, but it’ll be a matter of weeks now.”
Sharp pain radiated through my jaw from how hard I clenched my teeth. “That’s a matter for the state, not me. If they want to release him early, it’s their problem.”
“No, it’s not,” he countered gently. “The terms of his probation are incredibly strict. Moves are being made for his immediate release back into society, but the courts require an ironclad transition plan. That’s why we don’t have a date yet. Until we can present an acceptable plan, there will be no release.”
“I say we let him rot.”
Colin eyes closed for a brief moment. Then he picked his drink back up and took another long sip. Once he’d swallowed it, he finally looked at me again. “It’s either a state-sanctioned halfway house downtown or a privately funded residence that will be Jane’s and my responsibility to secure and monitor for at least the next three to five years. We can’t just let him float, Holden. The press will have a field day if a Thayer ends up in a municipal shelter.”
“Then let them have their field day,” I snapped. “Put him in the halfway house. Let him see what bankruptcy actually feels like. A little dose of reality might do his character some good.”
Colin slowly shook his head, the gravity in his expression suddenly making it hard to breathe. “I went to see him last week.”
“Good for you.”
He ignored the jab, carrying on like I hadn’t said anything at all. “I spoke to him for nearly an hour. He asked about you, you know. Specifically. He wanted to know how you were doing at school.”
“How I’m doing at…” I scoffed down a dry, bitter laugh, feeling my old, destructive mindset returning in full force as I shook my head. “He has no right to know that or anything else about me.”
Everything that had been warm, good, or peaceful about my life sank into the dark wave rising up from deep inside. It felt like my father was reaching out from his cell, his shadow stretching across the distance to brush against the edges of my life, and even though I knew it was an illusion, I could almost feel the invisible strings pulling tight.
Right then and there, I decided against mentioning the possibility of coming back to work at Thayer, even for a free work-study placement that would count toward my school credits. My pulse slammed against my veins, my blood pressure soaring when it turned out that the rest of the reason my brother had called me in here was even worse.
“Dad also suggested to Jane and me that once he’s settled into whatever residence we find for him, he’s going to have a massive amount of time on his hands. He’d like to act as an external consultant for the company.”
A cold sweat broke out across the back of my neck. Despite the disastrous financial crimes that had landed him in prison, unfortunately, Dad was a corporate genius. Before him, Thayer Steelworks had spent several generations operating as a quiet, old-money, Gilded Era stalwart with very little modern growth.
As soon as he’d taken over, he’d started building it into the absolute powerhouse of an empire it was today. Of course, he’d also driven it almost all the way into the ground, but before that, he’d known the market better than anyone alive.
If he stepped back into the architecture of the company, even as an advisor, he would methodically claw his way back to the head of the table. “He’s a felon, Colin. He’d be on parole. Legally, he can’t hold position with us.”
“An advisory role doesn’t require a board vote, Holden,” Colin said quietly. “He also wouldn’t have access to anything even remotely related to our finances and he’s wholeheartedly accepted that. Hell, he was even the one who brought it up.”
I snorted. “Of course, he did. The man isn’t stupid, Colin. He knew you’d both shut him right down if you thought he was going to so much as look at the money. He’s manipulating you.”
“Perhaps, but Jane is considering it. She thinks it might keep him occupied and out of the public eye.”
“Then Jane is as naive as you.” I swigged down the rest of my whiskey and set the glass down on his desk with a loud thud. “If you two want to entertain the man, then have fun, but leave me the fuck out of it.”
Colin’s brow furrowed as he watched me back toward the door. “You’re leaving already? What about the email you sent this morning about the work-study application for your thesis? I have the approval forms right here. We can get you set up in the analytics department by Monday.”
“I got ahead of myself,” I lied. “I need more time. Don’t sign anything. In fact, delete the email and shred the papers.”
Before he could ask why, I pulled the door open and marched out of the office, in a terrible fucking mood as I left the building. Whatever happiness I might’ve thought I was feeling before had been yanked away, just like I’d known it would.
This always happened. Just when I’d think that maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel, my father would do something. It was as good as feeling an icy, supernatural hand at my collar, yanking me back into the abyss.
