AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After a long silence, I laugh weakly and slide down the truck until I’m sitting on the concrete with my head in my hands. My brain is too short-circuited from almost drowning to have a filter. “Why the hell wouldn’t you just hire an actor or a model or some kind of escort?”
“If I chose someone who had a social media presence, the lie wouldn’t last an hour.”
“So the next logical choice is a random guy off the street whose name you don’t even know? Goddamn.”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“Huh?” I blink. That word came to me out of nowhere when I was in the pool, three heartbeats from inhaling water. It felt important, like I had just discovered the key to a mystery I've been trying to solve my whole life. Now that I’m not high on death, I don’t know. But hearing it a second time in less than thirty minutes shakes me up a little. “Not really,” I lie.
When Werner doesn’t answer, I look up. He’s studying me appraisingly, lips pressed together. “My advisor and legal counsel, Gray Freeman, has been responsible for keeping an eye on Victor since the scandal. Besides Gray and a stream of anonymous male escorts with cocaine crusted around their nostrils, my son has refused to see or speak to anyone in six years. Until today.”
I run a hand through my hair, staring up at him. “He didn’t have any problem talking to me.”
Oh.
He looks at the trading card in my hand. “Victor has always done exactly as he pleases, and no one on this earth can tell him otherwise. Except you, apparently.”
“I took this by force.”
His lips twitch. “If he had wanted to keep it from you, you wouldn’t have it right now.” After letting that sink in, he continues. “Given his appearance, the state of this house, he’s incapable of managing his own life. Marketing optics aside, this weekend is going to be his first public outing in half a decade, and it will go better for everyone if he has someone who can…stabilize him.”
It feels wrong for a dad to talk that way about his son. But I’ve never had a son—or a dad. Maybe this is how it works. Getting to my feet, I study the front of the mansion, all the big windows blanked out with some kind of protective coating, reflecting the slate-colored clouds. “I don’t care who he talks to or doesn’t, with all due respect. He’s never going to listen to me.”
“I just think it’s interesting that you showed up here this morning, of all places on all days.” He shrugs. “Take your time.”
“I don’t—”
He shuts me up with an impatient shake of his head. “Sleep on it. And if you decide no, shred the check and we’ll find another way to control him. By the way, I’m sure you know how painful it would be for you if you tell anyone about what you’ve heard from me.”
The Bentley’s paint gleams as he climbs in and drives away. As I fold the check into my wallet and drop the pen in the truck cup holder, I imagine paying off the last of Mom’s medical debts and saving up for the around-the-world vacation I promised we’d take before she’s too far gone to remember it.
I feel eyes on my back, but when I turn around there’s just the mansion, the lake, the empty yard. He’s in there, somewhere in the grime and the silence, watching like a ghost in a haunted house.
