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“That boy finally whooped your ass for fucking with his girl,” he spoke, chuckling.
“Now, you of all people know that’s not true. You good, though?”
“Yeah.” He shifted in the bed. “Turns out, I’m not as good as my ego told me I was. The moment Beijing pulled out, I kind of just…my mind couldn’t take it. I didn’t know how you did it.”
“We don’t have to talk about it, Declan. It’s cool. It’s just one mishap. You’ll get over it.”
He shook his head. “That’s the thing. I won’t be able to work in high-stressed environments, at least until I’m able to control something I didn’t even know I had. But you make it…made it look so easy. You got up every day, put on your nice, little tailored suits, ran the company with an iron fist, while still holding people’s respect. I thought I could do it. Even Dad made it look easy. I was a fool. And I have to apologize to you, Dymon. I hope that you can accept my apology, and you and I move forward…being better brothers to each other.”
“You had to have an epiphany to know that? Kidding. My thing is, before I can accept your apology, I need to get a few things off my chest, respectfully. You don’t get to apologize to me because you found out what everyone in our family already knew; you couldn’t run the company, but that’s neither here nor there. You’ve treated me like shit since I could understand what being treated like shit meant. You tattled on me with everything little thing I did, like missing curfew or sneaking out. You never had my back on anything. Never.”
“You so perfect, Dymon.”
“No, I’m not, and I’ve never pretended to be. I fuck up. All the time.”
“Only for attention, though. Not because you’re not smart. Or other shit like that. You know I had to watch you growing up, getting so much attention because you are super smart. You were seven years old and probably don’t remember, but I was struggling with the tutor one evening while Mother and Father entertained in the other room. You came and sat your smart ass down and solved the math problem after two minutes. The tutor was so enthused that she wanted to show the whole room what you could do. My tutor session turned into a look at how smart Dymon is, and it was the most embarrassing thing I ever experienced.”
“I was so smart and so different, yet it cost me a relationship with my parents. The relationship you have with your parents is something I longed for as a child. So, I can’t accept your apology just because you had a near death experience, Declan. What I will say is that, if you feel the same way in a few months, and you want to apologize again, I’ll be more apt to accept it. However, today, from this moment going forward, I’m willing to put everything behind us. Is that a deal?”
He nodded his head.
I held my hand out. “Shake on it?”
After we shook hands, I left the room and headed back to the waiting room. I poked my head in the door, letting them know that I was about to head out, quickly closing the door before I got asked to do something else. Before I could get to the elevator, I heard my father calling after me.
“Son. Wait.”
I stopped and waited for him to catch up to me.
“Son, can we talk for a second?”
“Sure.”
We got in the elevator, waited for the doors to close, and he stopped it.
“Son, I know that you have a beef with your mother and me, but I need you to come back and run the company. It’s your thing whether you want to believe it or not.”
“That’s it? You folding on your precious son after two weeks? You were harder on me for a lot longer.”
He stepped closer to me. “Dymon, I trust you. You are one of the smartest young men that I know. You took a company that you had no interest in and turned it into something that I would have never done. I don’t know if you did it out of spite or whatever Diesel said, but I know that you did it because you betted on yourself.” He inhaled and exhaled slowly. “And I’m sorry. Sorry for not—”
I pressed my finger against his chest. “Don’t.Don’t apologize right now. It’s not genuine. You want me to do something for you, and you’ll say anything. Like I told your son, in a few months, if you still want to apologize, I’ll probably accept it.”
“Can I speak to the young lady? Can she get you to come back?”
I smirked. “That young lady could get me to tight-rope across the Hudson with no protection around me.”
He couldn’t help but to smile. “Son, if you show up tomorrow, you’ll have a good incentive. I can assure you.”
“Are you trying to sway me with…money?”
He laughed. “No. No, just trust me.”
“Okay. I haven’t had a reason to do that in a long, long time, but I will.”
He responded by wrapping his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. My dad hadn’t hugged me since a fake hug at my high school graduation, so I didn’t know how to respond. I just kept my arms at my side. When he let me go, he couldn’t even look at me, so I knew it was weird for him too. When he left the elevator, my mind was all over the place, and the one person that was at the forefront was Quinci. She would be able to make sense of everything.
* * *
