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58 Will
WAS SHE IGNORING me? Probably. I’d humiliated her in Charlie’s and broke her heart.
I didn’t care that Axel said the fake affair was the best way to keep Miranda safe. He didn’t understand the pain Miranda and I were going through, all because of fucking Jason.
Last night I had called Axel, unraveling at the seams and pleading with him to find another way to deal with Jason and the cartel. The cartel? Nobody had proof Jason was working with them, and getting confirmation was taking too damn long with his MC connection. I fucking wanted out.
I’d even offered Axel millions of dollars to help us go underground so we could wait out the madness, but he had said, “I’m sorry. It’s too late. You need to stay the course.”
Stay the course?
Staying the course would lead to me losing Miranda forever. If that happened, I would launch myself into the pit of hell right along with Jason, as a punishment for all the misery I had caused Miranda.
My cell phone rang beside me on the sofa, stopping my heart, but it wasn’t Miranda. It was Henry.
“Hey, cousin, how’s it going?” I answered, trying to not sound like my world was falling apart.
“I’m good. Catching some rays in Jamaica and thought I’d give you a call.”
Strange. Henry never “gives me a call.”
“Yeah, and how are those rays? I bet the women in string bikinis are plentiful.”
“Yeah. They’re fine.” Henry sounded bored. Usually he’d brag about all the women he had at his fingertips. “I talked to my mum the other day.”
“Oh yeah? That’s great. How’s she doing?”
“She wants to move back.”
“Move back to the States? What brought that up?” Diana had been forced to give up her parental rights to Henry after his birth. Grandfather gave her one million dollars and the choice of where to relocate. She chose Paris.
“She asked if you could speak to Grandfather on her behalf.”
“Me?”
“I’ve wanted her to move back since I was a little boy, Will. But my dad always said the contract she signed was binding and it would never happen.”
I scratched my head and paced along the wall of windows in my living room. “Did he tell you the details of the contract? Like how it was binding?” Did my grandfather have something on Diana? I really wanted to read the terms of the arrangement.
“No, he didn’t tell me anything. It makes no sense. I’m not a child anymore. She should be free to live wherever she wants.” Henry exhaled a heavy breath. “All I’ve ever wanted was for her to be in the states with her family andme.”
I stopped and stared at the serene ocean. “What are you talking about? You’re never in the states.” I chuckled.
“What reasons did I have to stay?”
“Your family is here. Me, Simone, Grandfather, your dad.”
“Not good enough. You think I like being the black sheep of the family? The bastard child whose mother was shipped abroad and forced to give me up? A measly million was all I was worth!”
“Henry—”
“Do you think I liked having you thrown in my face as the sole heir of SJI? Not once did Grandfather take me aside to show me the ropes the way he did you. Not once was I encouraged to study business so I could work at SJI alongside my father like you were with yours! So you tell me, William. What reason did I have to stay?” Henry’s booming voice rumbled through my body.
“Henry, I had no idea you felt this way. Damn, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.” My whole life I’d looked up to Henry as my cool older cousin. He’d had the freedom I coveted, coming and going as he pleased after he graduated high school.
While I was stuck in college and working in SJI, Henry had traveled, living it up. Never had I thought he wanted a place at SJI.
“You don’t have to say anything. I’m sorry I unloaded on you. None of it was your fault. You were just a kid doing what you were forced to do. But Will, you’re the sole heir, and one day, you could change the way SJI is run for future generations. For your children, Simone’s, and mine.”
