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“Let me tell you whatistrue.“ Heat gathers at the bottom of my neck and works its way up my face. I flick my wrist, unleashing my index finger as I do to point it in his direction. My other digits follow in subsequent order. “First off, so what if I grew up in a trailer park? Where a person comes from isn’t what makes them; it’s what they do with themselves. How they live their life. I’ve worked hard… harder than most to get where I am today, and I won’t apologize to you nor anyone for my background or how my parents raised me.”
Thomas nods his head in agreement. It is all fine that he acknowledges my point, but I’m not finished yet. There are other outstanding issues that need to be addressed.
And I get right to it.
“I had a fight in high school, and that was in self-defense. That was why I didn’t get expelled. The boy who gave me a lump on my head, was kicked out, not me.” My ring finger joins my index and middle finger and my anger pumps my blood to near boiling. Not because of Thomas’s statements, but thinking of all the shit I’d endured. “Lastly, I left my job in Dallas because my ex-fiancé, and his now wife, worked at the same place. I figured that the environment would have been too toxic to continue, so I came to Austin.”
“Genesis, I—“
I shake my head, holding out my hand. “No. Let me finish, please.”
He dips his head. The small smile on his face releases most of my anger that had built inside me. I take a deep breath, letting go of the rest.
My voice had risen, but now I speak calmly. “And as for your last accusation, that I slept my way into my senior position, well, that’s just unequivocally false. STS promoted me over time to the title I have now and that occurred long before your family bought the company.” I give him a teasing smile before I continue, hoping it will take the sting from my advice. “Next time, I suggest you hire someone qualified to dig up dirt before trusting a misogynistic prick, like Greg.”
He laughs and the sound reminds me of Royce so much, my heart jumps.
I miss him… I fuckingachefor him, and yeah, I’m getting a bit worried. Why hasn’t he called?
“Genesis, let me apologize for coming at you the way I did. I haven’t always been there for Royce, but things have changed and I want to protect him. I’ve come to learn... well it doesn’t matter.” He chuckles again, the sound squeezing my heart. “Not too long ago, I was quick to believeanyoneconnected with him wasn’t up to any good.”
He’s about to say something else, but I cut him off, curiosity causing my question to bubble from my throat. “Why? Do you two have some sort of rivalry or something?”
“I don’t know about him, but I no longer do. Especially now that I’ve met you.”
Can he be any more cryptic?
“What made you change your mind?”
Instead of answering my question, he asks, “What do you know about Royce as far as family?”
I let my question go to think about his.
The answer is: not much.
Except for the evil his father perpetrated on him, Royce and I hadn’t talked much about his family, only the basics. “I know his parents are dead. His mother died when he was four, and his father died in a car accident, but before that, his grandfather had taken him into his home when he was thirteen.”
When I finish telling Thomas this, he says, “You knew a hell of a lot more than I did until just recently. That day I saw you two at the park, I found out some things about my cousin…”
Dear Lord, if there are more secrets…
“What did you find out?” I ask, trepidation lacing my tone.
Thomas looks like he has swallowed a ghost pepper and was trying to keep from throwing up the hot contents of his stomach onto the conference table. “I didn’t know. I never knew. If I’d known what kind of man his father was…”
Without thinking, I rise from my seat and go to sit beside Thomas. He’s hurting for how he misjudged Royce, and whatever he’d believed about me, he doesn’t anymore.
“I know what his father did to him.”
Thomas blinks. “He told you?”
“We discussed it… though there is a lot I feel Royce tried to spare me.”
“He’ll tell you in time,” Thomas reassures me.
“I hope so,” I say, fighting hard to keep the uncertainty from clouding my voice. “I want to be there for him… however he deems fit.”
I’d back away though, if he told me to. Him, and no one else.
