AllFreeNovel
Share Us
JT shook his head, but there was no denying what he’d done. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. His throat had tightened past the point of pain. He’d never told anyone the role he’d played in his mother’s death. He needed to claw through years of self-loathing to let it out. It felt as if his insides were shredded.
When he continued, his voice was thick with anguish. “Then I grabbed my backpack and acted like I was leaving for school, but I snuck back to my room and packed what I would need for the weekend.”
“You went anyway?”
“I figured she’d be so out of it by the middle of the afternoon, she’d never realize that I wasn’t home until I was long gone. By five that evening she was dead. No one found her until the next morning when the housekeeper showed up.”
“You were twelve,” Violet said. “Your mother was a troubled woman who retreated into drugs and alcohol to cope with an abusive husband. How can you think you were to blame?”
“I overheard someone talking at her funeral. I realized that if I’d come home after school like I was supposed to, I could have found her still alive and called 911.”
A tear slid down his cheek. Before he could lift his hand to sweep the dampness away, Violet cupped his face in a fierce grip.
“JT, your mother was an addict. She could have overdosed at any time. You were not responsible for her illness.”
He heaved an unsteady breath. Part of him recognized that she was right, and he sensed her love and support would help him forgive himself.
“I love you,” he told her, speaking the words out loud for the first time.
Tears filled her eyes, but her smile was brighter than the sun. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him hard. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve needed to hear you say that.”
“It’s taken me a long time to understand what I was feeling,” he murmured into her hair. “Before you came along, the emotions I was most familiar with were dark ones.”
“All that is behind us now,” she said crisply, her optimism revving up. She leaned back and regarded him, her eyes determined. “Starting today, we have an abundance of new adventures awaiting us. Starting with house-hunting in Miami. I spoke with Grandfather about acquiring some property downtown and building a Fontaine property.”
“About that.” JT hadn’t expected her to be so enthusiastic about leaving Las Vegas for Miami and was worried that his news might not be what she wanted to hear. “We’re not going to Miami.”
“Why not? Now that your father has lost his chairmanship and is probably going to face jail time, the company is yours.”
“Here’s the thing. The night before the annual meeting, Brent and I had a long chat about the future of Stone Properties. We came to the conclusion that it would be better served with him at the helm.”
“But...but...” she sputtered, “it was your grandfather who started Stone Properties.”
“And with Brent running things it goes back into family hands.”
She cocked her head and regarded him. “What are you planning to do?”
“What I told you I was going to do before the shareholders’ meeting. Get out.”
“I see.” But it was obvious she didn’t. “So, where are we going?”
He soothed her worries with a smile and the stroke of his palm along her arm. “Nowhere. Neither one of us is leaving Las Vegas. In fact, I’ve decided to sell my shares of Stone Properties and buy Titanium.”
Her smile was blinding. “I think that’s a wonderful idea. But are you sure you want to settle for one property when you could be in charge of a dozen?”
“With Brent at the helm, Stone Properties will be in good hands. And I’m not really a sit-in-an-office-and-do-nothing-but-read-reports-and-make-policies kind of guy. I like the pulse of Las Vegas and have decided whatever else I do, here’s where my headquarters will be.”
