AllFreeNovel
Share Us
between the two of them since Garrick stepped foot back in Kassel.
“I think you forgave too easily.” A nice sidestep. He may not agree with his brother or his cousins, but he wasn’t looking to make enemies of them either.
“Ash isn’t responsible for Samuel,” Jackson stated.
“I know.” Garrick nodded. “He also didn’t make things right when he took control.”
“What did you want him to do? Write you a fucking check?” Jackson took a step toward him, his hands fisted at his sides.
“Our father lost everything because of Samuel. Mom lost her club, her dream, all because Samuel was too much of an asshole to share the pie.” Garrick grabbed the doorknob again, this time jerking the door open.
“Stop.” Jackson put up his hand. “We are never going to agree about this. And it doesn’t matter. This fight was between our father and his brother. We have nothing to do with it. Our cousins have nothing to do with it. Why do you want to separate the family like this?”
“Why do you so desperately want Ashland Titon’s acceptance?” Garrick shot back.
Jackson stepped back, as though the words had slapped him across the face.
“I don’t need Ash’s acceptance. Or Peter’s. Or yours, for that matter. Samuel isn’t here anymore. Ash hasn’t run things like his father. There is a place for all of us at the table.”
“I don’t want to sit at that table, Jackson.” Garrick shook his head. “That’s the difference between us. I don’t need that seat.”
“You’re stubborn as a fucking ox, you know that.” Jackson frowned. “It’s not about the money. It’s about family.”
A soft melody wafted down the hall to Garrick’s office. He poked his head out the door, listening. Someone was playing the piano.
“What’s that?” Jackson asked.
“The piano,” Garrick answered. “Henry Trident’s daughter,” he added when Jackson stepped toward the door.
“His daughter?” Jackson’s eyes widened. “She’s here? Why?”
“Because.” Garrick didn’t feel the need to let his brother in on the drama, nor did he feel like rehashing all of it.
“Are you…”
“Am I what?” Garrick crossed his arms over his chest.
“Are you and Bastian getting yourself into trouble with Henry Trident?”
“I told you, I don’t know him, so why would I give a fuck about what he thinks?” Garrick headed out of the room and toward the front of the house. The meeting with his brother was over.
As they reached the foyer, Ariella’s voice carried to them, stopping Garrick mid-step. He held his arm out, keeping Jackson from walking into the doorway and being seen. He didn’t want to give her any reason to stop singing. Notes had some of the best talent in the city singing on his stage every night, but still, her voice gave him pause. It seemed to dance around him, wrapping him in the music. He’d never heard the song before, and it made him wonder if she had written it herself.
“Is that her?” Jackson whispered.
Garrick nodded.
“Shit, Garrick. She’s fucking good.”
Garrick nodded again, dropping his arm back to his side as the song faded to an end. Only when the last piano note faded, did he move into the doorway.
Ariella looked up from the piano, her eyes widening when she saw them both. Quickly, she stood, nearly knocking over the piano seat in her hurry. She managed to catch it and put it to rights.
“Hi. Uh. I didn’t think anyone was home. I was just playing around.” She glanced down at the piano with a soft frown.
“It’s fine,” Garrick responded to the small concern he noted in her voice.What good is a piano if no one played it?His mother had chastised his father when he barked at Jackson and Garrick for pounding on the keys when they were little.
“You’re very good.” Jackson complimented her. The genuine smile that pulled up her lips punched Garrick in the stomach. She should be smiling at him like that, not his fucking brother.
