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“If you do not stop this insanity, then I will be given no other choice but to inform Ellis of what I know.” I could practically hear the smug smirk on his face.
“Are you actually threatening me?” Surely he couldn’t be that stupid.
“I’ve known you practically my whole life. I know where your skeletons are buried. It would be a shame for the courts and the press to discover them. You’ll lose clients and you will lose to her in court. Jasmine isn’t the only one facing a custody battle. I can very easily make it that Ellis wins, and you never see your son again.”
I was so pissed off, I was vibrating. This son of a bitch was actually threatening me. He was trying to hold decisions that I had made when I was a minor against me. To try and ruin my reputation and put my son’s welfare in danger all because of what? I got drunk too many times underage and slept with dozens of women.
Did I have skeletons? Sure. I stole some things from stores. Again, I was minor in my desperate act of rebellion. But I had never done anything illegal as an adult. I’ve never had to resort to blackmail to keep or win my clients. I’ve never cheated on an exam. I’ve never drove drunk and did a hit and run. I had no idea what skeletons he thought I had, but it didn’t matter. The fact that he was actually genuinely threatening me and my son was what infuriated me.
“I think you are forgetting which one of us actually has skeletons in their closet. You think I forgot about how you slept with the Dean of Miami State for you to even get accepted into the business program? Or about the multiple drunken bar fights that left one man in a coma who later died. It’s still an unsolved case. Or all of the women, young barely turned eighteen women, that you cheated on your wife with and got pregnant that you had them all get an abortion.”
He was far from a good man, and it was exactly why Jeremy couldn’t be raised by someone like him. Couldn’t have that type of influence in his life because there was no telling what type of man he would grow up to be. Francis never used to be all bad, even over the past decade he’s had a lot of good moments. He did a lot of good in various communities. He did so because they were tax deductions, but he was still helping. He never wanted to be like his parents, but somewhere along the way his lines got blurred. I knew he was threatening me because he didn’t believe that I would ever act on any of the knowledge that I possessed of him. But when he brought a child into this mess, then all bets were off.
“How about the offshore accounts that you hide money in from the IRS? You want to threaten me Francis, I’ll destroy you. By the time I am done with you, you’ll be sitting in prison for the rest of your miserable, pathetic life. And that is exactly what I will do if I find out you did anything or had someone else do it, to try and ruin my son’s life. We clear?”
Practically forty years of friendship, and it was gone. It went down the drain over an issue that shouldn’t have even been an issue to begin with. That’s what was ridiculous about this whole thing. He shouldn’t have been pissed off that I was helping his daughter and grandson. If he wanted to play this game though, that was fine. It would be his undoing, and I wouldn’t just take him down, but his company and Henry in the process. If he wanted a war, he would get one, but it was going to leave him bloody and dying in no man’s land, not me. And sure as shit not Christian and Jeremy.
“This isn’t a war that you want to start Liam,” he warned in a deadly tone, and I knew he wasn’t happy about me pointing out all of the areas that I could ruin him with.
“I’m not starting. But I sure as shit will finish it. Consider this your only warning,” I told him before I ended the call.
Fuck, my whole body was shaking I was so pissed off. This was not what I needed today. I had enough shit going on; I didn’t need to worry about Francis and if he was going to be stupid. And if he was telling me this, I could only imagine what voicemails he was leaving for Jasmine. I scrubbed a hand over my face. I had to shake this off. I couldn’t allow for Francis and his stupidity to disrupt how I did business. It was out of my hands, and all I could do was hope he didn’t do something that he would live to regret.
Jasmine
Ihadjustsentthe boys up to play in Christian’s room. I was in the middle of cleaning up dinner. Today had gotten a bit away from me. I had managed to clean up the fort mess in the living room. However, I was still trying to get the kitchen cleaned up from dinner, not to mention the mess on the table from our art projects. We were painting and using glitter to make different art pieces. The boys had a lot of fun doing it, but there was a mess of newspapers and paint all over the table. I had no idea when Liam was going to be getting back, so I was working hard to get it all cleaned up. The last thing I wanted was for us to have a repeat of the first night I was here.
Well, we could repeat the sex, but the argument and massive freak out would be great to avoid.
Unfortunately, all of my hopes and dreams were crushed when I heard the front door opening and closing. I wiped my hands on the dish towel and turned to see Liam walking into the kitchen. The smile that was plastered on his face melted as his mind absorbed the mess.
“Don’t freak out. I’m cleaning it up. I swear within twenty minutes it will be like it never happened,” I quickly said.
I had no idea why he had such a hard time with messes, but this was his house, and I had to respect that. Even if it was hard at times. But that was why I made sure to save all of the messy stuff for when he was at work. What he didn’t know or see wouldn’t hurt him.
He placed his briefcase down on the floor, and spoke, as he started to loosen his tie up. “I never expected to be this person.”
“What person is that?”
Was he about to open up to me? We didn’t really do anything personal or deep, I guess I should say. The most personal we had gone was discussing our exes. I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do about him wanting to pay for my lawyer. I had called every lawyer in Portland that were any good at family court. All of them said they couldn’t help me. As it turned out Adam had gone and had meetings with all of them. He hadn’t hired them as his lawyer, but it didn’t matter.
The damage was already done. They couldn’t take my case because it would be a conflict of interest because they already knew too much about him and his position. The only lawyer that had any real reputation and skill was Alvin and that was because Adam couldn’t speak with him because Liam already put him on my case. I wouldn’t be able to afford Alvin though on my own, and it put me in a really difficult position to try and figure out.
“Growing up my parents were a nightmare. They still are. The house looked a lot like this. Well, when it isn’t messy,” he said with a playful smirk, and I was taking that as a good sign. “Everything had to be clean. I hated it growing up, because I couldn’t do anything the other kids could do. The house never felt lived in. It felt like a museum, and it looked like one. Everything had its place, and it was never allowed to be out of it. Even if it was one inch off, my parents would lose it.”
“Why? I mean, a house is designed to be lived in. Why live in a house that you can’t even knock a frame off center?”
That blew my mind to me. And I knew it happened, especially within the higher society. Everything was about your appearance, and everything had to be perfect. You were constantly competing against others within that society to look better than them. It was exhausting and exactly why I refused to play that game. I didn’t want to live my life for someone else, especially a stranger. My parents were just like that, though not to that level. The house did get dirty at times, but it was more from a party they threw. Still, you could pick up the TV remote and put it down on the coffee table in any place that you wanted.
“That was how they were. I don’t know why. I know my grandparents on both sides were strict. I have to assume it’s a cycle that no one has been able to break. They got really bad though. I remember one time I was just young, and I was helping to put the dishes away and I dropped one. They made me scrub the entire house on my hands and knees with a toothbrush. I was up all night, and then had to go to school.”
Oh my god. I couldn’t even imagine ever doing that to someone, much less my own child. The way he said it though, I could tell he was trying to be strong, like it wasn’t that big of a deal to him, but I could hear the hurt. It bothered him what his parents had done to him. And I was willing to bet it was bothering him that he was still clinging on to their ridiculous standards.
I went over and took his hand in mine to try and offer him some sort of comfort. “I’m so sorry. No one should have to go through something like that. No child should have to live with the fear of making a mess, especially by accident. That’s part of growing up. Being in your home is supposed to be your safe place. The one place where you can make mistakes and have accidents and it’ll be okay.”
“You mean like here,” he said, and I could hear the sadness that flooded his voice.
I never even realized it, but this had to be extremely difficult for him. To go from living in a home where you couldn’t make a small mess to now living in the exact same home. Yes, I knew he wasn’t giving out punishments to Christian if he did make a mess by accident, but the fear was there all the same. And he knew better than anyone what that fear could do to a child. He never wanted this.
