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Lance
“Sullivan, where the fuck are you?”
Sweat runs between the crease of my lips, and I swipe at it as I reach with my other hand to put my phone on loudspeaker. I have a meeting in a little under an hour, and I’m currently going hell for leather on my treadmill. It usually doesn’t take me more than a five-minute shower and cup of coffee to get me out of the door in the mornings, but today, I have all the motivation to die on my gym floor.
“I’ll be there,” I tell Charles Aldridge, my best friend and lawyer.
“Now. I need you here now. Did you even read over the documents I sent last night? It’s airtight, but the way you trust me to the point of signing shit you don’t read disgusts me.”
My meeting is with my mother, and I’m almost certain I know how it will go.
“I read it. I’ll see you soon.” I hang up and increase my speed, knowing I sound like a prick, but I also know I need to get rid of this shitty energy that’s been hanging over my head since yesterday.
My entire life, I’ve only ever wanted to see my mum happy. Before Dad, after Dad, and even up until yesterday when she called me and told me she’d spent the entire month’s rent on a puppy and that she needed more to cover the bills because they’d overspent.
I up my speed, gritting my teeth as I ignore the burn spreading through my hamstrings.
Vanessa Sullivan dreamt of having a daughter, so when I came along and crushed that dream, she very quickly conceived again and had Nessa Anne. Chloe came two years later and Molly eighteen months after that, and if my dad hadn’t put his foot down and said no more, I’m certain she would never have stopped. For years I watched her eyes light up. Their first steps, words, ballet and swim classes, they had it all. Didn’t want for anything.
Those girls were everything to her.
So, I took everything I could from our dad… until I lost that to them too.
To this day, they still don’t want for anything. I made sure of it. I did everything I could for them. For her, for him.
My fist snaps out and connects with the emergency stop on the treadmill. I kick my feet out, standing on the edge as my forehead meets the screen. “I tried. Ifuckingtried.”
But something’s got to give.
“You greedy shit! You can’t do this. You shouldn’t even have control of my money!” My mother’s eyes are filled with unshed tears, and I stare fixated at her, too afraid to blink. “Who do you think you are, Lance? Tell me because I’m at a loss for words standing here looking at you now.”
“Mum. I only ever—”
She throws her arms out at her sides. “Do I not deserve any grace? After everything I went through.”
“Mrs Sullivan, please sit down,” Charlie tries.
“Oh, fuck off, you fancy-ass prick. You don’t think I can see through your expensive suit and flashy office? You forget this was my life once.” She turns her eyes on me once again. “You forget that I’m the foundation of the very money you think you can monopolise.”
Charlie clears his throat and stands from his chair. “The money hecanmonopolise. You signed a document that made it possible.”
“Whilst grieving my dead husband!”
I shake my head and swallow in an attempt to douse the anger growing in my gut. “Mum, please. Listen to me—”
“No. You’re not doing this. I’ll take you to court.”
“Vanessa,” Charlie snaps. His voice holds a sharp edge that whips, a tail end rasping around to soothe before it can fully sting.
My mother’s shoulders straighten.
“You’re being unintentionally rude, and I ask that you take a second to calm down and listen to whatIhave to say, considering you cannot afford the same respect to your son. I understand this is difficult for you.” She doesn’t bother to look at me. Charlie walks to his desk and picks up the file, opening it and handing it to my mother. “This is your expenditure from the last twelve months. Every transaction in and out of the account—not counting the rent or bills Lance already pays for.”
Her chin lifts. “And?”
Charlie’s eyes drift to me as he fixes the knot in his tie. “You’re out of touch. It takes a lot to shock me, Mrs Sullivan, but that number right there, considering your son is a very good friend of mine, and I happen to know how hard he works, is inexplicable and quite frankly disgraceful. Why don’t you take a look at it yourself.”
After a couple of seconds of staring Charlie down, she dips her head to read the numbers.
