Page 11 of If You Fight

Chapter Four

Ryder

The house buzzed with staff hurrying to and from the front door preparing for the party Robert insisted would bring happiness and celebration back to the house. Trays of food, cases of alcohol, and more flowers than a coronation called for came in deliveries all day so the hallway outside his office looked like a busy city street with people marching back and forth with arms full of everything needed to make his plans come to life.

I had little interest in attending his party, but it didn’t matter if I wanted to or not. I’d be expected to be there and play my part, just like at all his get-togethers. I’d had to pretend Serena’s accident and the miscarriage hadn’t torn me up inside from the moment I heard that doctor say she lost our baby, remaining stoic and cold while all the while I wanted to take out my rage on that fuck Oliver for what he’d done to her and our child. The last thing I wanted to do was perform my show horse act at another of Robert’s parties and have to watch Oliver mope around like some grieving husband trying his best to get over the loss.

“Ryder, you’re practically sullen today. I’m certainly hoping I can expect you to be livelier tonight at the party,” Robert said, rousing me from my daydreaming about the night’s festivities and how much I wanted to pull Oliver into a side hallway and slit his fucking throat.

I forced a smile and nodded. “I’ll be there with bells on. You know me.”

He stared at me for a moment like he was studying me. “I do, son. I know you well, so I can say without a doubt that something’s wrong lately. What is it?”

The last thing I wanted to do was tell Robert what was bothering me. If I mentioned anything about Serena or her injuries, I ran the risk of him suspecting we were far closer than we pretended to be. And anything else that might have been wrong with me he wouldn’t understand or care about anyway, so what was the point of mentioning any of it?

Shaking my head, I answered, “Nothing at all. I’m the same as always.”

He studied me again for a few more seconds and frowned. “Well, whatever it is, the answer to whatever problem you’re dealing with is tonight’s party. Did I tell you Janelle and her husband will be there too, so we’ll have the whole family back together, at least for one night?”

Whenever he included me in his idea of family, I wanted to believe that I could tell him what I knew about Oliver and what he’d done to Serena. Families protected one another, so maybe he’d take care of that son of a bitch once and for all and Serena would be free.

But then the reality I knew to be the truth always rushed into my brain, pushing out whatever fantasies of family loyalty I wished existed. If I told him Oliver pushed Serena down the stairs, he’d know she and I were far more than just two people who lived in the same house and who he pretended were actually family.

“Janelle and Charles too? That’s great,” I answered with as much enthusiasm as I could muster for the thought of seeing those two. I disliked and distrusted her, and I didn’t give a damn about him.

“Yes, and I think having all her family around her will do wonders for Serena, don’t you?”

Nodding, I silently catalogued how much I knew Serena wouldn’t care about her sister and brother-in-law being at the party. Janelle’s presence never failed to make her wish she was anywhere else but near her, and Charles was practically a stranger to her.

“And I’m hoping that this little get-together will help her husband to feel better about things too. He lost a child just like she did, so they both need our support.”

I clenched my jaw and nodded once again as Robert’s kind words for Oliver made my stomach churn. That fuck had lost nothing and deserved no support. What he deserved was what I’d someday give him when I finally got the chance to exact my revenge.

If he was lucky, I’d do it quickly. If he wasn’t, I’d torture the motherfucker for taking something so precious away from me.

“You might as well go get ready. I want you there front and center at seven sharp.”

Always happy to have a reprieve from Robert, I smiled and meant it for the first time in our conversation. “I’ll be there like usual. You know me.”

He winked and smiled back at me. “That I do, son. That I do.”

At exactly seveno’clock, I took my place next to Robert, just like he instructed, and did my show horse act for each person who approached him. With every one, he said the same thing.

“You remember my adopted son, Ryder, don’t you?”

And every important looking man who heard it looked me up and down and confidently replied, “Of course. It’s good to see you again.”

None of them meant a word they said, and those words were no exception. I suspected a few of them may have remembered me, but I served no purpose in their world, so their claims that it was good to see me again rang hollow.

They said what they knew Robert wanted to hear because they wanted to be on his good side. Nothing more. It didn’t bother me how meaningless I was in the world he shared with them, though. I didn’t care. All I cared about stood on the opposite side of the room next to her husband and pretended to want to be there just as I did.

“And there’s his sister and her husband,” Robert announced when he noticed Serena had arrived. “Now to find my other daughter and her husband and we can begin.”

Eager to escape, even for just a few moments, I turned to him and said, “I can go look for her, if you’d like.”

The thin woman standing with one of Robert’s favorite congressmen smiled at hearing my offer. “Isn’t he wonderful? Robert, you’re very lucky to have a son like him.”

Nodding, he beamed like she’d just told him he’d won a billion dollars. “I am very lucky.”

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