Page 52 of Vows In Corruption

It sounds like there’s anger in his voice.

“How would you describe it?”

We were supposed to use this drive to talk about the board meeting and a few other things that we need to get done before the afternoon but I have a feeling that we won’t be doing that.

Bennett turns to look back out the window and he stays like that for a few minutes. I just sit there watching him, waiting for anything that he might say.

I start to think that I won’t be hearing anything at all when he speaks.

“My brother isn’t hiding from the public. Well maybe he is but not in the way that the internet told you. Nobody has seen him in ten years. Not me, not his kids. He just fell off the face of the earth just like he did when he was sixteen.”

A lump forms in my throat. “Did he…”

“Die? I have no fucking clue. I’ve spent years trying to find some confirmation that he is dead or alive and to this day I have yet to find something. To find him.”

The lump gets even bigger as my heart swells for him. I see the hurt in his eyes, and hear it in his voice and it takes everything in me not to shed a tear for him.

“What happened when he was sixteen?” I find myself asking. I should just let the conversation drop, but I find myself enthralled by everything that Bennett says.

“A month after my parents died, he just got up and left. He told me that he was going to come back, that he was just going to take some time to figure things out. I didn’t end up seeing him again until fourteen years later, when he showed up on my doorstep with his fur kids, asking me to watching them for a little bit while he got things settled. And well, he never came back. He abandoned me when I was eight and then he abandoned his kids the same way.”

If my heart wasn’t broken before, it definitely is now.

In a matter of weeks, Bennett lost his parents and then had his brother walk out of his life, not once but twice. That’s a lot of trauma for one person to handle and from the sounds of it, he’s still dealing with it.

I guess for some of us it’s harder to let go of things than it is for others.

Wanting to be there for him in some way, I push all my emotions down and reach over and place my hand on top of his and give it a squeeze.

His eyes move from my to where are hands are together. I know what he is probably thinking. I shouldn’t be touching him, but he doesn’t do anything to move me away and neither do I.

For some reason, having our hands touching like this feels right. Being close to him feels right.

“I know these words probably won’t sound like they have sentiment, and that I’m just saying them because it’s the acceptable thing to say, but I’m really sorry you experienced something like that. I know what loosing someone you love feels like. I know what goes through your head when someone you that is supposed to be there leaves when you need them the most, and it’s the worst thing in the world. I hated it and I’m sure you did too. It’s sucks and I’m so damn sorry it happened.”

I didn’t realize that I was crying until Bennett reaches over and wipes away a few tears that are running though my face. This is as close that I’ve been to him since earlier in the week when I kissed him.

If only I van be closer.

But we already said that the kiss we shared was a mistake. We can’t keep making them.

“You had a tough childhood.” It’s a statement, not a question, his hand not dropping from my face.

I give him a nod. “Yeah, you can say that,” I say not wanting to elaborate any more.

Bennett must understand because he gives me a nod as he pulls his hand away from me and straighten up in his seat.

As soon as there is distance between us, I miss him. I miss his touch and his scent burning in my nose.

Before I decide to something stupid, like kiss him again, I wipe the remaining tears away and change the subject.

“Tell me what I can expect from today’s board meeting.”

From the second that Mr. Goldman told Bennett that he was calling a board meeting, things have been moving along as if it was any other week and the current CEO did not state that come next week Bennett was going to be in his role. I would have figured with news like that Bennett would be on edge or at least doing shadowing Mr. Goldman or something, but no. The man has acted just as normally has he has before. Sure, there were times this week where he was stoic, but he has come out of meeting with a bounce in his step, which is not something that I’m used to seeing.

I realized rather quickly that the news that he was going to be CEO was not news to him. From the way he has been acting, he has probably known for a while that this was going to happen.

He might have been worried about this new position, at least not from what I could see, but I was, because if he got promoted did it mean that he would be getting a new assistant?

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