Page 101 of Bidding War

“Junebug. It's so good to hear your voice.”

Is this a social call? Does it even matter? Feels like there's a weight on my chest. My pulse thuds in my temple. I try to keep my voice even, but I’ve misplaced my saliva and have to sip my coffee just to be able to speak. “What's going on?”

“Well, I'm in town, and I was hoping to get to see you.”

Oh, you have gotta be fucking kidding me. I feel like I might throw up and blackout at the same time. “Since when do we visit each other?”

“Now, come on, June, you don't gotta be like that. Can't a father wanna visit his daughter?”

I am sure that some normal fathers and some normal daughters do visit each other. We are not those people. We have never been those people. I have no intention of ever becoming those people.

I can't breathe. There's sweat going down my back. If I don't start breathing, the room is gonna start spinning. I could hang up on him, but he would just call back. My father has never been one to take no for an answer. I've always fucking hated that about him.

Now, my head is pounding. My pulse is fluttering. I take a couple of breaths and try to clear the negativity out because I am not a child anymore, and I have to get my shit together for this presentation.

The thing is, I know he wants something. Considering our history, that is never good. But if I don't find out what it is, Mom might give it to him. Ex-husband or not, she's still a sucker for that man.

“Uh—

The double doors open. Andre and the partners are looking at me. Here goes nothing.

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53

JUNE

Iflash a quick smile at everyone and hold up a finger. “Sure, Dad, I'll call you back in a bit.” I hang up with him. “So sorry about that. Family emergency.” Strolling in, I don't get the impression that I upset Andre by having my phone on me at the moment. That’s a relief.

He merely sits back and smiles. “Family is first and foremost. It's good that you're taking care of them. I hope the emergency isn't too terrible.”

“Nothing they can't handle without me. Let's get started.” I begin my presentation, but I'm not present for it. I can't stop thinking about Dad. Why is it that both me and Anderson have to have daddy issues? I don't understand why that was in the cards for us, but at least it helps us to be more understanding of each other's problems.

As dastardly as Elliott West is, he runs in a different league than my father. But if a man is only as good as his word, my father is terrible. The man is a philanderer and a crook. Growing up, I never knew what to believe out of his mouth. You could never take him at his word. If selling the Brooklyn Bridge made him money or got him laid, then he would have done it.

Can’t think about him. “And so you see here on the report that they project the next quarter to show three percent growth, but if they fail that … ”

I hate that he and I have anything in common. He was not the reason that I became an attorney, despite the fact that he is one himself. He tried to take credit for me picking law school, but I shut that shit down quick. I became an attorney because I thought that it was a glamorous career. When done right. They say that when you're a child, you're always looking for good examples. Heroes to follow. My father was none of those things. He was only a warning of who not to be.

Though, come to think of it, we don't have that much in common anymore. He was disbarred. It takes a lot for someone to get disbarred. But setting up a pyramid scheme and then defrauding all of your investors will do that.

Andre raises a finger to stop me. “And we could call for a vote of no confidence?”

No confidence is precisely what I feel right now. “Exactly.”

“Excellent. Tell us more.”

I start with him, but I can’t stop thinking about Dad’s pyramid scheme. I was just a kid when it happened. Middle school became hell because of it. My father didn't just defraud investors that could afford it. Some were parents of kids I went to school with. My mother’s friends. A few neighbors. That bastard ruined everything he touched.

And his touch was never light. It didn’t matter that I came to school with bruises. No one ever seemed to notice. Hell, it took forever for my mom to notice, and by then, Dad had started to vanish for long weekends.

The kids whose parents were defrauded by my father began to pick on me. I couldn't even blame them. I was angry at my father, too. Sometimes, I thought it was my fault that he did what he did. That I earned my bruises. That he just wanted to have enough money to spoil me and make up for the hitting. But that was not the case. Not even close.

Dad used most of the money that he got from his schemes to shower it on new women. He wined and dined them, telling them he was single with no kids. I still don't know how many women he slept with when he and Mom were still married. But I'd have to venture a guess it was in the dozens.

After his scam fell apart and he got arrested, Mom and I were left penniless. I was worried she would want to stay with him, but Mom was smart enough to divorce his sorry ass. Even now, though, I know she has a soft part of her heart for him. My father is a charmer and a snake. One of the best con men I have ever met.

A partners asks, “In your opinion, do you think they’ve been cheating?”

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