Page 89 of The Forever Rule

“Only sometimes,” Kyler joked.

“Whenever you’re ready to expand, or franchise or dowhatever you want, we’re here,” I said. “And frankly, I get it not being about the money. I just don’t want him to have any say in our business. I don’t want him to have the power to break our enterprise in a thousand pieces just because he can. And do it from the grave.” My hand tightened around my glass, and I forced myself to calm down. “Well he does like control, even when he said he walked away from the business.”

“How did that work anyway?” Sophia asked.

“What do you mean?” I leaned forward, drink in hand.

“So I understand all of the positions you, James, and Flynn have in the company, but Dad just walked away?”

“Not exactly,” James said with a sneer. “Hesaidhe would, but he ended up trying to handle things a little backhanded.”

“Much like he did with the will,” Dorian said as he drained his drink and went to pour another one. Kyler gave him a look, and Dorian nodded. I assumed that meant that Dorian would be getting him a drink. I was amused at the fact that the two didn’t have to speak. Maybe we were getting something out of these mandatory dinners.

“I honestly feel like we had two different dads,” Sophia said, and I frowned.

“I’m pretty sure the whole reason that we’re here is because we had the same dad,” James added.

She bit her lip, thinking. “I meant the way he treated us. I have no idea how he even made the logistics of two families work.”

“See that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” I said, shaking my head.

Sophia leaned forward. “When we were younger, he was constantly traveling for work.”

“Same with us and we believed because Mother decided to lie for him,” I added.

“It’s just weird that we knew our dad as one thing. A traveling salesman of sorts, who was home sometimes, but then we thought that Mom and Dad were just going through marriage problems,” Sophia said.

Kyler didn’t say anything, but his face darkened.

Sophia continued. “We were told that they needed time apart and were separating, and they would come back together.”

“When in fact he was probably with our mom,” James said with a sigh.

“Either way he’s a damn liar,” Dorian growled. I nodded and drained my drink. When Dorian raised a brow, I shook my head. He may be the resident bartender of the family, but I didn’t want to drink. Not now.

“But how do we not know he wasThe Cage,” Sophia asked, exasperation in her voice.

“That I don’t know. But it’s not like he was in the news or anything. He was big in his business circles, but he wasn’t famous famous.”

“And he shunned the media,” James said slowly. “Which I always thought was odd for the ego on that man.”

“It turns out it was for a reason,” I said with a snarl. “Because the face of the company was grandfather, thenme. Father always found a way out of it. And spent far too much time at Cage Lake.” I paused. “Or at least he said he did.”

“When I was younger, I thought it was because Dad wanted to do better for the company, to focus on what we were doing, but I was wrong,” James said, his voice low.

“He didn’t shun the limelight for too long,” Kyler blurted, and then he looked at all of us, the anguish on his face surprising me.

And that’s when it clicked. The reason I couldn’t get a beat on Kyler.

“You knew,” I whispered, as everyone went silent. “When did you find out?” I wasn’t angry, Icouldn’tbe angry, not with the look on Kyler’s face. But what the hell.

Kyler just set his drink down, squeezed his sister’s hand, and then walked casually out of the house. The door slammed behind him, and we sat there in silence, feeling as if another blow had just hit, and we were still echoing with the reverberations.

Sophia stood up, her hands shaking. “I should… I should help him.” She looked at all of us, tears in her eyes. “I knew he hated Dad. But I never knew why. I’m sorry.”

I stood then, Dorian and James following me. Without thought, I pulled Sophia into a hug, doing the big brother thing as if we had all along.

“Go help him. We’ll figure it out. Remember, Dad’s the liar.”

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