Page 16 of One Last Night

“So what then? You’ll sit in a lab? Write papers on how a particular weak acid is better at breaking down organic materials than this other weak acid?”

“I’m leaning toward astronomy, actually, but A for effort,” Nathan retorts. “For a moment, it was almost like you actually gave a crap about me.”

“It’sbecauseI care about you that I want you to have a career.”

“I don’t want to run the damned winery!”

“Watch your language!”

“Oh, whatever. It’s not like you ever cared about me. It’s always ‘the family this, the family that.’I’myour family, Dad! Me and Luann! And guess what? We’re bothmiserable.”

I hear footsteps as he storms up the stairs. I wait for Julian’s footsteps to follow, but instead, I hear him approaching the foyer. I gasp and look for a way to escape, but the foyer leads only to the great room, so I stand there lamely when Julian walks inside. He sees me and smiles tightly. “You must think me a very poor father.”

“Not at all,” I say, my compassion overcoming my embarrassment. “You carry a lot of weight on your shoulders. It’s very difficult to raise two children as a single father while also managing a major business and dealing with aggressive rivals.”

Julian chuckles. “I don’t know if Robert’s aggressive. He barks loud, but he has yet to bite. Not that I’ve bitten much. As for the kids…” His smile fades. “I just want them to have pride in what we’ve built. I know the modern world looks down on old money. Everyone assumes we’re just aristocratic pricks,but webuiltsomething. Henry Bellamy purchased this property in eighteen-fifty-eight and turned it into a successful vineyard, one of the first truly successful vineyards in Massachusetts. My great-great-grandfather expanded the business until we distributed wine across the country, and my Dad turned us into one of the premier winemakers in the United States. And not to toot my own horn, but we’ve gained international attention since I took the company eleven years ago.”

He looked around, desperation turning his pride fierce. “Thismeans something,damn it. Thismatters. I just wish Nathan could understand that.” He sighs. “But he doesn’t want anything to do with the family business. He’s fine just letting it get sold. Never mind that all of his wealth comes from this company. Never mind that this is something we’ve maintained for generations.”

He meets my eyes. “I’m guessing you’d probably tell me to let him pursue his own dreams. And I wish I could do that, but…” He lifts his hands and lets them drop. “What happens to all of this? What happens to the Bellamy name.” He finishes with an almost pleading. “Damn it, thismatters.”

“You could leave the business to Luann,” I suggest helpfully.

He chuckles bitterly. “She has no more interest than he does. Besides, if she ever did marry, her last name would change, and it would be someone else’s family business. Maybe I’m an asshole, but I want someone with my own last name to run this business. I want that legacy to continue.”

He sighs and smiles. "But it's nothing you need to worry about. You're doing exactly what you should do, intervening when Mom and I are acting like idiots. Thank you for caring for them. Hell, maybe it'll be better for this all to fall apart. With no legacy comes no stress." He shakes his head. "I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll get lucky, and dream of a world where RobertCartwright doesn't exist, and my son gives a damn about the family name.”

He heads upstairs, leaving me wondering what future this family can have when their father is so unstable. Those poor children.

Still, I’m not without sympathy for Julian. The world is changing, and not all of the changes are comfortable for those of us raised to believe that families matter more than individuals. Even when we know that it’s wrong of us to cling to those priorities, that knowing is often not enough to overcome the truths ingrained in us from our childhood. I know that better than most.

I head upstairs to check on Nathan, but there’s no answer to my knock. I decide he’s either asleep or he needs some time to myself and return to the library. The drama the current generations of this family is facing is stressful enough that escaping to the drama of the past is almost an escape.

I pull a diary from the safe and begin to read. The first entry here is dated April sixteenth, nineteen-eighty.

Dear Diary,

I don’t know what to do.

As I write this, I am sitting naked in bed, moments removed from the most intense bout of sex Parker and I have ever enjoyed.

I blush when I read this. I can’t pretend I haven’t enjoyed the salacious details these diaries contain, but I think I’ve finally crossed a line. I’m not interested in hearing this woman—whoever she is—share detailed opinions on her husband’s prowess in bed.

I close the diary and start to put it back when the name finally hits me. Parker. Victoria’s husband, Parker.

With a gasp, I snatch the journal back and look at the name on the bottom of the entry. Sure enough, it’s Victoria’s diary I’m reading.

I hold the diary for a long while, forcing myself to read Victoria’s name over and over. These are not the thoughts of a dead woman I’m reading but the thoughts of my own employer. I should put this away. I should stop reading now. I shouldn’t involve myself in their family business anymore. It was a mistake to ever open this.

But as I’ve mentioned before, I am a slave to my nature. As I put the diary away a second time, I feel another one of those pulls, another hunch like those that have proven so useful to me in the past. I can’t articulate why, but I am certain that this diary contains the answers to every question surrounding this family.

I take the diary back out and keep reading.

I’m going to seduce him again tomorrow night, and I’m going to make damned sure that it’s just as good as tonight was. Hell, I’ll screw his brains out again the night after and the night after that. Parker’s going to think he married a girl from a stag film.

And then the weekend is going to come, and I’m going to give Robert all of that and more. More because I won’t have to fake it with him. I’m not in love with Robert, but there’s no contest between him and Parker in bed. Robert finds places in me that I didn’t know existed and makes them feel heavenly.

It’s horrible because I AM in love with Parker. I just can’t stop with Robert. I can’t. Ever since the New Year’s Eve party, I can’t stop thinking about how much better it feels with him. It’s like he was born to make a woman feel completely satisfied.

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