Page 122 of Could Have Been Us
Now we’re telling him we want no part of it. He didn’t think of this option. That all five of his kids would walk away. That he’d lose the managers of all the properties in one swoop, leaving him unable to handle it.
I’m sure he’s already hired someone, but there would have been weeks where he lost a ton of money simply because no one who worked for him knew what to do.
“So, you take everything from me?”
Alex, who is normally the last one to speak up, does. “We are taking no less than you deserve. For years, we’ve allowed you to control our lives in some form or another. We’ve made you a lot of money, haven’t we?”
Dad’s eyes focus on him. “You’ve made a lot as well.”
Alex steps closer as he continues. “It was never about money for me. I couldn’t have cared less if I had nothing. I wanted to make you proud, and for what? You didn’t care about us.”
“The hell I didn’t!” our father yells. His hand swipes across the desk, sending papers flying.
Josh’s hand grips my arm when I instinctually move to clean it up. He shakes his head, and I hate that I did that. But that’s how it’s always been. We clean up his messes. We fix the broken in the family and hope that will be the time it stays together.
It never does.
Joshua’s calm voice sends shivers down my spine. “If you did, Stella wouldn’t be in the position she’s in. Grayson wouldn’t have almost lost his wife and child. I wouldn’t have gone through half of what I did. You’ve hurt every one of us.”
“I gave you everything.”
“Sign the papers so we can be done,” Gray says.
Our father’s eyes move to mine. “So, I’m the villain in all this?”
“No, you’re the fool. You thought you could control us forever, and now you can’t,” I say. “Sign the papers and do one thing we’re asking of you.”
That is the most important thing. Once he signs them, we know we’ll have the money coming to get started. Together, my siblings and I have the knowledge, land, and meetings set up with builders for a few weeks from now. Everything is ready, we just need this done.
“Fine.” Our father leans down, signing his name on each of the five sets of sale papers. “You’ll have your money in two weeks.”
I can feel the tension drain from the five of us. We needed it to be him who bought us out. Yes, if pushed, we would have had an investor come in, but it wouldn’t have been as satisfying. When we become the premiere resort in this area, I want our father to be who suffers, not anyone else.
Oliver plops down in the chair beside me. “I like this desk.”
“Excuse me?” our father asks.
I stare at Ollie, unsure of where in the world he’s going with this. “The desk. I like it. I think we should all get these for our office at our new resort.”
“Resort?”
And now I see what Ollie is doing. “What? You didn’t hear?” Our father’s eyes move from one of us to the other, and then Oliver goes in for the kill. “We’re opening a resort just around the corner. Isn’t that great?”
Dad doesn’t say a word, he just chuckles. “I look forward to watching you all fail.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh, and I push on Oliver’s shoulder, indicating it’s time to leave. “Oh, Daddy, there’s nothing funny about this. We’re going to make this hurt, just like you’ve made sure to do to us.”
“You made a mistake,” Grayson says, rising to his full height. “You forgot that we haven’t needed you around to run the inns in . . . well, ever. We’ll be just fine doing it on our own.”
Joshua grins. “And if you back out now.” He lifts the papers up, jostling them slightly. “We’ll sue you for breach of contract and take the entire company anyway.”
We all exit the room, not looking back, ready to start a life without him in the driver’s seat.
* * *
“She seems to fit in like she was born into it,” Jessica notes, staring at Kinsley, who is hanging out with my brothers.
I should be happy about the fact that it’s true, but it just hurts a bit more.
