Page 36 of True Honey
Drew curled her hand into mine without asking, her smile sweet and eyes softening with each step. Logically I understood that she was putting on the show I had asked of her but the feeling of her hand in mine brought a small comfort as we wandered into the lion's den. Dinner tonight was going to be a shit show but at least I had her to keep me distracted. The stress of upholding a lie of that magnitude consumed all my thoughts and made it easier to focus on the current problem in front of me.
Getting the board to approve Grandpa’s move to sign the shares over to me was all that mattered. The phone call I’d had with Dad earlier that day had proven every dark suspicion I’d had about his motives.
“I heard he’s sick,” Dad said from the other end of the shoddy phone call.
“Who told you?” I asked, mostly because I needed to know if there was someone leaking information.
“He did,” Dad practically snarled, “just because I’m stuck in this concrete box doesn’t mean my entire family has shunned me, Silas. He wants what’s best for everyone.”
What was best for everyone, was not best for my father. But for some reason he held on to the narrative that he was the victim in all of this. I had seen Josh’s scars, there was only one victim here and if I could prevent more damage at the hand of my father I’d do anything.
“I’ll be out in a few weeks and ready to take my position on the board. I’ll need you to start running some interference with the press, force their hands and flip the story back on my side. We can say this was all a misunderstanding, that there was a disgruntled lower level employee who pinned it all on me. We have work to do with Harbor, it’s time our town sparkles again,” he was rambling as my heart raced in my chest angrily. “I’ve been speaking with a developer about getting a new stadium up, one with the capacity for a casino. We could be making so much more money on that team if we ran the gambling that flowed in and out of Harbor.”
He wanted to…what? I swallowed tightly.
“You aren’t getting those shares,” I said bluntly, “and you aren’t getting out of prison.”
“Those shares are already mine, kiddo and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it so if you want to keep living your cushy life as a second rate doctor at the University that I funded to hire you, then you’re going to start following orders and get me the hell out of here.” He threatened, his voice low and promising.
“You don’t feel remorse for a single thing you did, do you?” I asked him, my mind wandering back to the images of Josh’s apartment that were burned into my memory. The smell of his mother, the garbage… the locks on his bedroom door. The shame and guilt my mother felt every time she had to leave the house only to be hounded by the press about her adulterous husband. The way no one could enjoy anything anymore without it being tarnished by Charles Shore.
“I didn’t do anything.”
I hadn’t even realized I stopped walking before we even got into the house, Drew paused beside me watching my face cautiously as I ran through the conversation again. Tonight was the most important step toward protecting everything we had built.
“Are you okay?” Drew asked me and it took me a moment but I nodded at her, another lie to add the mountain that was forming. She squeezed her hand in mine and I forced a weak smile to my face. I went to step inside the house butshe stopped me, angling her small body in front of mine and letting go of my hand.
Her fingers fidgeted with my tie. She hesitated, clearly debating whether to say anything, then looked up at me and spoke.
“Two rules,” she whispered just for me and I met her gaze. “Rule one, if you want to leave at any point tonight, we go. No questions asked,” she said and I couldn’t help the smile that curled on my lips.
“What if?” I said and she shook her head.
“Don’t immediately break rule one,” she mocked my voice and I chuckled, letting her continue. “Rule two, no more being mean to your brother to make yourself feel better. He’s nervous too, his hands are shaking.”
I wanted to tell her that it wasn't from nerves, but from touching her, but I wasn’t about to dump ten years of trauma into her lap ten minutes before dinner.
“Seems someone has been doing their research,” I said to her as she fixed the tension on my tie. The ring on her left hand glinted in the sunlight and reminded me what we were going through hell for.
“Ella is a very sweet girl and made me a study sheet,” Drew said, “we spent a lovely morning together going over everything. I’m ready.”
“She won’t say a word,” I said quickly, trying to head off whatever worry flickered behind her eyes.
“Is that better?” She asked me, ignoring the statement.
“Better,” I said.
It was odd how quickly our anxieties mirrored each other and how the roles were reversed. I didn’t feel like I was being strangled alive anymore so yeah, it was much better. I continuously forgot how observant she was, she had spotted me that day at Hilly's with such eloquence I should have been prepared for how smooth she could be when she actually got to know me.
“Are you ready?” she asked me, stepping back to admire her handiwork.
I took her hand again and led her inside the massive house, her eyes widened in shock as I took her through each room, showing her the history of a family that would soon be hers.
No, not hers. Not for real.
Josh was already being bored to death by business conversation that he wanted no part of but Seymour didn’t give a shit what anyone wanted. He just liked to talk. Dean looked uncomfortable sitting on the sofa in the lounge holding two glasses of whiskey. I wandered over and took one off his hands.
“Seymour poured it for Josh even after he told him no,” Dean said quietly, lifting his cup to his lips. It was no different than the last few dinners that Josh had joined me for, Seymour didn’t believe anyone could be an alcoholic, let alone be a recovering one.
