Page 85 of The Innovator

Camille looked at Mom. “When I saw you at the store, I knew it was a sign from God. He wanted me to tell you what I knew.”

“Thank you,” Mom said with a trembling voice.

To lighten the mood, the rest of the conversation was about Camille’s grandkids and how they wanted to go to Disney World in Florida. She didn’t know it yet, but a family vacation would be my gift to Camille. She had given me valuable information, and I couldn’t thank her enough.

This information showed the evil side of Aunt Estelle that I’d experienced as a child. Maybe I should have said something to my parents sooner. Guilt clawed at me.

How could I get the truth about the plane crash? There was no way Aunt Estelle would admit to it. She was a shrewd woman, and I had to take careful steps.

Who had she spoken to on the phone? Who was her accomplice? Why would she do this? For House of LaRue? I was entitled to the company, not her.

Once we got to my apartment, Mom said, “I’ve set up a meeting with her under the guise that you wanted to know the status of the new vendor who’s producing our limited-edition trench coats.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“No. I need a drink.” She went to my wine cabinet and opened a new bottle of red wine. “Otherwise, I might go over there with the first weapon I can find and end that miserable woman. But that would leave you all alone and she’d win. I won’t let the bitch win.”

I embraced my mom, knowing she was hurt, angry, confused, and didn’t know what to do.

“I’ll drink with you.”

After Mom passed out in my guest room, I followed suit in my room without calling Grayson.

CHAPTERFORTY-THREE

GRAYSON

After a brief discussion with my friends regarding Derek’s admission, I walked around my home office. Should I believe what he’d told me? After all he’d done, believing his words would be illogical, but instinct told me to trust him. Could I even trust my instincts?

Apparently, my friends and I hadn’t been as careful as we’d thought. Who else had videos of a group of boys flying drones? At a glance, those videos would have shown teenagers having fun. But someone who had been present on the day of the crime would’ve suspected we might have seen or heard something. They could try to eliminate all evidence.

Had someone else found videos of us but hadn’t come forward yet? That was a possibility that terrified me. A headache throbbed as I tried to figure out my next step.

Trying to calm myself, I walked to my desk to look at something with more hope. I picked up the mini model of The Prism, which Natalie had forgotten to take. I had to accompany her inside this building soon so she could investigate. Knowing her, she’d make another attempt. I couldn’t let her go alone.

The PI had been bombarded with requests from me, including any information he could dig up on the building. That task hadn’t been on his to-do list until recently. Hopefully, he’d have some useful information soon.

I stared at the printout of Three Point Park. Geometric shapes played an important role in architecture. As a child, I’d been good at piecing things together. Now, as a man with vision, I’d applied that ability to my life.

However, I’d been ignoring that ability. Why? Good question. Perhaps I was afraid to see the truth—my weakness. No man wanted to admit he had a weakness. Acknowledging that would be an absolute defeat.

But everything changed when Natalie entered my life like an unexpected beam of sunlight, cutting through the muck, going straight to my heart. As I got to know her, the sunray brightened, burning away the darkness, and I couldn’t help butseethe flaw within myself.

Derek had murdered my father; that was a fact. He took away my chance to bond with a man whose blood ran in my veins—the legacy I was supposed to carry. I could never forget or forgive Derek. But I understood what drove him to his demise. Greed. It fed on a man’s soul, making him believe money gave him power, which he thought could fill the void in him.

Money carries darkness that can trap you forever.

I now understood that statement he’d told me so long ago.

If money was sunlight, too much of it blinded a man. Too little made a man see only the darkness, thus craving more sunlight.

The difference between me and Derek was that love had given me the ability to step back and look at myself from an objective perspective. I could detach myself from everything. A detached man started at zero—had nothing, wanted nothing. As I scanned the horizon from that zero axis, I knew where I stood and what I wanted.

I inhaled a breath as I faced the frightening flaw: I had loved Derek. He had been a father to me when I needed one. He’d helped me with homework, took me to games, and showed me how to build a tree house—a symbol of hope and a dream for a young boy who didn’t recognize his capability. He helped me make the dream—that had also been my father’s—come to fruition.

My chest constricted as I faced this revelation. A massive tidal wave washed over me in slow motion as I tried to grasp onto something stable.

Last year, the truth about Derek had crushed me, sending me into a frenzy where I didn’t know what to feel. How could I have feelings for a man who had murdered my father? Wouldn’t that be a betrayal? A storm of confusion and guilt had warred inside me from that day. I became a prisoner in my own hell.

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