Page 75 of Daddy's Game

“I just had to see for myself. Look at yourself, Brock. You’ve really hit a new low. You never used to drink to excess.”

“I never lost the love of my life, either. Leave me alone, Sam. I can’t deal with your particular brand of insistent snark today.”

“Well, too bad. I’m here, and I’m not leaving until I know you’re going to be all right. Why did Grace break up with you, anyway?”

“TGRI is trying to rezone her block for commercial purposes. If they succeed, they’ll be just a hop, skip, and a jump away from using Imminent Domain to force her to sell.”

She snorted.

“So? What does that have to do with you? You don’t own that company, do you?”

“No, but I'm on the board of directors.”

“Oh.”

She sighed.

“You weren’t in on the plan, were you?”

“Of course not.”

“But you didn’t tell Grace you were on the board?”

I hung my head.

“No.”

“I see. You should have told her.”

“I know.”

“Did you even get to pop the question?”

I’d told my step-mother about my plans to propose to Grace. She helped me pick out the ring.

“No…”

I covered my face with my hand.

“I’ve fucked it up, Sam. She’ll never trust me again. There’s no point in even denying it.”

“So you’re just going to give up? That doesn’t sound like the Brock Richards I helped to raise into a fine man. That sounds like…that sounds like loser talk.”

“Iama loser. I lost Grace, and that means more to me than all the money in the world.”

She whistled.

“Wow. I wish I’d have recorded you saying that, because I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth.”

“You’ve said your piece. Now kindly leave so I can go back to wallowing in misery.”

“Not a chance. You need to do something about this.”

“I already told you, Grace broke up with me. She threw me out of her center–”

“Not about that– at least, not yet. No, you made her a promise you were going to help her save the center. And you always keep your promises, don’t you?”

I pulled my hand away from my face and looked at her somber, and sober, for the first time in days.

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