“Everything’s going to be just fine. Tell me when your mom is with you.”
“Okay.” There’s a pause. “She’s here. I’m in the studio now.”
“Okay. Put it on speaker, please.” I hear the sound change. “Please listen, Sylvia,” I say and my voice cracks a little. “Let me fix this for once and for all.” I don’t wait for her reply but drop the phone into my shirt pocket and get out of the truck.
I take a deep breath, then stride toward the house and a confrontation I wish we didn’t have to have.
The door opens before I reach it and Mrs. Taylor, the current housekeeper, appears. “Mike! I didn’t know you were expected for dinner tonight.”
“I’m not, Mrs. Taylor. Is my father here?”
“Well, of course. He’s with his guests.” She flutters, obviously aware that Dad doesn’t like to be disturbed at a meal. “I’ve only just served the roast beef….”
“I know the way,” I say and head for the dining room. I march straight in there and the patter of polite conversation abruptly stops. Dad is at the head of the table, Candace at the other end. In between are Ethan and Madison, Elke and Abbie. I nod to my sister, and she nods back, her manner watchful.
“Michael!” my father says. “You should have told me that you would attend. I was just telling Elke …”
“I’m not staying.”
“If you’re here to discuss Ethan’s appointment in a more reasonable manner, that will have to wait until after dessert.” His voice hardens. “I advise you also to change your tone.”
“The place will go under in six months thanks to your choice. It’s not my problem anymore.”
A ripple of surprise passes around the table and if anything, the room becomes more silent. “But you didn’t mean what you said earlier about quitting the firm.” My father laughs lightly. It sounds forced. “Everyone knows that Cavendish Enterprises is your life, Michael.”
“It has been, and that was my mistake.”
“But you can’t mean that…”
“I do mean it.”
He puts aside his knife and fork, giving me a genial smile. His gaze is hard, though, and I see a vein at his temple. “I have to tell you, Michael, that if you’re here to beg forgiveness, you’re making a bad start. Haven’t I taught you anything?”
“You’ve taught me a lot, Dad. Probably too much.” He straightens, apparently indignant, but uncertain. “You’ve always had opinions, Dad, and you’ve always been certain that everything should go your way. That’s one thing, but you’ve been cruel and unkind as well.”
“Me?”
“You abandoned Louise Jones after you got her pregnant, after you cheated on my mother. Then you treated her son,yourson, Luke, even worse. He exists because of you, but you did everything you could to compromise his childhood. Did you want him to die so the evidence of your infidelity would vanish?”
My father flushes. “Whatever I did about Luke Jones is none of your business,” he begins to bluster.
“Perhaps this discussion could occur at a better time, Mike,” Candace says with a prim smile.
“There is no better time than now,” I tell her. “Because how Dad treated Lukeismy business. He’s made it my business by threatening to do the same thing to my own daughter, unless her mother took her away again.” I hear Abbie gasp as I advance on my father. “Tell me the truth, Dad. Did you talk to Sylvia when she called years ago? Did you tell her that I never wanted to see her again? Did you lie to her?”
“I told her what she should have figured out for herself.”
“Did you lie to me?”
“Whatever I said was for your own good…”
“Did you lie to me?”
“Of course, I did!” he roars. “I told her to go away. I defended your interests, Michael, and when you were too much of a fool to see your path, I told you what you needed to believe. Don’t unravel all of that now, for the sake of some woman who is unworthy of you.”
“I love her!”
“Love! What does that have to do with anything?” My father rises to his feet. “You have always had a responsibility, Michael, to me and to the firm and if I had to remind you of it, that’s your mistake. You can’t choose this woman over your legacy. You can’tleave the firm.”
