Her voice catches in her throat. “My family will think I am a traitor.”
My hand caresses her cheek as my mind wanders back to her mother’s brunch and the way her family treated her. “Let them. It doesn’t seem like they held you in high regard before.” She gasps and too late I realize what I am doing. I am comforting her. As though I am burned, I withdraw my hand. “I thought you didn’t care what people thought of you?”
She crosses her arms. “A hostile takeover of my family’s company is not a matter of opinion.”
“I’ve never hidden my intentions. I want to destroy all things Hawthorne. I thought you were aware of this when you came to me. One would say the hen invited the fox into the henhouse.”
***
The following couple of days are chaotic as everyone at my company tries to fight the poison pill Nolan set in motion. Instead of accepting the inevitable or try to compromise, he has chosen to fight me. So far, he’s tried to gather all prominent shareholders and convince them not to sell their shares to me. On top of that, he has also asked one of his buddies at the SEC to look into how I acquired my shares. All his efforts are futile and, by the third day, they are looking desperate.
Ivy hasn’t spoken to me ever since we came back from Paris. If anything, I would think she is trying to avoid me. She’s never awake when I come back from work, which to be fair is usually late, and she’s asleep when I go. She put up a fight when I told her the agreement we made in Paris would not change and that we would have to sleep in the same bedroom. It was only when I mentioned Lake she relented. We slept in the same bed, but saw little of each other.
Therefore, it was a surprise when I came back home today to see her still awake and in the living room. Only she isn’t alone. Nolan is with her. Her back is to me while Nolan has the view of the entrance. I don’t catch what they’re saying to each other, but whatever it is, it sounds contentious. Nolan’s gaze falls on me the moment I enter the room.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” I say.
Nolan stands up. “Damien.” At the sound of my voice, Ivy turns and imitates her brother. The two Hawthornes stare back at me as I enter the room.
“I wasn’t sure you’d be back so early,” Ivy says. She’s fidgeting with her fingers. A habit she does whenever she’s feeling anxious.
“Work was a little easier than yesterday. Convincing people to join my cause isn’t as hard,” I turn to Nolan, “when you’ve been a shoddy CEO.”
“Hawthorne is a blue chip company with one of the steadiest prices on the stock exchange.”
“Steadily going down, you mean.”
“All retail is down.” Nolan shakes his head. “See,” he says to Ivy, “He can’t be reasoned with. He wants to destroy us.”
“You must have another reason for being here than arguing with me.”
Ivy gestures at Nolan. She mouths something I can’t make out, like some secret code between siblings. She rolls her eyes and then says, “Nolan came with a proposal.”
“It was your idea, not mine,” he says petulantly.
“Fine,” Ivy turns to me, “How about instead of a takeover we give you a board seat?”
“Three board seats and I will back down.”
Nolan shakes his head. “Unreasonable,” he mutters under his breath. He takes a couple of steps toward me. “What did we ever do to you? What’s with this mission to destroy us?”
“Not much. Just blacklisting me and making sure I never worked in the industry ever again.” Just thinking about how the Hawthornes almost destroyed my life makes my blood boil. One perceived misstep and they made me a pariah, but somehow I am the villain in their story.
Ivy’s eyes widen. “You blacklisted him!” she lightly punches Nolan in the chest.
“That was dad, not me.” Nolan darts his gaze around the room. “But it seems like you got back on your feet easily.”
I search Nolan’s gaze. His face is stone cold, but there’s an admiration that I that he can’t fully mask. “We used to be friends, you and I.”
Nolan glares at me. “And who fucked that up?” He turns to Ivy and says, “You two deserve each other.” Nolan picks up his jacket from the couch and taps his sister’s shoulder. “Don’t come back crying after he rips you into shreds.” I watch him ashe makes his way out of the room and out of the apartment. “Nolan!” Ivy rushes after him just as I hear the elevator doors open.
Fuck them both, honestly. My mind goes to the only Hawthorne I care about. Lake. I go to his bedroom and find him sleeping soundly. He looks so innocent and angelic as he lays arms and legs in abandon. The need to protect him wrings my chest. I make a vow to always be present in his life. He has been influenced by Ivy and her destructive nature for too long. Not anymore.
His eyes flutter open. “Uncle Damien?” My chest constricts. Lake hasn’t gotten accustomed to calling me Dad yet, even though I’ve insisted multiple times. Only he seems uncomfortable to use the term. A dark part of me wants to believe it’s because he doesn’t want me as a father. I quash that doubt.
“Go back to sleep, buddy.”
Lake instead sits up straight. “I wanted to give you something. Mom said I should do it tomorrow at breakfast.”
