Jarvis seems more or less used to the outbursts though, and he just pats Alex on the shoulder. “I will talk to Kingsley tomorrow, when he’s had some time to think about it, and let him know that it was Ernest’s wishes.”
“And what… what am I supposed to do now?” I stammer, looking at them both for guidance.
Alex sighs. “Jarvis, can you give us a moment?”
“Of course. Miss Pham, you don’t need to worry about anything. We will be here to help you. Just know that your life is about to change, okay?”
For the first time, his smile is comforting more than scary, but maybe that’s just because I feel like I’m in some bizarro world where up is down, I’m a millionaire, and nothing makes any fucking sense.
The office door closes and Alex sighs again, pushes himself to his feet, and comes over to lean against the desk in front of me before taking my hand.
I just hold it out, limp.
“This is all probably really confusing for you.”
“It’s not for you?” I ask with a laugh, giving his hand a squeeze.
He shares the chuckle, but then he looks at me with sad eyes.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” I continue. “I… didn’t expect any of this when he died.”
He just nods and gives me another squeeze. I try to pull away after a few seconds, the touch feeling strange, wrong somehow.
“How are you doing?” I ask, the dark circles around his eyes worrying me.
“I’m hanging in there. This came faster than I thought it would. I thought I’d—we’d—have more time with him.”
I don’t know what to say to that.
When I showed up in London a month ago after getting a message from Alex, I didn’t know what I expected. I didn’t even know if I was going to have a chance to say goodbye to my father. But we’d had time. We’d had a month together. A month of getting to know each other better than we ever had. A month of making frivolous plans for the future, of learning about each other’s past.
But never once, not once did he ever talk about the money he was leaving me, or the company. Not once.
And not once did I even think about it.
That part of his life was always a mystery to me, a part that didn’t exist between us.
“He loved you so much, Alex,” I say, not just to comfort him but because it’s true.
My father had introduced us almost fifteen years ago, and we’ve been in each other’s lives ever since. As one of the only people who knew about me, we had always joked that keeping the secret was an unbreakable bond. We never talked about the day when it wouldn’t matter to keep the secret anymore.
“Did you know? Did you know he was leaving shares in the company to me?” I ask, still shaking my head.
He stands, shoving his hands into his pockets, nodding as he taps his feet on the floor a few seconds.
“He told me the night he died. Not before that. Not a word before that.” He frowns and looks up at me. “Did he say anythingto you that day? I remember you spent almost that whole day there with him.”
I shake my head. “He slept for most of it. And when he was actually awake, I mostly was reading from the book. We didn’t talk about anything like that. He didn’t say anything to me.”
He blinks and sucks in his left cheek, his brown eyes cool as he looks me over. “Really?”
“Really.”
He starts pacing, clearly aggravated. “You didn’t ask him?”
“Ask him about?”
“About… you know…”
