“Oh, Tristian, meet my best friend, Stacey.”
“Uh, well, hi there.” She awkwardly stuck out her hand.
“Great to meet you,” he acknowledged then said, “Beck, Sheridan. Nice to see you again. Didn’t know you were here.”
“We heard Miss Bossy Pants had corralled you upstairs,” Dad said.
Easton patted Dad’s cheeks. “I’m not Miss Bossy Pants. I’m Easton Sheridan Bridges. Wanna see the oonicorn we drew?”
“Why don’t you go upstairs and get it, peanut?” I asked.
She crawled off Dad’s lap and ran toward the stairs.
“Walk, please,” I reminded her.
I sat up and Stacey got her first look at me. “Oh, my God. That dickhead is going to pay for this, English.”
Tristian’s eyes met mine as he said, “He certainly is.”
Chapter Fifteen
Tristian
The days following English’s attack were rough. She and Easton were never too far from my mind and I fretted over leaving the country. What if something happened while we were gone?
My brother had been released from the hospital but nurses came in to care for him during the day. I visited him one afternoon following his return home.
“Hey.”
I was surprised at how down he appeared. “Hey, I would think you’d be happy to be here,” I said.
His pinched expression said otherwise. “You don’t have Mother to contend with on an hourly basis. She comes in here and wants to know when I’ll be going to back to work.”
“No surprise there. Want me to have a talk with her?”
He sneered. “She won’t listen to anyone. Ever since Dad straightened things up after Uncle Tom died, all she’s interested in is how much money the company’s bringing in.”
That immediately gained my attention. “Say what?”
“She’s greedy. I thought you knew that.”
“No, Stanton, not that. I was talking about the part about Dad straightening out the company.”
“Oh, I figured you knew Uncle Tom was the link to all the shady business dealings. After he passed, Dad cut those ties. We suffered a little for a couple of years because of it, but then things rebounded and our business took off like a rocket. Pretty sure people heard we’d changed our ways, and they wanted to work with us afterward.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
He circled a finger in the air. “If you recall, you left, not wanting anything to do with it.”
“True, but that was because things were not on the up and up. Dad knew that. He always knew that.”
“But, Tristian, Dad also knew you fell in love with photography early on and he wanted you to do that. I honestly think Dad wanted you to love what you did.”
I wondered now if I’d acted too hastily. I’d been harsh with my father because of what I knew about the business. He’d never denied any of it, but also never said he wanted things to be different. I’d always assumed he agreed with it. My bad. Shit, I wished we could’ve had a conversation about it before he died.
“Hey, you okay?” Stanton asked.
“Yeah. No. The last time I spoke with Dad things were awful between us. I said some truly terrible things to him and now I wish I could take them back.”
“Tristian, he always knew how you felt about the company and he respected how honest you were. He didn’t want you here if you found something else that made you happy.”
“Um, Stanton, has Mother told you about the will?”
He rolled his eyes. My brother actually did that. “Yeah, and don’t worry. It’s yours.”
“I don’t want it. Besides, I’m not a married man.”
My brother blinked several times. “What did you say?”
“I’m not a married man.”
“Not that, you idiot.”
“You mean the ‘I don’t want it’ part? But the real question is why would Dad leave it to me knowing he wanted me happy doing my own thing?”
My brother fidgeted in his bed.
“Okay, big bro, time to fess up.”
“You’re right. I wanted you here part time so we could be a family again. I sort of mentioned it to Dad, but never figured he’d take me literally.”
“Well, he did and I don’t want it. But why would he put that marriage part in?”
“Because Dad wanted all of us to get married. He probably figured this was one way to make it happen.” Then something else occurred. His eyes narrowed with anger. “She lied to me.”
“Who?”
“Mother, who else? She told me you couldn’t wait to get your hands on things and would probably run it into the ground.”
It was my turn to simmer with anger. “I always knew she was conniving, but this goes beyond that. She’s trying to keep us apart. We haven’t been close in years, but she’s trying to put an even bigger wedge between us.”
“But why? What does she have to gain?”
“I don’t know. When I told her and the attorney during the reading that I didn’t want it, they both said I had no choice.”
“Hold on. That’s another lie. I was with Dad when he talked about things. He would never put you in that position. Coming back, yes, but not forcing your hand.”
After what Stanton told me, I believed him. He had no reason to lie. “Then something is definitely up with her and I’m going to find out. Whatever it is, that lawyer buddy of hers, Sherman, is involved.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll engage the assistance of the corporate attorneys and have them dig into this. This is crap and you and I both know it.”
“Call Ryan. He’s the best.”
“I will. I’m already working with him on something else.” I decided to fill him in on English’s situation.
“Damn, it’s a good thing you went there.”
Every time I thought of it I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “So true. I can’t fathom what would’ve happened if I hadn’t.”
Stanton grinned. “You two close or something?”
I scoffed. “I wish. I finally got her to agree to go to dinner with me. She thinks I’m a first-class prick, and rightly so.”
“What the hell did you do?”
“Long and painful story, but I’m trying my best to make it up to her.”
“If you ask me, you’ve scored a shitload of brownie points by saving her ass from that dickhead.”
“By the way, that dickhead is the son of one of the governor’s top aides.”
Stanton sneered. “Figures. The governor is the biggest crook next to the mafia. Rumor is he’s involved in organized crime and that’s how he got elected.”
“Fuck. That’s scary. For English, I mean.”
“Damn, I didn’t think of that. There’s another rumor going around that he’s going down too.”
“I hope you’re right. And I hope he goes down fast.”
“So, Tristian, what are you going to do? With the company, I mean?”
“You’ll still run it, of course. I’m not giving up my career, happy to say.”