Page 58 (1/1)

My father could be ruthless if he found a person lacking Jillian had been fucking terrified the first tiot any easier And this was the nice version of my father—she’d been handpicked for me by him

Before his downfall, he’d had aspirations of sitting on the board of the Federal Reserve, and since Wayne Laolfed with the president twice aour faoal and my political career

I still remembered the family dinner where he’d told me to seduce Jillian

It didn’t le at the ti brother—a few years prior My father and Alice had discussed it, he’d said, and made this decision for me I’d tried to hide my look of betrayal as I turned toan affair for h she’d said sex with , I hadn’t truly believed her until that moment

So, I’d caried out my father’s orders with flawless precision, and to prove to Alice that sleeping with herto me as well, I’d let the whole family catch me with Jillian in the back of a limo, balls deep inside her

It was stupid and childish—not to erous

I hadn’t realized how unstable Alice had become, and it was likely e Her first atte list of things I felt guilty about

After prison, my father moved out and turned the estate over to Royce When my brother became the head of the household, he’d resuh it was infrequent There was a e in the tone of the dinners as well There was no agenda or proposals, and Marist forbid cell phones at the table, forcing everyone to have actual interactions and conversations

I wouldn’t ad

It was kind of nice to knohat everyone had going on in their lives, pretend for a few hours our fa part of the reason for that

But the wayanxious If he had returned to his foro on the attack toward E to allow that It was past time I learned from Royce and started to push back

Had he knoas thinking about hie rolled onto my phone’s screen

Royce: Can you come into the library?

I didn’t bother responding because it was faster to simply walk down the hall and turn in to the room that shelved some of my family’s most prized possessions The walls were lined with books, y-themed chess set usually sat on the desk so she could play my father whenever he ca chair But tonight, the chess board had been moved to the side table under the

It was because my father sat behind the desk, a leather portfolio pinned beneath his hand resting on the desktop Royce was by the , looking out at the grounds and the sprawling hedge randmother had started it, and e

Royce had his back to me, but he heard my entrance “Shut the door”

Unease gripped me like a vise andto get ive you if you don’t apologize,” he’d lectured me

He was absolutely right, but still, I struggled So much time had passed since Alice had cruelly thrown the affair in our father’s face that it had built up and added another layer to uilt I didn’t visit my father when he was sent away because he’d asked me not to He’d claimed he didn’t want me to see him like that, but I knew better

He couldn’t tolerate seeing me after what I’d done

When he got out two years later, he was a different person, and I didn’t kno to navigate the situation with hio about it Still, I’d tried once The day of Sophia’s accident, I’d brought fresh clothes to the hospital for hi, but everything wentsideways