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“Are you ready to listen?” Without waiting for an answer, he steps back, and all the air whooshes out of my lungs before I close my eyes.
No. Fuck no. It’s impossible. I’m losing it. Being here is just bringing up bad memories.
“Look, Leonardo.”
When I open my eyes again, the soft glow of moonlight illuminates the scene in front of me. Blinking doesn’t make it go away. Wishing it away doesn’t make it disappear.
The same couch sits in the middle of the room. The same two end tables straddling it with stylish lamps on them. The same rug stained with red lines the floor. And my father’s legs stick out between the coffee table and the sofa.
Everything is exactly how it was the day I found my father dead.
The wind picks up, and a tree branch scrapes against the big window, the sound like nails scratching against glass.
“You know what I did. We never talked about it, but you know, don’t you, Leonardo?”
My stomach clenches. The need to spew the sick scene in front of me from my memory is overwhelming.
My grandfather walks around the coffee table. He nudges the body, and I lose it. “Don’t touch him!”
Franklin Jarvis sits with a diabolical laugh, his old eyes shining with an evil clarity. “Where does your loyalty lie?”
My fingers flex behind me.
“It’s a simple question,” he prods.
It may be a simple question, but the answer isn’t. I haven’t felt loyal to him in a long time. He has me by the balls though, and he knows it. Eden doesn’t understand, but she doesn’t have to. That money is rightfully mine. It’s my birthright. It’s the last remaining thing from this life that hasn’t been taken away from me yet. I keep scrambling at it, hoping I can sink my fingers into it, but like with everything else, it keeps slipping away.
If I answer his question truthfully, it might slip away for good.
“What’s this about?” I grind out, pulling my head up and thrusting my chin into the air.
“This is about you never being grateful for what I’ve given you.”
“A mother who committed suicide and a father you killed?”
If I expected remorse or any attempt at explanation after accusing him for the first time in all these years, I don’t get it. Not by a long shot.
He lights a cigar, puffing on the end a few times. The spark of his lighter irradiates the scene that much more. Tears well in the corner of my eyes.I don’t know what’s happening. He’s back. It’s—
My grandfather leans against the cushions, one arm stretching along the rear of the couch, while he releases a plume of smoke from his mouth. “I gave you everything you could’ve ever wanted, even after you attempted to escape. You have more than most people in the world do.”
“Some of the poorest people in the world have their parents.”
Grandfather chuckles. “Trust me, your parents weren’t worth anything. Take it from someone who had a great father. Look at the legacy he blessed us with, along with his father before that and so on. Your father was a fool. I got rid of him so you wouldn’t follow in his footsteps, but it doesn’t seem to have played out the way I wanted, does it?”
My throat works, eyes darting down to the legs and the pool of blood. “If you have something to accuse me of, get it over with. I haven’t done anything.”
As if I haven’t said a word, he asks, “Where does your loyalty lie?”
Ashes from the end of his cigar fall onto the couch. Careless. Thoughtless. The man in front of me is the one Jarvis that shouldn’t have been allowed to live. I never met my great grandfather or the one before that, but they couldn’t have been as bad as this one. “That’s a stupid question, and you know it.”
“If you would’ve asked me a few hours ago, I would’ve agreed with you. I would’ve even stuck up for you. You show up at your cousin’s engagement party looking dapper with a beautiful girl on your arm. She might not have been the Astor I would’ve joined you with, but the other isn’t available anymore, is she?” He smirks, talking about Delilah’s death like he takes pleasure in it. “Though, I hear this one is about to marry Keegan Forbes.”
“She won’t marry him,” I growl.
“Considering Keegan can’t be found, maybe she actually won’t.” He takes another drag on his cigar, letting out the puff of smoke in front of him until it obscures his face and leaves the distinct smell of leather and wood in the air. “Did you fall in love with her? Is that it?”
I decide to play dumb. “Who?”