Page 118 of Broken Brothers

And wait…

And wait…

I checked my watch. It was 8:45 a.m. This could not have been an accident. Edwin Hunt was not a late man, not in the times I’d seen him conduct business, but it was very obvious what he was doing now—he was fucking with Morgan’s time in the hope that it might cause trouble.

Fortunately for us, we hadn’t scheduled anything else. I had emails I could always answer, but I wasn’t doing that on my laptop so close to Hunt Industries.

Finally, at 8:51 a.m., I heard the voice I’d been waiting for.

“I was wondering when you’d come crawling back here.”

You fucking asshole. Still the same as always, huh.

“Hi Dad,” Morgan said.

The poor dude sounded so nervous he might vomit. I just prayed he stayed strong enough.

“Good to see you, Morgan,” Edwin said, although I can’t say it sounded especially warm or especially sincere. “Come in and let’s talk.”

I heard the sound of the door shutting and footsteps. I took a sip of my hot chocolate as the mic rustled against Morgan’s clothes.

“So tell me why you’re here,” Edwin said. “You’re the one who wanted this meeting. You’re taking up some valuable time of mine, so I hope it’s important.”

“I just wanted to talk to you about MCH,” Morgan said. “Dad, dad, before you get mad, can you just let me explain?”

A silence that followed left me nervously on edge. I didn’t realize how anxious and excited this would make me feel, but it occurred to me how little control I had over everything that was happening right now. It was a strange feeling to have been the one scouting Edwin’s game, only to now be relegated to the sidelines with no influence on what happened now.

“I love you and I have always appreciated what you’ve done for me,” Morgan said. He truly did sound sincere. Breaking away from his father really wasn’t easy. “But there’s something to be said for doing it on my own. Chance had a point. He doesn’t have to rely on the Hunt family name. You didn’t either, did you?”

“No, but do you know how damn hard it was, boy?”

At least he didn’t say boy with the same sneer and condescension that marked it the last time I had heard those words from his lips.

“Do you know how hard it was to get this off the ground? I lost two marriages trying to make this thing work.”

My eyes went wide. I had never heard that about Edwin Hunt. There was an obvious age gap between him and Mrs.Hunt, but I had always just assumed he married late. Well, he married Melanie late, but not women late.

“I lost countless hours of sleep. I sometimes wonder how the hell I’m still alive. And do you think I want that for you? Do you think I want to see my only son suffer as I did?”

My only son.It shouldn’t have made me mad for where I knew I stood with Edwin, but goddamnit, that made my blood boil.

“No, Dad, but… even working here there’s struggle.”

“Of course there’s struggle, boy, but it’s a different kind of struggle. You struggle here, and you still go home to a hefty paycheck and the security of knowing this building, this business, your employees will still be here tomorrow. You struggle with your own firm, you’re out on the streets if you aren’t careful.”

I was surprised to see Edwin sounding… I wouldn’t call it empathic, exactly, but perhaps logically fair was a good assessment. He wasn’t the emotional fireball we’d seen after getting Virtual Realty.

“I had to do so many things just to make sure Hunt Industries survived.”

Here we go.

“But you don’t have to do any of that.”

Damnit.

“You go with that boy, and you may succeed. I won’t lie to you, Morgan, now that you’re alone.”

I almost spit my hot chocolate out at that. It wasn’t a surprise in that it conformed to my expectations, but it was surprising to hear him admit that so bluntly. Edwin had just confessed to lying as long as I was around.