Page 186 of Broken Brothers

And speaking of Morgan…

I saw him walk through with a noticeable pep in his step, feeling as unencumbered and free as I had ever seen him. Even though he had stayed up well past midnight with the board during an emergency meeting and had probably slept less than five hours total, he couldn’t have looked much chipper and upbeat.

“You look alive!” I said.

“How could I not be when I’m looking at the newest board member of Hunt Industries?”

I just laughed. It still felt surreal to realize that which we’d set out to do with MCH had actually happened; and not only that, Edwin would not be taking it over, meaning Virtual Realty could grow and, perhaps most justly, Rising Sun could return to what it once was.

So surreal, in fact, that I still had no idea how the hell it had all happened.

“Too crazy,” I said. “OK, so, tell me. How the hell did this all go down? I’m trying to make sense of it but boy, let me tell you… I spent a good week or so there hating your guts with every ounce of my being.”

“As I probably would have too,” Morgan said. “OK, you got everything? This might take some time.”

“Hell, I ain’t going anywhere,” I said. “Let the damn board figure out its own business with two of its members in absentia.”

“Agreed. OK, so. There came a point a few weeks ago where I realized that as much as I wanted to with you, I could never outwit my dad by being on the other side. I didn’t hate him as much as you do, but after seeing what he did to you with Burnson Investments and Craig Taylor, it felt like a straw too far for me. Fuck over other people, yeah, not ideal, but it doesn’t hit home as hard as seeing you suffer for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was here that I decided I wanted to see him overthrown.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“But, again, I just didn’t see how when we were together. I knew I had to go back to Hunt Industries and be with Edwin, but I knew if I acted in any way other than to pretend to throw you to the curb, Edwin would see right through it. Trust me, I felt horrible for what I did. There were many a nights in which I just wondered if I was doing the right thing, or if I hadn’t driven you over the edge.”

“I was never going to leave this place or kill myself, if that’s what you’re wondering,” I said. “It hurt like hell, but you know I’m a fighter. I’ve had to be ever since I came into your family.”

“That, I’m well aware of,” Morgan said, a hint of a smile forming on his face. “So, yeah, I had to put you through the hellthat I did to make Edwin believe that everything I had done was a means to get rid of you entirely.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me? I could have faked it.”

“Didn’t want to risk it,” Morgan said, although he didn’t look great about that being the reason. “I felt like if you truly felt like you’d been betrayed, your anger and your behavior would seem much more real. Edwin didn’t get to where he is by falling for tricks.”

“It sure as fuck was real,” I said, followed by some boisterous laughter from both of us. “So then what?”

“Well, that’s where it got fun,” he said. “I had Layla act as the middle man between us.”

“Fucking knew it!” I said, snapping my fingers.

“Yeah, the only problem with that was that I didn’t trust Layla at all. I know that you two were getting closer again, and by the way, I need to know what’s going on with that when we’re done here, but my trust for her was shot after what happened with her uncle.”

And who could blame him? I don’t think Morgan ever knew, or even knew now, about her relationship with her uncle. There were so many details left unsaid to him that, if properly explained, might have allowed for some empathy on his behalf for her. But seen from the outside, from Morgan’s position, I could easily see why he didn’t trust her.

“But there was no one else I could go to, no one else whom I knew you’d be around. Claire, maybe, but with Rising Sun dealing with so much trouble, I didn’t think she’d be up for it. So I tested her at first with small bits of information. Not even things you knew. Just things that she could easily refute, like joking about how you must be going out for a drink with her on a weekday. When I saw how fiercely she defended you and stood up for you, I knew I could… well, trust is a strong word, but have available for your sake was something real.”

The more I heard, the more my feelings for Layla began to grow. I still had a whole lot with her to figure out, not the least of which included if I’d give in to her wishes to move out of New York City… but those could wait until I saw her later. For now, I just wanted the debriefing on our greatest business triumph and our greatest proof yet that karma was real.

“Basically, she was the one I gave the recording to initially, she was the one who kept me updated on you, and… yeah. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.”

“No kidding,” I said, feeling a bit speechless.

If ever there was anything anyone could do to make up a public embarrassment like Layla had given me a couple of months ago… boy, had she done it and then some. She’d gone well beyond anything any reasonable person would do to make up for something so atrocious.

“A lot of smoke and mirrors,” I said. “A lot. So Mom? Melanie?”

“Oh, that’s absolutely real,” Morgan said, not looking nearly as broken up about it as I had feared. “I think it had been on her mind for far longer than either of us would care to think about. I think she stayed with him for me and you, at first, but then she just needed something to jump ship. You fighting gave her the inspiration, and so here she is, extracting herself from him like we are.”

“Damn,” I said.

It all felt… well, it was easy for me, but I wondered how this was all weighing on Morgan.