Page 136 of Lavish

“Yeah. I think it’s time,” I said. “You’ve been doing most of the heavy lifting anyway. I want you to take over. For real this time. Full title, full control.”

“Okay. What’s your plan?”

“I want to start something new. Build something from the ground up—with my name on it. It’ll still be a part of the family’s portfolio, but it’s mine.”

There was a pause. Then she smiled, soft and proud and a little sad.

“Then that’s what you’re gonna do.”

I looked down at our joined hands.

“Your father’s in the living room.”

I knew what she was saying. Bite the bullet. Do it.Finally.

Squeezing her hand, I turned to head into the living room.

“Hey, old man, how’s it going?”

“Mama Teagues got me watching this garbage,” he grumbled, his eyes glued to the screen as he nodded along to the plaintiff’s testimony.

“Do you have a second to spare?”

He nodded, the silence of the room amplifying the sound of his neck cracking slightly as he turned to look at me.

“Did he apologize for what he did to your face?” Pops said.

“I’m not here to talk about Erik,” I said. “It’s about Serena.”

“Don’t tell me she set you up.”

I shook my head. “I love her.”

Pops blinked at that.

“I’ve loved her for a while. Years now. I just didn’t tell you and Ma.”

Pops turned fully in his seat to give me his undivided attention.

“For the last six years, you’ve sat around this house sulking. Not doing anything. Leaving it all for me to fix. Your name’s still on the company’s deeds, but it’s me out there trying to clean up your mess. Trying to rebuild something people laugh at now.”

Pops frowned at me.

“I’m tired, man,” I told him. “I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m tired of trying to fix something I didn’t break and then dealing with the bullshit that follows. I want to just be with Serena. I just wanna do something that’s me.”

“I didn’t ask you to do anything.”

“You also didn’t stop me. You haven’t for six years. You’ve been sulking. You’ve been a victim.”

He flinched at the words.

“No one made you do what you did, Pops, but it’s Ma and me who been dealing with shit. What have you done? You haven’t protected us. Nor have you stood up for us, and I don’t know why you even did it in the first place.”

I blinked, feeling a surge of emotion hit me.

“I always thought you would tell me why. We had everything we could have possibly wanted. Why do the drugs? Why hide it? Why bring down everything without so much as a goddamn sorry?”

Pops looked back at the screen. The judge on TV was frowning, and I saw Pops’s hand curl around the remote control.