Page 85 of Lavish

“You think rebuilding Whitmore Ventures is gonna fix that? That you can make them respect us again?”

“You’re saying I’ve been wasting my time? That none of it mattered? That I should’ve let it all rot with you?” Sometimes I wanted to do just fucking that.

His jaw clenched. “Don’t start?—”

“No.Youstarted.”

After the accident, he didn’t do shit. Ma and I had to drag him out of bed. I remembered sitting outside his room with a tray of food, knocking until my knuckles were raw. He wouldn’t bathe. Wouldn’t eat. Wouldn’t speak.

“You gave up,” I said. “You let everything Gramps built slip through your fingers.” I felt that familiar anger coming back. “You didn’t fight for anything. For us. We talk a lot of shit about the Kings, but one thing they don’t play about is their name. Their legacy. Say what you want about them, but they protect their own—no matter how messy it gets.”

Again, Miles. Is Whitmore Ventures worth saving? Or do you start something new?

“You were in that courtroom, boy. You watched them pretend we didn’t exist. Watched them rip me apart while they walked away clean. Now you wanna be them? You always wanted to be like that damn Erik.”

I shook my head. “Erik was my brother. I didn’t want to be him, but at least his father poured into him and helped makehim a leader. Maybe we’d be a better family if we gave just afractionof a damn the way they do.”

What I didn’t say—what I was only just starting to admit—was that I didn’t want to be them anymore. Not Erik. Not my father. Not any of the men who wore their legacies like chains.

I wasn’t just trying to fix what my father broke.

I was trying to figure out what belong toMiles.

He didn’t yell. He didn’t deny it. He just looked away. And maybe that hurt worse than anything he could’ve said.

“Look at my boys!” Ma’s voice rang out as she opened the patio doors and stepped outside.

Her silk blouse was pressed to perfection and paired with high-waisted cream trousers, and her locs were pinned into a neat updo, twisted high and tight at the crown of her head.

“Uh-oh.” Ma’s face fell when she realized the tension between us. “Something happened.”

“Yourhusbandhappened.” I stood up, ready to go.

“Miles,” Ma said, and she held up a hand. “Sit.”

I hesitated. “Ma?—”

“We’re not doing this today,” she added.

“He won’t listen to you, Audrey. He’s always been hardheaded like that,” Pops said bitterly.

“Like you?” I countered.

“Miles,” Ma warned. “Please. Don’t upset your father.”

“Sometimes you need to know when to throw in the towel. I think we’ve come to that point,” Pops said. “It’s bad enough we forced you into this marriage. It’s not right.”

“Omar, we discussed—” Ma started.

“I know, but maybe we should just leave town. I think it’s best. I won’t have my son tied to that bloodsucking family.”

“Kinda late for that now that I married into it,” I said sarcastically. “Where were you years ago when I didn’t want this shit?”

My mind flashed with Victor’s voice again.Emails. Texts. A few creative ledgers. It’s not hard to make it look like you were deeper in than you were when you took my money.

“I—” I started, jaw locking halfway through. I was going to say it. Iwantedto say it. Tell them what was really coming for us. That it wasn’t Serena. It wasn’t the Kings. It was something way dirtier. Older. Mine.

But what would it change?