“That name is what made you a hotel mogul and me a scientist. Or did you forget where you came from?” she questioned, and my head whipped back to her. And with no shame, she stared back. “Do you think it is by accident or just pure love that your mother is married to Neal Callahan? No. Melody Callahan chose your mother to make sure Neal didn’t end up with someone she did not trust. Before that, who was Mina? I can’t even remember your mother’s maiden name, and my memory is solid. Your mother was no one. She had to crawl and fight out of poverty, worked every day of her life so she could go to a good university and provide for her daughter, you. And guess where all her hard work got her? A job as Melody Callahan’s assistant. Melody, who didn’t even go to a university, but some unknown, random community college in the middle of nowhere. I don’t even think she graduated. But even still, she ended up the governor of the goddamn state. No one brought it up, no one questioned it. Why? Because she was Melody Callahan. Because that name meant more to everyone else than your mother’s fucking hard work. Do you really think we would have anything we have today without the last name Callahan?”
“You make it sound like no one from poverty ever makes it to wealth. It’s been done. It can be done. Hard work can—”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about a few million. I’m talking billions on top of billions. Of the five hundred largest publicly-traded companies in this country alone, there are only four women of color as CEOs. Two of them are my mother and me. Do you want to know how many Asian women are on that list?”
“I’m guessing my mother and me.” I winced, feeling the heat and pain in my thigh again.
“We bow down here because people will bow down to us everywhere else. It doesn’t matter how smart we are. It doesn’t matter how hard we work. Without that name, we would not be where we are today, and you know it. Which is why you still identify as Ms. Callahan instead of Mrs. Khan.”
“Is that the reason? Maybe we’d all be happier with a few million instead of billions. Maybe less is better.”
“If that is the case, why are you in Chicago and not Seoul? Why aren’t you happy being just Mrs. Khan?” she shot back, and I didn’t answer her. So, she went on. “Having power, keeping power, being at the very top of the totem pole, comes with a price we all must pay. If you are tired of paying, get out of the way. That’s the way the world works. You don’t change it by bitching or making it harder for anyone else. We are all trying to readjust with her here.”
“I need to get stitches for my leg, Helen,” I grumbled.
“Do it, the
n take a few more days before you come back to apologize,” she demanded, and I was really fucking getting tired of her condescending lectures.
“I—”
“Before you snap at me next,” she glared, “think about Sedric. Think about your father and your mother. You just think. You want to start a civil war inside because of your pride? I’ll let you know right now, I will not be on your side for it.”
It felt like my heart was being ripped out as I exhaled. “I knew you were just as cold-hearted as Dona. That’s why you two always got along so well. You just never voiced it before. Glad to see you are finally being yourself.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re on the outside now and hurt. When you’ve been welcomed back in, I’m sure you and I are going to be best friends again. Until then, no one will contact you. Do not do anything stupid; I am begging you as your family.”
Just like that, she got out of the car and, without a word, slammed the door behind her.
When she was gone, I exhaled hard, placing my hands over my face.
Fuck her for being right.
Everything she said was right, which was why it hurt. I’d royally fucked up and, in turn, hurt Sedric, too. I was supposed to be smarter than this.
Fuck!
8
“Intuition is the nose of the heart.”
~ Amit Cilantro
WYATT
“I can see you’re pissed. But do you have to be pissed in front of me?” I asked Sedric, trying to readjust the pillow under my leg, seeing as I still had to fucking heal. Goddamn bones. I hated being stuck in bed. And I hated it even more with him pacing in front of my goddamn bed.
“Your brother confuses the shit out of me!” he snapped at me.
“Yeah, he does that. He’s Ethan,” I said as I ate from the cherry cup of Jell-O in my hands.
He was ready to pull his hair out. “Nari was shot, and he did nothing! Nothing! Actually, no, he did something; he allowed her to be kicked out of the house. What happened to family first? What happened to the rules?”
“The rules?” I chuckled, shaking my head. “If you are talking about the Callahan family rules, you should know Ethan doesn’t subscribe to them. Every time Father would tell one of us something, Ethan would try to find a hole in its logic. The ones he agreed with he sort of kept, but for most of them he—”
“That is not the point!” he hollered, and I shrugged, taking another bite of my Jell-O and let him go on. “The point was my sister was shot! If this was Dona—”
“It’s not Dona, though. Don’t compare my sister to yours; there is a difference,” I said.