“You slept with her? Nice,” Hunter said.
The two of them clapped hands above my head as I stood there, rooted in shock. This was why my brothers were always so encouraging of my insane ideas. This was why they were always helping me out whenever I needed to get away and breathe. Our father was trying to control them as much as he was trying to control me.
I had no idea he was doing that to them.
“This is absurd!” my father said with a roar. “I will not have my children wandering about like a lost herd of buffalo! You ungrateful, small-minded toddlers. Everything I built was to hand down to you guys. All of this wealth. This house and your educations-”
“Well, their educations,” I said. “I didn’t get one.”
“You will listen to me!” my father roared.
“I will not!” I said. “I will not stand here and continue to be berated. And now that I understand that my brothers are just as unhappy, I will not stand here and allow you to wreak havoc on their lives either. You have a choice, Dad. You can give us the freedom to discover our own lives and have us around, or you can cast us out and be done with it. But I can promise you this. I’m sure the media would love to know exactly how you treat your family on a regular basis. I bet that wouldn’t bode too well for what you built to pass down to us, would it?”
My fists were clenched at my side as my brothers stood around me. Our eyes were trained on our father as he loomed over us. He seemed taller than normal. Darker and angrier than I had ever seen him. My knees were shaking, but I couldn’t show him weakness. Businessmen like my father thrived on weakness. The moment I showed it, he had the upper hand and there was no getting it back.
I looked into his eyes as my mother shed tears behind him. My heart leapt out for her. I loved my mother, I really did. But the life she had chosen for herself was one that had been imposed on her. She was as happy as she portrayed herself to be, but that was it. No one could ever be able to convince me that this was the life she would’ve chosen had someone stood up for her. Stood beside her, like my brothers were doing for me.
“Get out of my sight,” my father said. “We’ll discuss this later. Like civil adults.”
I sighed as a smile cr
ossed my face.
“But if you think the three of you are getting any slice of anything I’ve left for you after this blatant portrayal of disrespect, then you are sorely mistaken,” my father said.
“We can discuss it later,” I said. “Like civil adults.”
Fourteen
Travis
Every day that crept by had me more and more worried for Ava. I figured she would’ve already come back to the cabin by now. At least to update me on how things with her father went. Each day that passed by without her presence on my doorstep made me wonder what he had done to her. What type of punishment he had imposed in order to get her to fall back in line. No one could blame her if she had. Not even myself. She was a scared, uneducated twenty two year old girl whose knowledge of life came from nothing but the books she could sneak into her own home. She wanted a life for herself. She craved the ability to make her own decisions.
But it was hard to fight a burning passion with years of habits and tradition.
I went out to get the mail and scanned the horizon. I was listening out for any sounds of a car coming up the driveway. I pulled the scant mail from the mailbox and sighed, resolving myself to the fact that Ava wasn’t coming around today either.
But a letter staring me in the face ripped me from my trance.
It had Breathline Energies logo on it but was addressed to my father. I furrowed my brow as I opened up the letter, standing in the middle of the driveway. My eyes scanned the words as anger percolated in my gut. It was yet another threatening letter from Ava’s father’s fucking company. Saying some shit about getting the government involved if we didn’t sell our land. This company was relentless. Her father was relentless. And if he governed his family with the same techniques he used for his business, then Ava didn’t stand a chance fighting him alone.
The only thing I could hope was that her brothers would stand by her side.
The letter went on to state that the government would side with them in an argument to run a gas line through the mountains. This was the third threatening letter they had sent to us after they took their run at us in the media. Either way, I knew our company lawyers were going to have to get involved soon, which was shit because my parents were currently on vacation.
Which meant the call to the lawyer fell on my shoulders.
“Mr. Benson. What can I do for you?”
“Hey there, Richard. Look, is there any way I can set up a meeting with you?” I asked.
“Let me guess. Breathline Energies,” he said.
“You got it. I’ve got their third threatening piece of mail, but this one is from their own lawyers,” I said.
“We can get a meeting on the books. Do you want me to reach out to your parents about this?”
“No, no. Don’t bother them. I’ll give them a call. Dad doesn’t usually pick up his cell phone while they’re down there, but if I leave him a message he’ll call back,” I said.