His face got so red, I thought he might burst across the table. Instead, he whispered, “It should have been you trying to save me in the fire. Not your mother. Your mother listened. She tried. She kept her wits about her. Unlike you.”
I could only imagine that my face got as red as his. That I looked like I wanted to jump across the table at him too. “You think it should have been me but it shouldn’t have been anyone. We should have let you burn, Frank. We should have let you die there. Now, instead, I’m without the one person who loved me from my very beginning. I have to carry her memory with just the trust fund she left me. Believe me though, I will carry on her memory even if you won’t. Even if you try your best to continue to never acknowledge her death, her life, her spirit.”
His smile was slow but it crept up as I talked and was a bright, blinding white like I’d made his stupid day by the time I finished what I had to say.
“You want to know why your boy comes here to visit every now and then?”
I didn’t answer him but he knew I wanted that. He knew I was basically salivating to know. His smile told me I shouldn’t. His smile reinforced what I thought I knew when I’d left Jax this morning. Whatever I found out today would end us for good.
“He comes to help me keep my business afloat.”
My stomach churned as bile rose in my throat. I wanted to ask why but knew I didn’t have to. Frank looked too excited. He was leaning over the table like he couldn’t wait to continue his story.
“He didn’t want me to tell you. He started coming here from some guilt. You know, he could have woken me up in that fire, saved us all a lot of trouble. He didn’t though, and it scared him as a little boy. He wanted some sort of redemption by coming to visit me. He threw that trust fund in my face and I laughed, Aubrey. I laughed so hard.”
I looked at him bewildered, not understanding what he was getting at.
“Neither of you knew—your mother never had access to my money. To any money. That trust fund was set up by the Stonewoods for you. They didn’t want you to feel like a charity case. Without me though, and without them, you are. Your mother never could have left you anything because I made her. I owned everything. I still do. Well, except for some of my company now. You know who owns a part of it?”
I shook my head, wanting it all not to be real, wanting this to be a dream, wanting to wake up.
“Jax owns a part of it now. So, I would have kept our little trust fund secret like he’s always wanted me to in order for him to come here and keep helping me, but now he’s invested enough in my company that he wouldn’t dream of screwing me and himself over.”
“You made this agreement to not share anything with me?” My voice sounded far away. So far down a tunnel that I could barely hear it.
“It was the only way, sweet daughter of mine.”
I stood up so fast the chair I sat in tipped back and clattered to the floor.
He chuckled to himself, like I’d made his day.
I knew I told him he was sick, that there was no redemption for a man like him. Something along those lines but I couldn’t be sure of anything else except that he yelled to me as I walked away, “My daughter should wear white and dress like a lady. Remember that next time you come to visit me.”
There wouldn't be a next time, I told myself as I rushed to get out of there. I couldn't remember how I stumbled to the truck, how I managed to get it started and maneuver my way out of the gates and around the frenzy of paparazzi that must have caught wind of me visiting. I didn’t even remember the drive home.
I almost expected Jax to greet me when I got through my apartment door but the place only had a lingering smell of him.
As I shut the door, I gasped for a breath of air. It felt like the first breath I'd taken since I'd run from the truth, from the reality that I wasn't sure I’d ever be able to stomach or get over.
Jax had made a deal or two with the devil. Deals he'd tried to keep from me. Secrets he'd hidden from me for so long. With all this time together, he'd never told me.
I started for my room but before I got further, Katie and Vick barreled in the front door with Rome following behind them, looking somewhat bored and a little irritated.
"You ready for the launch?" Vick belted out like she was yelling across a stadium.
"Launch?" I racked my brain, stumbling through the chaos of emotions to figure out what she was talking about.
Vick looked surprised and then frowned with a little bit of disgust as she replied, "Brey, Jax has been working on this music app forever. Pull it together!”
I probably looked stunned because they all looked at me like I was crazy.
Vick continued as if I was a child that she needed to explain the situation to. “His concert to launch the app is a huge deal. The media has been covering it for weeks. He never, ever performs! They say he won’t ever again after this. Do you think that’s true?”
I opened my mouth and then snapped it shut. I knew the answer but now I wondered. Did I really know him at all? Was anything he’d said true?
“Girl, you okay?” Katie stepped forward but I stepped back. I needed a minute. Or a freaking lifetime.
Rome stepped in front of Katie and blocked me from their view as he turned to them and said, “I need to talk to her for a minute.”