I held up a finger, gesturing to her to wait a moment as I turned back to Daddy. “Okay, I know this is going to be rude with her right here and all, but I’m gonna need you to be real with me here. How much influence, power, or knowledge does she know about the business? I don’t want to assume one thing only to end up getting you or her in trouble when I spill the beans about something.”
“Casimira knows most, but there are some things I keep strictly between those whoneedto know. More so for her safety if she were ever to get taken,” Daddy answered. “When it comes to things about you, that’s your call on what you’d like her to know or not. I understand telling us about your nightly activities to even the score, but if you wish her to leave or not to answer a question, both of us will respect that.” He glanced over at her as he returned to his seat. “Won’t we?”
“Of course, darling. Astin and I need time to build a relationship. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head down for breakfast,” she answered, kissed Father on the cheek, and left.
“She’s going to need some time to adjust as well. None of us expected this to get so out of hand the way it did last night. All of this was handled poorly from start to finish,” Daddy said and picked up his coffee cup once more.
“Are you sure you should be drinking that with whatever’s going on with your heart?” I inquired. “I’m not a doctor or anything, but to me, caffeine sounds like a bad idea.”
“Yes, so thankfully, this is decaf. And I drink it… one, to appear normal, and secondly, because I truly love the taste of coffee,” he answered with a chuckle. “I’m not sure if it really sank in with everything else I said, but, Astin, this isn’t something I’m going to get better from. I could go on the donor list and ask for a new heart, but that would be like signing my own death warrant. Yes, there’s the black market, but still, everyone talks for the right amount of money. I have an amazing doctor who’s been looking after me, and I trust him not to kill me in my sleep. We reached the end of the road with what we could do. It’s time for me to start setting affairs in order, meaning bringing you home and getting things underway.
“Now, I’m not going to die tomorrow, but I’m also not the man I used to be. Having you know is going to make this easier. I need you in meetings to hear what people are saying, to take the bull by the horns, and make people listen. I’ve been surviving the past year with Liu, but he isn’t going to be in charge. You are. The Caprioni business needs to be respected and feared by someone, and right now, it’s not me. Once it was, but my health has made me weak in more areas than I realized. My mind isn’t as sharp to catch the double play like it once could,” Daddy explained, laying it all out on the table between us.
“You, my beautiful ruthless daughter, are exactly what this world needs, and I’ve known that all my life. Can you trust me when I say having you become the underboss wasn’t decided because you’re my blood? I picked you over everyone time and time again when I saw your test scores. You, my girl, have a brilliant mind that reminds me of me when I was your age. I don’t expect you to forgive me or for us to just brush this under the carpet. I hurt you, and it will take time before things can mend, just don’t shut me out,” he pleaded, reaching over to take my hand.
This time I let him. I wasn’t sure if it was because of how many times he’s said he was wrong to me or if it’s because I knew he was dying. Whichever one it was softened my heart enough to know I didn’t want to lose him just yet. As he said, we’d need to work on trust, and I wasn’t letting this go by any means, but I also didn’t want him to die tomorrow and think I hated him.
“I’ll try, Daddy,” I answered. “It’s going to be hard to move past all this, but I’m willing to try. As for business, that’s business. I’m adult enough to be able to separate those two because I love this company as much as you do. I’ve wanted this position since I figured out that’s what you were training me for. There are so many ideas and plans I want to try, but if I step in and tell you something isn’t right, then you have to trust I’m doing what’s best for the business as a whole.”
He nodded but seemed a little unsure about that stipulation. “You’ve found something already, haven’t you? There’s something I’ve missed.”
“Yeah, a fucking massive miss, but it wasn’t just on you,” I shared. “I’ve already chewed Gunner’s ass out twice last night, but he’s being held responsible for this too. He knew something was wrong, and he didn’t challenge you about it. Gunner’s so worried about upsetting or offending the people he respects that he’s doing more harm than good.”
“Did I choose wrong in picking him for the position? I felt those qualities would make him ensure he didn’t fuck up the job,” Daddy questioned as he leaned back in his seat, pouring more coffee into his mug. “Tell me everything that happened, but don’t tell me where I fucked up. I want to see if I can spot it.”
“If I do that, then we won’t be able to make breakfast. Can I call to have it sent up? Once you figure it out, we’re gonna need to get to work because this is only the tip of the iceberg,” I commented.
Daddy picked up the phone by his elbow and called for food to be delivered to his room. Once the promise of food was guaranteed, I started on the details I learned last night. Since he wanted to find what he missed, I skipped over the parts he already knew and simply went over everything else but stopped before I told him what I’d heard at the poker game.
I had to wait for his answer as breakfast was wheeled in, already portioned out for us after being tasted. This was something I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to, and I absolutely didn’t want to know who the person was who had the horrible honor of doing the job. We sat in silence for a bit as we ate, but I had the sneaking suspicion he was using it as time to figure out what he missed because he still wasn’t sure.
“You said this was a massive mistake, didn’t you? That the combination of me doing something and Gunner not calling me on it is why things failed,” Daddy asked as he set down his fork. “I’m only asking because I’m not sure I can see where the two circumstances meet.”
“When you had your meeting with Harrison, didn’t you feel like it was odd Raymond wasn’t there as well? I was under the impression the two of them did all business together?” I questioned.
“That’s true, but Harrison and I are old friends, and he wanted to ask me for a favor. He knew if Raymond were there, it would be harder for me to save face if I said no. Harrison, on the other hand, is someone I trust to be honest with if I felt the venture was a bad idea,” Daddy explained.
I stood and brought my empty plate back to the cart and refilled my coffee mug. “What did he tell you was wrong with the land? Did he once mention the toxic ground issue?”
“Yes, that’s what his favor was to get me to change the zoning on it. As you know, we have quite the pull in that area,” he said, looking confused.
Could it be that he was so blinded by trusting this man he wouldn’t even consider they would turn on him? Fuck, this was going to be a bigger blow to him than I expected.
“Daddy, I don’t know the extent of your illness or how stress impacts you, your heart, or your health in general. So before I tell you what’s going on, I need to ask if there’s something you should take, or do I need to have Casimira back in here?”
“Just tell me, goddammit,” he snapped.
Taking my seat once more, I set my mug aside in case I needed to act. “They set you up. Well, more so, they set me up to fail and take everything down in one fell swoop. The previous owners of the land discovered bones, and it was marked as a burial ground.”
His eyes grew wide as he knew exactly what that meant. “Astin, please tell me we didn’t send out a team to get our own samples? For the love of God, tell me I didn’t just lose everything because of my own stupidity.”
“When I tell you we were a day away from destruction, I’m not kidding. Thankfully, your plan of keeping me away from the public eye worked, and no one knows who I am. Why weren’t Harrison and Raymond invited to the party the other night?” I asked, curious how they didn’t know who I was.
“I was told they were out of the country and would be back today,” Daddy answered.
I let out a huff of laughter. “Well, I think you can cross them off the list of being our top clients and personal friends because they wanted to fuck you over without the courtesy of even using lube.”
“Stop beating around the subject and just tell me the fuck is going on,” he demanded.