Rage at Saundra and what she’d done combined with guilt and sadness inside me, sitting heavily in my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Dad only grunted, not moving or making any other sound.
I drew a chair up alongside him, warming my hands around his mug of tea. “It’s a bit complicated.” My chuckle was hollow. “She’s the CEO of Apex’s latest hostile takeover, but I’m one-hundred percent sure she doesn’t know about any of the criminal activities taking place. I’m up in the air about whether we’ll even take it over, or just support her with cleaning it up.” I shrugged, the movement small as I made my confession, seeking a forgiveness I hadn’t expected to crave. “I want this one to be the last takeover. I’m ready to move to the next phase now.” I nodded, agreeing with myself, making the motions Dad would have if he’d been able to.
He still didn’t move, but something about the way he sat convinced me he was listening.
“I think it’s the right time to move into philanthropy. Hopefully I have a big enough name that I can ask people for money these days, and it’s easier than ripping it out of companies after I’ve bled them dry and separated them into the component parts.” Since meeting Jo, I couldn’t even feel as good about my job.
I didn’t want to destroy her by chopping up her father’s legacy. She’d humanized that part of the business for me, and that gave me mixed feelings.
Things were too complicated now, but I’d always planned a foundation, so maybe the push Jo had inadvertently given me wasn’t such a bad thing. Maybe it was the push I needed.
And it wasn’t as if I hadn’t gotten rid of Saundra from my system many times over. In my head, every company that I took down had belonged to her, and I’d destroyed her again and again and again.
Any thoughts of Saundra and exactly what she’d done to my family made me feel so bitter. And who could blame me, really? After a chance meeting with her at Clover’s nearly a decade ago, she’d revealed the depths of her and her father’s plans. My entire body turned cold at the memory of our encounter.
She’d been tipsy and far too eager to talk.
He glossy black hair had looked freshly styled as she sashayed over to me, all long legs and swaying hips. “Patrick.”
It had been torture to hear my name on her lips. She should have lost the right to use it after the divorce.
I didn’t spare her more than a glance. Everything had been finalized the year before. We had nothing in common now.
“You look well.” Her saccharine words were full of malevolence. “I don’t think Daddy expected you to recover this quickly, or he might have asked for more.”
That was when I’d given her more attention, and she laughed as I met her gaze.
“Oh, you poor boy.” When she bent over, her breasts nearly poured out of the top of her dress and onto the table, but the sight only filled me with revulsion. “I didn’t marry you forlove. I married you for Daddy’s business. It was all his idea, really.” She stepped back, the pad of her index finger pressed to a perfect pout like she was capable of actual thought. “He was a genius, really, but you fell for everything hook, line, and sinker. And so did your father.” She’d chuckled then and I’d tightened my hands into tight fists, determined that she’d never cause me to lose my temper again.
One slip, and I’d already lost everything once. She wouldn’t take from me a second time.
She’d taken everything from Dad, too. His company, which he’d agreed to sell to protect me, and his position as alpha, which he’d given up when he let his business go, and his whole way of life.
He’d slipped into a depression, a depression that had only worsened when I’d told Mom about running into Saundra and Dad had overheard every detail of what she’d done.
From there, he’d become the man trapped inside himself in their home today, and I couldn’t work out which of us bore more responsibility for that: Saundra…or me.
Guilt ate at me daily.
Back then, I’d gone on a corporate rampage, unleashing my fury in as legal a way as I could manage, and Apex had devoured company after company as I’d sought to eradicate any hint of injustice or wrongdoing, trying to stop people like Saundra and her father before they could destroy anyone else.
I’d built Apex from a fledgling company into what it was today, and although we still weren’t at our pinnacle, I’d already achieved one of my biggest aims. As soon as I’d raised the money to buy Saundra’s dad’s company out from under him, I’d done exactly that.
The man hadn’t known what hit him. Apex had been a juggernaut, taking back everything he’d taken from me and my family. I hadn’t spared even one kind thought in his direction, my only thought for me and mine as I’d attacked him where it would hurt him the most.
Then I’d taken his company apart, systematically and ruthlessly, and I’d left him penniless, and it was still more than he’d deserved because he’d walked away.
He wasn’t trapped in a room in his house. He still had a life.
I both berated and congratulated myself that I’d left him with that much. It was far more than he deserved.
But I wasn’t sure anything I did now could restore Dad’s health. I’d taken down the people who’d wronged us, who’ddestroyedus, and it hadn’t changed his condition. Regardless of what I did with Apex and a new direction, his health wouldn’t change, and no money in the world could bring back the business Saundra and her father had manipulated away from him.
I glared into Dad’s mug of tea. Eventually I’d have to let go of the hurt that Saundra had caused to my family. Maybe Dad already had. I hoped so, if it meant he wasn’t as bitter and twisted on the inside as I was.