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I slide into the remaining empty seat and slap Jacob on the shoulder. “Hey, good to see you.” I glance around. “No Leilani?”
“Dominic has an ear injection, so we didn’t want him in the chopper. I’m flying straight home afterward,” Jacob says, referring to his wife, Leilani, and baby.
Our half-brother made his money in hedge funds and moved his company to New York after Leilani fell in love with the Hamptons. The Dufort’s own multiple properties there and we are often guests.
Bella and Leilani are not only sisters-in-law, but best friends. There are a lot of links keeping the Montgomery and Dufort families close.
“I hope it's nothing serious.” I smile as Blake hands a dinner roll to my gorgeous little niece, Jamie. “Hey, little princess, are you behaving?”
She kicks her legs up in the air and her roll goes flying.
“Uncle Knox,” Blake groans.
“Sorry.” I laugh.
I glance around the table and note that everyone in our immediate family, except Leilani and baby Dominic, is here, which means everyone took the request to get together to discuss Dad’s retirement seriously.
It was short notice.
With some luck, we might get him to wait another five years to give us all time.
“Alright, kids. Lay it on me,” Ward says, glancing around the table. “I know I surprised you all yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t get everyone together to make the announcement, but to be honest, it was a sudden decision.”
My eyes widen.
Sudden?
What the fuck. He didn’t tell me that. First, that’s very unlike my father, and secondly it worries me.
“That’s a big life choice to make out of the blue.” Atlas says what we’re all thinking and then takes a sip of whisky. “What’s really going on, Dad?”
“Are you sick?” Bella asks, her voice full of worry.
Fuck. I hadn’t given that a thought.
I understand why Bella would. Ward is not her birth father. Our mom met my father when Bella was a baby. I know she went through a little bit of a crisis when our mom died. Unnecessarily. All three of us are wildly protective of her, and Ward loves her as his own. She will never be without us as her family, or Ward as her father.
He's told her since she was a baby that he considers her his despite DNA.
We all turn to him. As I wait for his answer, all my selfish frustrations fall away. I’ll be fucking furious with life if they take my father so soon after my mother.
My stomach drops as he stares at each one of us.
“Dad—” I start, beginning to freak out.
“I am fine,” Ward says, holding up his hand. “And that’s the point. I want to enjoy my life, not keep working as hard as I have been for years and years. Then one day only to drop dead at my desk.”
“Oh, thank god.” Bella sighs loudly and Blake squeezes her hand.
Now that I know he’s not dying, I relax.
But very quickly I want to dig into his reasoning. He’s fifty-seven, not seventy-seven.
“That’s fair enough. You’ve worked hard. But does it need to be so sudden?” I ask. “Why not spend a year preparing to hand over? Or cut back on your responsibilities and slice out some spare time.”
Blake and Atlas nod in agreement.
“Makes sense to me,” Levis says.
