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“What makes you say that?”
“Are you for real right now? Do you think it’s normal for a father to co-opt his son into terrorizing someone on his behalf to get what he wants, especially under false pretenses? Do you think it’s normal to carry as much anger as you do?”
“I don—”
“Don’t waste your breath denying it with me. It’s embedded into every pore. You said it yourself not too long ago. To those who don’t know you, maybe you come across as just another preppy musclehead—the ultimate combination of brains and brawn—but scratch the surface just a little and it’s easy to see the rage and resentment bubbling just beneath. You don’t get like that from living the picture-perfect life your father’s PR machine puts out there. And, yes, I have done my research. I’m going to be a lawyer after all, and I wanted to know who I was dealing with.”
“Yeah, well, you’re way off base.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
“So, what’s the story with your mom?”
Chapter 35
Drew
I almost swallowed my tongue at the question. Somehow it seemed like a bolt from the blue. No build up, no indication that things were going that way, then boom! There it was.
“What do you mean?”
“Pretty much exactly what I said.” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “And I’m sure you know that. So…?”
“So what?”
“So how come your life is dominated by your father? I know your grandfather, but I’ve never heard you talk about your mother, yet unlike mine, I know that yours is alive and well, so why the secrecy?”
“There’s no secret, but I only share information with people on a need-to-know basis. And at this point in time, I don’t see why you need to know about my mother.”
“Probably for much the same reason you were so keen to probe me about my background. A mixture of idle curiosity, and what we in the legal field call ‘discovery.’ It’s the prelim stages of a case, where the lawyers go on a fact-finding mission so that they can work the case to the best of their ability.”
“I told you, you know all you need to know about me already.”
“I think I should be the judge of that, and your reluctance to talk about her, suggests she’s someone I should definitely be asking about. So again, what’s the story?”
I eyed her long and hard, weighing up my options, and considering whether I could or should trust her. She was a liar after all, and by her own admission, would do whatever it took to achieve her goals. Not to mention the fact that I was in the process of waging a campaign to dismantle her life, bit by bit. She was the definition of not a person I should confide in.
“My mom’s a victim of my dad’s crazy narcissist plan for world domination.” Just thinking about how he’d ruined her life made my blood boil. The anger I felt toward him for that couldn’t be contained or categorized. If I could have had him killed and known for sure that there would be no repercussions for me, I would have done it in a heartbeat. I’d probably deliberate more about what toppings to have on a pizza than I would about whether to rid the world of the pox that was Victor Cavanagh.
Kik watched me carefully as I considered what to say next, if anything at all. She didn’t prompt or cajole me, just waited in silent judgment.
“He took what was once a bright light in her, and snuffed it out for his own ends, essentially trading her like any other asset in the process.” I read the confusion on Kik’s face and forced myself to elaborate.
“He was, and I guess still is, a venture capitalist, and the archetypal kid who came from nothing, and clawed his way to something by his fingernails. But by the time he met Mom, he was loaded, and determined to get richer. He’d done the company flipping thing more times than most people had eaten hot meals, but when he came across Maclean Enterprises, it was a sinking ship and going under fast, just how he liked it—the more broken the better. It was owned by none other than my grandfather.”
A spark of recognition flared in Kik’s eyes.
“Wait, so Cavanagh Corporation, used to be called Maclean Enterprises. And Maclean Enterprises belonged to your grandfather?”
“Yep, Ernest Maclean Malcolm III.”
“And his son-in-law was the one who bought Maclean Enterprises from under him?”
“Also yep. Well future son-in-law, actually, but same-same.”
Her eyes widened as she took in my response.
