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“Nigel, tell me this isn’t true.” Father’s voice quivers as he stares at his lifelong friend.
“I can explain.” The moment Nigel says that I know I’ve snared him and Nolan. Those three words—I can explain—are as good as a confession.
“What is there to explain? You and your son stole from me, then you both wanted to be on theboardand worse, you wanted your daughter to marry into my family. For money.”
“Preston, I was in trouble with some dangerous people. You wouldn’t have helped me with so much money.”
“So you decided to steal it from me.”
“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Nolan snaps at me as if I’m the one who did something wrong. “You’ve hated us from day one.”
“Yes, I have,” I reply, cold and callous. “I never trusted you. I may not have had evidence until now but I’ve always known that you were all up to no good.”
Jericho found more evidence of them doing shit like this before, to other associates and destroying their companies. So this isn’t a recent thing or some act of desperation.
“You didn’t just come up with this. It was your little bitch girlfriend, wasn’t it?”
I ball my hand into a fist. “Say that again.”
“You heard me.” He stands and makes his way over to me.Big mistake. “I saw the way she looked when she was checking my files. Then she acted suspicious when I spoke to her. She spotted something and alerted you. Didn’t she? That bitch?—”
Mistake number two—calling Harper a bitchtwiceto my face.
I land a fist smack in the middle of his face, hitting him so hard he drops backwards to the ground.
I’ve always wanted to do that.
He gets up, snarling like a feral beast, ready to fight me but Hunter and Luc step in, body checking him into the wall.
They hold him down. There’s no way he’s going to escape them.
“Layla, please escort the cops in. They’re next door,” I say.
“Certainly.” Layla gets up and rushes away to get the three police officers who arrived earlier and spoke to Hunter.
They enter and relieve Hunter and Luc of Nolan. Nigel doesn’t even put up a fight. He goes with them willingly when they read him his rights.
“I’m sorry, Preston,” he says to Father as he’s ushered away.
I’m glad Father doesn’t answer. Finally he can see Nigel for who he is.
Father turns to face me with a lost look in his eyes. His lips part to speak but no words come out. We all stare at him, seeing he’s hurt and disappointed.
“Father, are you okay?” I ask even though the question feels foolish and the answer is obvious.
“No.”
“I’m sorry. I never wanted to be right but I exposed them because it was the right thing to do.”
He walks over to me and rests a hand on my shoulder. “You wouldn’t be my son if you didn’t know when to do the right thing. I’m sorry I doubted you. I should have known better but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not. My stubbornness could have destroyed everything we worked so hard to build. That will not happen again. I willneverdoubt you again.”
He gives me a quick hug and I look at Hunter and Luc watching us.
It’s over now. This battle of my life.
