Page 44 of Billionaire Retreat

“You’re right, I don’t know why I’m defending her.”

“It’s ok. I just don’t know how someone could deliberately deny someone the right to be a father. I guess it’s just upsetting because I loved my dad. I wouldn’t have been the man I was without him.”

I was glad for the change of subject. “Tell me about him.”

Griffin took a sip of his wine and savored the taste as he thought of the past. “He was just your average Joe. He was actually my stepdad. I never had a relationship with my biological father. My parents divorced early and the visits from my biological dad became less and less frequent until one day he just stopped showing up altogether. I was angry a lot because of that. I was a very difficult child, if you let my mom tell it.”

“I can believe that,” I said lightly, enjoying the moment.

“Thanks,” he said. “Anyway, so my mom remarried.”

“Oh, so Jackson and your sister—”

“Nora.”

“Yes, Nora. They’re from your mom’s second marriage?”

“Yep,” he said. “So yeah, my stepdad was just this average guy, an adjunct professor at a small-time community college. I think my mom met him while on vacation. He had a normal job, nothing fancy. And so she married him and pretty much caused a scandal because he wasn’t rich. He was just a nobody according to my mom’s peers. But he was great—so great to me, to us. Just a kind, wonderful man with broad shoulders. I always felt he could take the world on those shoulders. He taught me what it was to be a man.”

He grew silent and I didn’t want to push, but I just had to know.

“What happened to him?”

“A car accident when I was about 13 or 14.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“A drunk driver killed him instantly. We were all devastated. It changed us, you know? Dad had been the glue that held us all together. And in that one instant, a stranger tore our family apart. Mom bore the worst of it. She retreated into herself and then when she got better, I don’t think you could actually call it that, she became, what do they call it? A helicopter parent. She barely let us out of her sight. And my sister, she was a daddy’s girl. After he died she was constantly butting heads with Mom. So stubborn, just like Mom. They couldn’t see eye to eye and she left home at 16, running off with some friends. It took Mom a month to track her down and oh boy when she did, she rained down hell on my sister.”

He shook his head.

“And Jackson?”

“He was the youngest, so he didn’t know Dad as well as the rest of us. He just tried to be the funny one, always making us laugh. Trying to get Mom to smile. He’s the same way now, always trying to get the family together, always trying to make peace and get us to relax... come to think of it, he’s a lot like Dad.”

“I’m so sorry. I never knew my real father, but my stepdad is an amazing man. I can’t imagine ever losing him.”

“I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy.”

We sat in silence for a moment, each of us lost in thought.

“Did I ruin the evening by telling you all my family drama and secrets?” he asked as the waiter cleared our plates.

“No, not at all. I think we all have our share of secrets... things that we don’t want others to know or just things that we don’t want to talk about.”

“What are your secrets, Nina?”

Now was the time. Just tell him, Nina. What happened to confident Nina? I hesitated. Tell him, Nina. But how to even begin?

“Griffin, there’s something I need to tell you,” I said, forcing the words out before I could change my mind.

“Uh oh, sounds serious,” he joked.

The waiter took that moment to arrive with the check.

“Now, what were you saying?”

I lost my nerve. What if he saw me as selfish like his sister? I didn’t want him to resent me. I needed time. I couldn’t just spit it out. It just wasn’t the right time.