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My voice was trembling but my father's was perfectly calm. He adjusted his suit coat, and then walked closer to me.
"The only thing you've ever had to do was take care of your brother. And you can't even do that right."
"I'm not Chris's father. You are. If he's a screwup, it's because of you. Not me. It's because you were never around."
"I had a company to run. I had business meetings to attend, and investors to speak to. When was I supposed to have the time for you kids?"
"You found time to yell at me whenever I came home with anything less than an A. You had time to take away all the electronics in my room when I got detention in school. So, spare me the businessman speech. You had plenty of time for us, but you spent all of it punishing me for so much as blinking without your permission, and letting Chris do whatever he wanted."
I strode to the door and yanked it open. "Well, as wonderful and enlightening as this discussion has been, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I have work to do. You should send an email next time though. It'll save you the trouble of driving down here. Now as I said earlier, I have work to do. And I'm sure you do too."
He walked towards me but paused on the way out. "I wouldn't consider you a disappointment if you could actually do anything right, Alexander."
I stared back at the man who gave me life and all I felt was hatred. I slammed the door once he'd left.
My hands clawed at my hair, tugging on the locks in frustration. Filled with blind rage, I picked up a flower vase on the coffee table and sent it flying across the room. It shattered against the wall and the glass shards exploded around me. That was when Sophia burst inside.
"Are you okay? I heard a crash." She looked at the broken glass with wide eyes. "Oh."
Stepping cautiously around it, she made her way over to me. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head. "I need to get out of here. Will you come with me?"
She smiled and nodded. "Of course. Where to?"
...
I took her to a park. It was small, the grass was soggy and brown, and the trees were old and crippled. But it brought me peace like nothing else could.
We sat on a bench under a large tree, staring at the bright blue sky.
"I used to come here with my mom all the time," I told her quietly. "Before she passed."
Sophia leaned her head against my shoulder. She immediately took my hand in hers. "I'm so sorry. It's a nice place. Quiet."
"It's not very popular. It's not exactly the prettiest park in the world. Whenever I felt stressed, or upset, she'd bring me here. Sometimes we'd talk; sometimes we'd just watch the sunset. But always, it made me feel calm."
She was silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. "What happened between you and your father?"
"My brother was in an accident. He was drunk driving."
A quiet gasp came from her. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine. Thank God. It's just, my father blames me for it. He blames me whenever my brother does anything wrong. He thinks I'm a disappointment."
"You're a multi-billionaire. What about that is disappointing?"
"He doesn't care about my company. He thinks the only reason my company is successful is because I have his last name. I spent years working hard and he doesn't even recognize it. But my brother doesn't do anything and that's not a problem to him." I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "He just makes me so angry."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
We were quiet for a while. She rubbed the back of my palm soothingly. "Tell me something to take your mind off it."
"Something like what?"
She shrugged as best as she could while resting against me. "I don't know. Anything. Something random."
