Page 47 of Vows In Corruption

It’s not only my parents that I’ve been thinking about since Gerald came in and announced that he was calling a board meeting, my brother has also been at the top of my mind.

Robert, just like my parents, is a topic I try not to think about all that often. Mostly because thinking about him pisses me off beyond belief, but when the kids bring him up, I try to be as neutral as possible. Some days are harder than others.

If he hadn’t left a month after mom and dad’s funeral, or even stayed when he brought the kids to Chicago ten years ago, he could be the one getting named CEO today, not me.

There are a lot of could haves and could bes playing in my head and they are messing me up just as much as the handful of nightmares that I’ve had this week. It doesn’t help that this morning during my daily search for him, something new popped up.

I’ve been searching for Robert for ten years, and that time, nothing out of the ordinary has come up, but today of all days, something does.

A phone number.

Not the number he had when he was sixteen and left the house, and not one he had while he lived in Mexico, but a new one with a Florida area code.

It’s taking everything in me not to call it and see if it’s truly him, but I can’t find it in me to do it.

If I do call and it is him, what do I tell him? Come back? That his kids miss him and need him? They’ve gone ten years without him and their mother, I’m sure that they miss them but they don’t need either of them. I made fucking sure of that.

The burning in my legs intensifies, which tells me that I forgot where I was for a second and pushed myself harder than intended.

Not wanting to end up in the hospital with broken bones on this important day, I turn off the treadmill and get off.

Feeling my body want to give up with exhaustion, I slide down to the floor and try to control my breathing and try to think about something other than the family I once had.

If today goes how I think it will, I will be CEO by the end of the day. I’m not worried about not getting it.

From the second that Gerald told me that he was going to be retirement, I’ve working double time time to get the votes that I need to make sure the title lands on my head. I have all ten accounted for.

Did a vote or two come with a price? Absolutely but it’s one that I’m willing to pay to get what I want. The other party just has to stick with their side of their agreement and I will open my wallet however wide they want it.

The thing that I am worried about is the board throwing me a damn curve ball. There is no doubt in my mind that they are going to try everything in their power to keep me away from that sweet, but I have no idea what is up their sleeves.

Dante is still working on getting me information on Hill. He has gotten me some but he is still digging. The information that he has gotten me so far doesn’t tell me anything that I don’t already know. But he says to give him time, so I am.

As soon as my breathing is controlled, I get up from the floor and leave the basement gym and head up to the kitchen.

It’s not even six in the morning, but I need to get the day started. It’s going to be a long, mentally challenging one for sure.

Approaching the kitchen, I hear the house alarm chime notifying me that someone opened the front door.

My back straightens up right away as I head to the foyer to see who the fuck in coming into my house at this hour because I know for a fact that nobody is leaving it.

Drake is still asleep.

I hear Henry in the kitchen and Grayson and Samantha are back at school after being for a few days. It’s sure as hell not my security team because they know not to come into the house before seven.

The closer I walk over to the front of the house, I think to myself that I need to move one of the guns that I have in the safe in my office closer to the door, but that thought disappears when I’m able to make out the figure that just walked in.

“You were supposed to get here last night,” I say to my twenty-year old nephew who is currently dumping a duffle on the floor that looks like its filled with a year’s worth of clothes.

Seven months actually.

Elliot turns and instead of giving me a wave or even a greeting, he throws a shrug in my direction.

“My flight got cancelled and the only way to get here was to take a flight to London and get the last flight out to Chicago. You should be happy I made it at all.”

I blame the fact that I haven’t had coffee yet for the way my eyes roll.

“If you would have taken the plane I sent, you wouldn’t have had an issue.”

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