Page 56 of Worth the Rush
“Sullivan. Wh-what are you doing here?” Noah stutters out.
“Well, that’s going to be revealed very shortly, but first, I would really like to hear what my daughter needs to prepare herself for,” he says cooly. Noah opens his mouth, looking for an excuse. A way to weasel out of my father’s wrath. He should know by now there’s nowhere to run. Threatening my reputation threatens his, and he may not care for me, but he does care about the name Rutherford.
“I…I was just trying to make Ivy see reason. You and I both know she belongs back in California, running the family business, and she should be back at my side.” He pauses, then when my father doesn’t reply he continues, “She shouldn’t be wasting her time here with a fucking snowboarding instructor. There’s nothing for her here.” He throws, casting a hand out.
My father turns his attention to his hands, and as he speaks, he works on calmly removing them from his gloves. “Noah, I’ve given you every opportunity to succeed,” he says so quietly I can almost hear my heart pounding. “But…” He sighs heavily. “You’ve squandered all of them. I think it’s best if we part ways.” His eyes flit up to a shocked Noah. “Permanently,” he adds.
“Sullivan. That’s…that’s not true. Surely we can work something out. I can take on more responsibility. I’m working on something right now?—”
“Not for Rutherford Industries.” The finality in my father’s voice cutting off Noah’s sentence is one I’ve learned you cannot argue with. Pushing off the wall and standing to his full height, he looks incredibly intimidating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look like this.
“And if I decide to go to the press and tell them that Ivy here spent time in a psychiatric treatment facility? That she’s so weak in the head that she had to spend months wearing grippy socks with drool running down her face just to cope with things that happen to people every day?” I hate how his words slash at my stitched-up wounds. They’re bleeding again. The shame is threatening to swallow me alive.
“I’m not sure how that’s relevant to this conversation. Does Ivy know that you’re here as a last-ditch effort to save your name from ruin?” my father asks, and I blink.What?Noah looks like he’s been sucker punched for a second before schooling his features.
“I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but I can assure you?—”
“I’m getting all of my information from my former business partner,” he tells Noah. “I think you both know him.” He looks at me and then back to Noah. No. He can’t mean… “Alder Holloway.” My mouth pops open in shock, and my vision starts to tunnel.
“Your business partner?” Noah and I ask at the same time. Sullivan just nods, like he’s bored.
“Former, as of this morning,” he confirms, and then he looks at me. My mind is whirling.Alder knows my father?He is…er he was my father’s business partner? In what? Why wouldn’t he tell me? I stare at my father. Stunned. He speaks again, and I hear him, but I’m not sure if I process everything happening.
“As we speak, your office back in California is being audited by the IRS. They got a tip that you hadn’t been completely truthful with the income amounts you’ve been reporting to them. They don’t like that, and neither do I. I turned everything I had over to them in exchange for immunity,” he states plainly. Noah’s face pales, then it turns angry.
“You don’t know what you’ve just done. You just made an enemy out of not only me but my family, Sullivan! All my family’s business associates.” He’s trying to intimidate him, but my father just nods, contemplative.
“Maybe, but I’m assuming they will all want to stay far away from you for the next five to seven years while all this gets settled.” No sooner does he get the words out that two police officers walk in, grip each of his arms, and start telling him his rights. I’m shocked. Completely at a loss for words. My emotions have been taken for a ride the last hour and a half, and I’m not sure what I feel. Other than the burn of hisbetrayal. Alder lied to me. Like every man I have ever trusted has—he lied. I stare at the ceiling while Noah tries to plead with the officers. I don’t know how to reconcile the man I’m learning has lied to me since the moment I met him with the man I was beginning to fall for. The Alder I know wouldn’t do something like that.
The officers who read Noah his rights have left, leaving just a few investigators to stay back and speak with my father. I’m barely hanging on. My mind won’t reconcile what’s just occurred. That he knew about it and decided to keep me out of it. I sit in my desk chair spiraling, and when I look up again, I see it’s just us now.
“Ivy,” my father says, and I look up to meet his eyes.
“A heads-up phone call would have just been too much?” I accuse, and he sighs.
“Let’s not get too hung up on the details, Ivy. I’m really in no mood,” he dismisses me.
“You’re in no mood? Ha.” I let out a harsh laugh. “I’ve just found out you had my ex-husband investigated by the IRS,” I say.
“Actually, I didn’t have him investigated. Alder Holloway did. He just informed me of his findings, giving me the opportunity to cut ties with Noah before my name was dragged through the mud. Not a good look,” he tells me. “I’m sure you’re happy to hear this though. All this ensures you’ll be appointed the role of creative director at Rutherford Industries,” he supplies, clueless to the fact that the man who saved his company has wrecked my heart in the process.
“I don’t think I want the job anymore,” I say, barely above a whisper.
“Well. I suppose that will be your decision. I need to getback to the airstrip, so I look forward to hearing from you with your formal answer. The job is yours if you want it. If not, I’m going to need to fill the position soon. With all this turnover, our investors will want a statement.” I’m numb to his words. I don’t care about the job anymore. I don’t care about Rutherford Industries or what Sullivan Rutherford thinks of me, maybe for the first time in my life, as ironic as that is.
“Goodbye, Ivy. Take care,” he says with a wave of his hand, walking out my office door, leaving me with the knowledge that the one man I chose to let into my life after years of thinking I never would—is just like all the others before.
I’m flying.
I’ve never been so happy in my life. Ivy’s just told me she wants to be with me. She wants me to be hers. And with the information I received this morning from her father, I’ll be able to explain my part in The Edgemont and ask her to stay with an offer to run it with me. Indefinitely. As well as riding the emotional high of her confession, I am also piloting the helicopter to our destination. Getting the call that there was an emergency out near Clearwater Canyon came at the most inconvenient time in my whole life, but I guess that’s the whole point of my profession.
“Almost there,” I relay to my crew, and they move around the cabin of the helicopter, getting ready to pick up our patient. Fifty-six. Male. Fell while hiking. Has a possible broken leg as well as a dislocated shoulder. Someone from the trail above was able to hear him yelling for help and called it in. Thankfully, they didn’t try to get to him themselves.
“Landing in forty-five seconds,” I say.
“Heard.”
“Copy.” Ty and Griff confirm they’ve heard me at the same time.
