Page 61 of Right With You
My grandfather sipped his cabernet with the usual imperious expression, though I could’ve sworn I saw a little crack in the façade of stoicism.
“You have to accept that I’m marrying Elise. I’m sure Odette is lovely, but she’s not interested in me, and you know it.”
If he couldn’t see that, I pitied him. She was cordial and animated enough, but she made no effort to speak to me alone nor had she seemed interested in allowing him to put down Elise. This gave her points in my book, no doubt, but also spoke to her ambivalence.
“Of course she is. She may not be interested inyou,per se, but she’s interested in keeping her parents happy for whatever reason.” He sipped his wine, the liquid darkening his teeth when he continued. “And this is an agreement set up without reference to her opinions or yours, however much you might want to resist that truth.”
My teeth ground together. “I can’t do that for you. I won’t.”
He whirled on me, grasping one side of my suit jacket, and hissed his next words. “You will do as you’re told after spending decades wasting my time. There’s only so much I will take before I am forced to?—”
“To what? Disown me? Isn’t that what you’ve essentially done until you decided you needed this from me? What do you have to gain here? Why go through with this when it’s clear I don’t want it? I thought we could fix things—I thought maybe seeing each other face to face might give us a fighting chance.”
Elise’s encouragement to be honest—to show him who I was—echoed through me. This wasn’t likely what she meant, but right now, it was the most immediate truth he needed to comprehend.
He released me, setting me away and swiping a hand over the wrinkled material of my tux jacket. “If you were more like your sister, you’d comply.”
Wasn’t that always where we landed?
“I wish I could be that for you, but I can’t. And I won’t pretend I want anyone but Elise. If being with her means I’m disowned, then so be it. The money has never motivated me, as you know, and it still won’t.” Not enough for me to cow to him, if he was still going to refuse it. Saint Security would thrive with or without me financing it. I’d hoped an alternative—the idea that I’d already found love and made a commitment—might convince him to drop this.
What a fool I’d been.
He hummed a low, unamused sound. “Ah, but it motivates her, doesn’t it?”
My jaw hardened. “Not in the slightest. Just like it didn’t motivate my mom, and you still never accepted her, not even in the bitter end.”
He glanced away like he didn’t have time for me, but now that I’d finally said what I wanted, I wasn’t going to stop. “I don’t know how you can stand to look yourself in the mirror after the way you treated her. And now your own son can’t stand to be present because he’s so broken.”
His nostrils flared. “He’s broken because of her. Because she twisted herself around him so tightly he doesn’t know who he is without her.” He blinked rapidly, the movement betraying his rising emotion wasn’t all anger.
“Helovedher. There was no twisting, nothing wrong. They just loved each other, Grand-père, and the idea that such a thing is bad is what’s wrong. Ignoring his grief, isolating her in her illness because you saw her as a money-hungry poor waitress from the US even after twenty years in the family—I don’t want that for my life. I choose this.”
I gestured to the room, my eye catching on Kenny, then Bruce in the far corner by the back doors, Beast standing sentry just inside the main exit, and Tristan a few feet away from Jenna. My friends—the men and women who’d become my family when I’d felt abandoned. The family I’d chosen.
My gaze found Elise, who was chatting with Jenna, smiling brightly as Jenna gesticulated and no doubt cracked jokes that would have Elise beaming the rest of the night.
“I choose love and kindness and offering the benefit of the doubt. I choose family, but not if that family insists on valuing money and connection over everything else.” I held out my hand to him, hoping he’d accept. “I love you, Grand-père, and I wish you well.”
His throat worked as he swallowed while eyeing my hand, then turned and walked away.
My heart sank. It wasn’t a shock, but I’d hoped for more.
“He’ll come around. Even if it’s months from now, he’ll accept it. He does love you, and I know he’ll come around.”
Aurelie’s words were cold comfort in the wake of his storming off, but I wouldn’t give up, even if it seemed like a long shot.
And in truth, wasn’t it better if he did disown me? He wouldn’t be around to see me and Elise dissolve back into what we’d been. Into essentially nothing.
The thought weighed in my head, tipped one way then the other as though being evaluated for truth, then clattered to the floor.
I couldn’t imagine a time when we’d be nothing. I couldn’t imagine moving backward.All I want is to move ahead.
But she didn’t. And I had to respect that.
I grimaced at the thought and Aurelie squeezed my shoulder. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
She likely thought I was worried about our grandfather and didn’t like where we stood—or didn’t stand—but it wasn’t him causing my heart to twist. My gaze found Elise and after a second, she turned slowly until her eyes locked with mine.
