Page 63 of Mine to Love
“None of this is any of my business and I honestly don’t want to talk about this behind her back. I’m seriously trying not to judge you, but you were the parent. You chose those things. They did not.”
“Trust me, you’re not telling me anything I don’t know or haven’t lived with all these years.” Harvey rested his hands onthe counter and held Miles’ stare. “This might piss you off, but I wanted to know what I was walking into, so I had my assistant check you out.”
“That does annoy me,” Miles said.
“Well, all Sandra found was a good man with a solid family.” He placed his hand over his backpack. “And truthfully, the only reason I did it was because I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. I knew Charlie was an asshole. There are reasons why I own more of that company and he’ll never get it. His father was pissed when I made that deal with Charlie’s grandfather, but it was the only way to save Livingston Development.” Harvey pulled out a stack of documents. “You can read the deal for yourself.” He pushed them across the counter.
Miles took a healthy swig of his bourbon, letting the wood flavor settle on his tongue before swallowing. He glanced at the papers. The sentences jumbled together like a broken jigsaw puzzle with more than half the pieces missing. He could make out a few words here and there. He tapped his finger on the page, trying to make sense of it, but the longer he stared at it, the more his anxiety kicked in, making it worse.
He sighed. “I’m sorry, sir. But either you’re going to have to read this to me or explain it.”
“Well, son. I can explain it, but I sure as shit can’t read it.” Harvey chuckled. “I’m fucking dyslexic. Can’t read a word on that page. It’s a damn miracle I even graduated high school. My father used to call me the dumber of dumb and dumber. And my mom was even worse.” He shook his head. “I’ll never forget the day I made my first million and bought them a house. The look on my dad’s face was classic. His dumbass kid who couldn’t read had made it.”
“How do they treat you now?” Miles’ heart beat in the center of his throat. He’d met other people like him and moststruggled like he did. But he’d never met anyone who’d become a billionaire.
“My dad passed away a few years ago and my mom, well, she likes my money and I take care of her, but it’s a strained relationship in part because of my ex-wife and in part because of what I did when I abandoned my kids.” Harvey’s shoulders slumped and he kicked back half of his drink. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here about to see Liberty after all these years. I’ve thought so long and hard about what I would say to her and now that it’s about to happen, I’ve got nothing.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I believe Liberty is feeling about the same way.”
“I’m sure she’ll come in with some pretty colorful language and a lot of anger. All of which I deserve.” Harvey ran his hand over his mouth. “I can live with her never forgiving me because I don’t expect it and that’s not why I’m here. But what I can’t live with is sitting around doing nothing anymore. I should have warned her about Charlie, but I didn’t know she wasn’t getting the money or hadn’t read my notes. If I had known that… I would have done so many things differently.” He lifted his tumbler. “I know money doesn’t make up for shit. But at the time it was all I thought I had.”
The sound of the front door opening caught Miles’ attention.
Harvey glanced over his shoulder. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.” He downed the last drop of his drink.
Ready or not, it was time to clear up the past, nail Charlie to the wall, and give Liberty, Gabriel, and even Harvey some peace.
14
Liberty twisted the doorknob to Miles’ home and pushed it open. She thought about knocking but decided to just walk in. Maybe she shouldn’t. This wasn’t her house and while Miles was someone she cared about more than anyone other than her brother, they hadn’t defined anything.
She stepped into the family room and paused, staring at her father. He’d aged. His hair was a little thinner and had grayed some. As she inched closer, she noticed the deep-set lines around his bright-blue eyes, which had dulled over the years.
The man she remembered had always looked somewhat tired, but the man sitting in Miles’ kitchen, holding an empty glass, looked exhausted. Spent. As if life had beaten him down.
She shouldn’t feel sorry for him for a single second.
“Liberty,” her father whispered. “You’re still the prettiest girl in any room.”
As a small child, he would always praise not only her looks, but she did remember him telling her that she could be anything she wanted, if she put her mind to it. However, as she got older, and things with Gabriel became more of a struggle, those compliments were few and far between.
Or were they?
Flashes of her teenage years bombarded her brain.
It had always been her dad who had been there. He’d shown up when she needed him most. Never her mother. She’d always been absent, even when she’d been a small child.
But not her dad.
Until the day he left.
She couldn’t erase that if she tried.
Her father stood and gripped her forearm. “Considering all that I’ve learned, you look good.”
“You look like shit,” she mumbled, pointing to the bourbon and glancing toward Miles.
“Always the honest one.” Her dad let out a short laugh and climbed back on the stool. “I was just expelling to Miles here that while I’m happy to explain the documents I brought, I couldn’t read them to him, though not exactly sure why he’d want them read out loud.” He reached for the bottle of scotch and poured himself a couple of fingers. He lifted the glass and stared into it as if it had all the answers to the world’s problems. “You know, when Liberty was a little girl, she used to come into my home office and I’d be listening to a program that read me contracts. She’d hit the keys on the computer to stop the mechanical voice and say,Daddy, I’ll read them to you.And we’d sit there and she’d read me my work, and then we’d talk about what I should do. She was always so smart. I used to ask her if she wanted to come work for me someday and you know what she used to say to her old man?”
