Page 71 of Through You
Grandfather lets out a sigh. “I guess everything happens in due time. I just hope it’s not too late by the time you decide to do something about it.”
“About what?”
He looks at me and smiles. “Fighting for what you want.” He pauses. “Or who you love.” I’m about to say something when he raises his hand. “Shush, this is the best part of the movie. We’ll talk later.”
Puzzled, I head to my room, and fall back on the bed, closing my eyes. The images are vivid in my mind: Claudia in her cute swimsuit, her body, her curves, her smile in response to Ares’s jokes, her pretend anger when our grandfather doesn’t follow her orders. Or how she presses her lips together to keep from saying something she shouldn’t, and her habit of wiping her mouth with her hand before she’s about to tell a lie or when she’s nervous.
Claudia, how can I push you out of my mind when you’reeverywhere I turn?
I truly would like to leave you in peace. I don’t want to complicate your life or hurt you again. But how can I do that when I’mattracted to you with every fiber of my being and with an intensityI can’t control?
In truth, it’s a struggle to live up to my father. He wasn’t always the calculating and cold man he is now. He was the best father in the world until my mother cheated on him. Though he was working hard building his empire during my childhood, he always found ways to spend time with us whenever he could. I can still recall vividly the night he found out what had happened with my mother, and the aftermath—the devastation evident in the redness of his eyes and the broken whisky glasses that littered the floor of his study.
“Dad?” I called to him as I carefully avoided the shards scattered on the floor.
My father was slumped behind his desk. “Get out of here, Artemis.”
I was a teenager filled with anger and pain. In that moment, I needed my father.
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
He stood and raised his hands. “Your father is a disaster and has failed as a husband.”
“That’s not true.”
He burst out laughing. Probably to keep from crying, the only other way he knew to react.
“It’s clear that even though I can build a million-dollar empire, I’m unable to keep my marriage together.”
“It’s not your fault, Dad. It’s hers, she’s a—”
“Watch it. She’s still your mother, Artemis. Whatever happens between me and her doesn’t change that.”
“You don’t have to stay with her, Dad. We’ll understand if you don’t want to be with her.”
My father pursed his lips, and his eyes were wet.
“I love her, son.” Tears rolled down and he wiped them away.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“You have us.”
“You boys will grow up, build your lives, and leave me behind,” he explained. “I’ll end up alone in a nursing home.”
“I won’t do that.” I took a step forward. “I will never abandon you, Dad. I promise.”
“You’re just a teenager. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do know what I’m saying. I’ll always stay by your side and be there to support you any way I can, at the house or at the company. I promise. All right?”
He offered me a sad smile.
“All right.”
I fall asleep with the fresh memory of the promise I’d made seared in my mind.
It’s after ten at night when I wake up. I take a shower, then speak with Alex, who hasn’t stopped calling me all afternoon.
