Page 55 of Denying Davis
“Davis, don’t you dare leave this room! Not now, not…oh…I…”
I whirled around in time to see him clutch his chest then yell in pain. The guttural, animalistic sound was something I’d never heard before. Then my grandfather fell to the floor with a deep gasp, and his body slumped on the carpet.
“No!” I rushed over and knelt beside him. His eyes bulged, and he struggled for air. “Someone help!” I shouted through the heavy wooden door. “Help! Somebody come quickly!”
I lunged for the phone at the edge of his desk and pushed the red button on the handset, a button reserved for emergencies. It sounded an alarm throughout the house, and several staffers appeared in moments.
“I’m calling 9-1-1,” Gregory said.
Fuck.It didn’t look very good.
“Stay with me,” I insisted, though I noticed his breaths barely escaped his lungs. “I’m right here with you. Don’t give up. We’re getting you some help…Please, Grandad, hold on.”
An hour or so later, we were in the emergency room when the doctor delivered the news.
The words came in a clinical, unfeeling staccato. A massive heart attack killed my grandfather before he’d even left the house.
I sat there, in the middle of the hospital, watching my life change.He was gone. Davis Armstrong Sr. was dead.
My God.
In the course of one day, the axis of my world had shifted. It was just a few days before Christmas, and I had just become one of the youngest billionaires in America.
Merry Christmas to me.
It didn’t matter. Couldn’t have cared less. I didn’t want to process it. I just kept thinking about the mess we’d made of everything, and the way it had played out. And about how my grandfather had shown me who he really was just before he died.
“Davis, we’ll need to take a few days and figure out the transition,” Gregory said as we sat in the living room of the beach house. We came back to the property after the Creighton and Sons Funeral home retrieved Grandad’s body from the hospital.
It was late. I was tired. Exhausted so much that my boned ached.
“I know he had a plan set up,” I replied, my head still swimming in the shock of what had happened. “He showed it to me once.”
“He went over it with me too.” Gregory took a long sip of his straight bourbon cocktail. He’d fixed us both strong ones from the butler’s pantry and adjoining wet bar. “It’s not complicated, but we’ll want to include the rest of the board as we turn the main assets over to you.”
“Certainly,” I said, but I was barely listening to him anymore. “And I have some ideas for ways we can improve our holdings.”What the hell? I don’t give a fuck right now about that.
Gregory gave me a weak smile. “I expected as much.” He placed his elbows on his knees. “Listen, I know after what happened at the beach house, you don’t trust me. And why should you?”
I stared at him.No, I don’t trust you at all.
“I want you to know that anything I did, anything I participated in, was only for the good of what you have. It was with the best intentions.”
“Was it?” I got up from the sofa and wandered over to the bar where I fixed myself another drink. “I was thinking I should fire you.”
“Please, don’t.”
“I’m not convinced, but Iamcurious,” I called over my shoulder as I poured a large helping my grandfather’s favorite bourbon. “How much did you know about what was going to take place in the beach house? About Samantha?”
“Not much,” he said in a voice that carried across the room. “He didn’t tell me anything. He wanted me there as a witness.”
“Interesting.”
Carrying my full glass, I walked back into the living room. I sat on the sofa again. My head was reeling, not knowing which catastrophe to address first. I wouldn’t lose Samantha though. Especially since I knew the truth of what happened ten years ago. I was no longer surprised at Sam’s initial reception toward me that night at Ainsley’s wedding.Her mom had been blackmailed. Silenced. Fuck, why did she even give me a chance?And then she’d felt I’d betrayed her with the account I’d set up to help her.Had Aaron known as well?Fuck. I got why she was refusing my calls and had not replied to my messages. I loved her, and what had been done was reprehensible.
I would fix that.
When I didn’t answer Gregory, he cleared his throat and said, “Have you decided what you’re going to say when the news breaks?”
