When she spotted me awake, she gave me one of my favorite smiles. It was one she didn’t think before giving. When she saw me for the first time during the day, whether it be when I came home for work, or first thing in the morning, we’d lock eyes, and her lips would rise right after mine.
I held my hand out and she settled hers in mine. Without warning, I pulled her down on the bed and rolled over to wrap her in my arms. The scent of her surrounded me, and the emptiness she left behind in bed was gone.
She hummed and slung her leg around my waist. “Good morning,” she whispered, kissing my neck.
I grunted, kissing below her ear. “Who said you could get out of bed before me?” I reached down to grab a hard handful of her ass.
“I had to pee,” she argued, nipping at my neck.
The heat of her body was pressed tightly against my hardening cock. I urged her ass closer, grinding against her heat. “Do what North does. Pee in bed next time and blame it on her dolls.”
Hallie laughed, but immediately turned that laugh into a moan when my hand slipped between our bodies to touch her through her panties. “One,” she started counting.
I chuckled against her skin and joined in. “Two.” I stroked her pussy over her panties, soaking up the fire and warmth that radiated from between her thighs for as long as we were allowed.
We both heard the slap of little bare feet on the Brazilian walnut wooden floors.
“Three,” she said, pulling my hand away and situating herself just as North came barreling back into our bedroom.
“Never fails,” I muttered before I sat up, glaring at North. No matter what, since the day she was born, she had an uncanny ability to cockblock her old man like no one else. “You’re back,” I grumbled.
Hallie laughed, smacking my chest. “What Daddy means is yay, you’re back!”
North didn’t care what I meant. She was too bright to let anyone’s opinion sway hers. It was fucking beautiful to watch her in action.
She bounced on her feet. “Grammy said if you both don’t get your behinds in the kitchen, she’s never cooking again.”
Hallie rolled her eyes and got out of bed. “Yeah right. Tell her we’re coming. She still makes me feel like a kid.” Hallie patted her chest when North took off again. “I’m twenty-eight, Wreck.”
I put my hand up to show her I understood on my way to the bathroom. And then I slammed the door closed and took a deep breath. I tore my pajama bottoms off and boxers and turned the shower on.
Hallie pounded on the door. “Real supportive, jerk.”
Illa was harmless. At least I thought she was. I hadn’t ever tested her anger the way Hallie and North did. I took the Free approach and just let things be. I showered in record speed and got dressed even faster, throwing on jeans and a dark blue dress shirt. I styled my hair, brushed my teeth, and then put on my smart watch. Illa had a rule about no cell phones at the kitchen table. I silenced my watch and broke the rules the only way I could these days.
By answering emails under a disguise.
The kitchen was flooded with morning light. We’d designed our house to face Sparrow Lake. There were minimal walls in the Wreckmond household, and the rusted crag and deep sunshine turned my house warm and comforting. My daughter and son were stuffing their faces with chocolate chip pancakes. Hallie had put on a pair of jeans over her underwear.
She was standing near the window, overlooking Charmant like the queen she was.
I left her to her thoughts and flashed Illa a brief smile. “Morning,” I greeted.
She snorted, shoving a coffee cup in my hands.
Illa and I had a special relationship. She understood that I had the ability to love only three people, and that she wasn’t one of them, but that I respected her because Hallie loved her. And I understood that her past didn’t dictate her future, and that she always had a place in my family.
“Those mine?” I sat beside Free and across from North.
She nodded hectically, mouth covered in chocolate and whipped cream. “It’s Saturnday,” she explained when I just stared at her.
“Saturday,” I corrected. “What’s your point?”
“I’m allowed to eat sweets on Saturnday.”
“I never said you weren’t,” I defended myself against her defensiveness.
Hallie hid her smile with her hand, joining us. Illa set down a plate of pancakes without chocolate chips in front of her.
“Sugar makes you crazy,” Free thankfully jumped in, saving me from having to say it.
North froze, fork half-way to her mouth, and shot her brother a glare so dark I saw myself in her. “What you say?”
Free rolled his eyes and returned to his food. “See?”
To keep the humor off my face, I took a drink of my coffee. Hallie laughed into her food, covering her face with her hand.
“I’m not crazy. I like sweets. I earned it. I ate a carrot last night.”
I gave her a nod. “Sounds legit.”
“We’ll go run it off in the backyard,” Hallie said. “Maybe Illa can—”
“Nope,” Illa cut her off. She grabbed her purse that had been on the counter. “I’m busy.”
“But I have a conference meeting and there’s a bug with the banking app. I need to meet with the tech—”
Illa walked away. A few minutes later, I could have sworn I heard her driving down the canyon road. My eyes shot to Hal’s, and she shrugged. “Sneaky old woman.”
I knew what Illa was doing. “I got it. Go to work.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah, I think I can handle these little monsters for a day.”
“What do you guys say? You want to hang out with Daddy all day?”
North choked on her pancake.
Free gagged, and then eventually threw up after North did.
I tried not to take it personally.
Hallie kissed me on my cheek. “Byeeee!” Leaving me covered in puke and smiles.
“Yay!” North screamed, puke dripping down her chin.
Free started gagging again.
I groaned, scooping them both up and setting them down in the bathtub in our bedroom. I poured soap over their heads and pulled my shirt over my mouth and nose. Once they were clean, the real struggle began.
It took a half hour to get them dressed, combed, and human. After that, they were hungry all over again. Which was when I remembered there was still puke in the kitchen. I set them up in the living room and cleaned that up.
“I’m not regretting not using a condom at all,” I muttered under my breath. I blamed Hallie, and her insistence on sleeping naked before the kids were born. I washed my hands and went back into the living room. They had their eyes glued on the movie screen monitor, shoving animal-shaped snacks into their mouths like wild animals. “My little savages.”
I settled on the sofa between them and grabbed the remote. Being that they were mine, they had a little savage in their blood.
There were many things different between their childhoods and my own. Growing up, I wasn’t stupid. I could compare my dynamic to other’s that I witnessed. I understood from an early age that love wasn’t what manifested my existence. But love did manifest Free’s and North’s. If my father did it, I didn’t. Which meant I shoved my hand in the snack bag and poured animal-shaped cookies into my mouth while my kids treated me like a jungle gym.
“What’s this?” North poked at my face, digging her little finger in my nose.
Free’s knee was inches from impaling my groin, and he was picking the thread from my Armani dress shirt.
“It’s my nose,” I griped. I glared down at Free. “Are you going to buy me a new shirt?”
He shook his head. “What’s wrong with this one?” He held up a blue string.
“What’s this?” North poked at my entirely non-existent double chin. “It’s like play dough.”
Free moved on to my buttons, trying with all his might to tug one loose. “It’s fat, N
orth.”
“Okay!” I roared. “Who wants to go to work with Daddy?”
Unlike me as a child, my kids loved going to Globe Tonight. They marveled at the constant threat of being on TV, or the occasional famous person passing through the building. Their legacy didn’t crush them. I made sure to work my ass off, so they wouldn’t have to.
“Can I sit in the front seat?” North asked.
“Can I sit in your car seat?” I retorted, buckling Free in the back.
“You’re too fat,” she stated, like be real here, Dad.
“I weigh the same today as I did the day I married your mother.” I puffed out my chest.
Free shook his head at his tablet and gave it a look. “You were eighteen then.”
“Wow. How old are you now?” North’s mouth was wide open as I moved on to her car seat.
“A hundred,” Free supplied. “Dad? Where’s my headphones?”
“A hundred?” North breathed out, “wow,” and for the rest of the drive looked at me the way she had the dinosaurs at the museum.
I was raising a bunch of assholes.
I smiled, thankful from deep down in a place that had never known such love.
The main headquarters of Globe Tonight were getting a facelift. Solar panels were going in on the roof to stave off the constant critique from the environmentalists protesting out front, and we were also installing ports for chargeable cars. Useless projects to make the useless opinions more important. That’s how it felt lately. Opinions were coming at me from all angles and I had to pretend to give a shit about every single one of them.
I took the hand of either child and led them through the main entrance for kicks. They loved the attention. Well, North did. Free clung to my pant leg and never let me go. Once they’d been pinched and kissed all over, we headed upstairs to my office. It was across from my father’s.
As we were coming out of the elevator, he was heading toward it. When Free was first born, he’d attempted to trap my son in his own cage. Said that it would look bad for him, and it would be bad for me, if he didn’t have a relationship with his grandchildren. I looked Owen Wreckmond in the eye and told him that if he ever said a word to my kids, I’d fucking kill him and be perfectly okay walking away poor.
So, when my children walked past their grandfather without saying anything to him, their innocent faces unaware of the darkness around them, I was relieved.
He studied them in his way, though. Every single time. Probably comparing his eyes to Free’s; we all looked alike. Owen, Free, and me were identical. North looked just like her mother, down to her starry blue eyes. There would come a moment when they asked questions, and I would have to tell them the truth. Their grandfather was a monster, which made me a monster too.
He nodded at me. “We need to talk. Come to my office.”
I looked down at my kids in response. “Video meeting?”
“No,” he stated, an edge to his voice that no longer scared me.
What could my father do to me now? He’d stolen from my wife, used my soul in exchange for his own, wrote my history before I’d had a chance to experience it in the present. The only reason I stuck around was that slight gleam in the corner of his eyes. If he went down, I had a feeling my family would, too.
So, I did my best to keep my father on top. And he was. Globe Tonight had become the number one cable news network in the world. We’d branched out to China and the UK. Hallie and I turned our cages into palaces. But we were still trapped.
Free looked up at my father, his eyes wide and lips parted. It stunned me how much he looked like me as a little boy. Staring up at a demon in an Armani suit that was supposed to love us.
Not wreck us.
But there was so much strength in that wreckage. Hallie pulled pieces of my heart from the ashes every day, holding them up for proof like they were stars in her galaxy.
“Hello,” Owen said to him. No depth, no emotion—my father didn’t have any.
“Hi,” Free whispered, and then he hid his face in my pants.
North put her hand on her little hip. “I’m here, too.”
My father’s eyes snapped to hers. A ghost of a smile painted his lips. He looked at me. “You’ve got a future queen there. I’ll give you five minutes.”
I scooped my kids up and cajoled them into my office. I picked up the phone on my desk and called my assistant. “Mr. Wreckmond,” he answered. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“Come watch my kids.”
He hesitated. “Your… kids?”
I hung up. In less than a minute, my assistant came in. I’d forgotten his name so many times, I’d stopped bothering. I went through assistants the way I had once gone through women. Emptily and quick.
“I’ll be back in ten minutes, tops. Kids?” They looked up. Free from his tablet and North from the drawer she was currently rummaging around in. “Be good.”
My assistant gulped on my way out.
I took a second to put my armor on before I walked into my father’s office. We were equals in the business world. In his office, I would always be his creation.
“Have a seat,” he ordered, flipping through a stack of paperwork on his desk.
I did so, studying the faint dregs of hair dye on his scalp.
“How’s the wife?” he asked, still studying his paperwork.
My hackles rose. “She’s fine.”
He nodded slowly, licking his thumb to moisten it so he could flip the page. “That’s good.” He gave me a moment of eye contact. “That’s what’s important in life, isn’t it, son? Wife. Family.”
He was reminding me who owned the rusted lock on my cage. Which meant someone had rattled his. There was no use in responding. He knew the answers to his questions. Why bother swinging his sword if he didn’t know what he was about to cut in half?
“We have a problem, son.” He pushed the paperwork over to me.
I didn’t want to touch it.
His eyes chilled. “Read it, Cage.”
I sifted through the past events in my mind and compared them to anything that might have put that sinister look in his eyes. And what the hell it had to do with Hallie. She kept a wide berth between our father’s. She was good at it. I worked with them closely, so she wouldn’t have to. I’d shield that woman from the largest bullet, so she never had to know how close it felt whizzing past our happiness.
I reached for the paperwork.
“I’m sorry, son.”
EPILOGUE
Hallie
The setting sun glimmered off the front end of my Bentley as I pulled into the stone driveway.
It was after eight, and all I wanted to do was see my children and husband. I could imagine the look in Free’s eyes when I came into the house. It was the same as his father’s. Finally, she’s home. Now I can breathe. The little girl in me who’d gone her whole life unloved never failed to sigh in contentment at the look.
I kicked off my heels in the front foyer and padded barefoot into the living room. North was coloring on the coffee table and Free was watching a movie. When he saw me, he gave me the look, and then returned to his television. North ran at me, wrapping her arms around my legs.
“You are home!” she shouted.
I bent to pick her up. “How was your day with Daddy?”
She gave me a private smile. “He’s old and fat.”
I laughed, bending to press a kiss to Free’s head. Wreck was beauty reincarnate; he’d lost the boyishness to his face over the years, and replaced it with hard, handsome man. “Where is my old, fat husband?”
Free frowned at the TV.
North’s expression changed from happiness to worry.
My heart dropped. I set North down on the couch and forced a smile. “Pizza for dinner?”
They both nodded, the mood around them subdued.
I went into his office. Wreck was sitting at his desk. The monitor above his door showed the security footage of the living room. Free and North were
fighting over the remote, their little voices spitting out arguments. Wreck still found a way to hover over what he loved; he watched because he wanted to see what love looked like.
“I’m older!”
“I’m smarter!”
“You smell.”
“You smell worse.”
Wreck pressed down on the intercom button on his desk and growled into it. “Put the remote down, both of you.”
The remote hit the floor. North sat back, pouting. Free gave the camera in the corner of the room a worried look.
Wreck ran a hand through his hair and then drug it down his face. I could sense the weight of a storm in his office. When his royal blue eyes found mine, mayhem and terror burned in them.
I froze where I stood. “What’s wrong?”
In response, he slid a stack of paperwork across his desk.
I pointed at it. “What is that?”
“It’s my father’s will.” His face crumpled. “Why am I sad, Hals?” Tears glimmered in his eyes. “He was never a father to me.”
And for some reason, tears pricked my eyes, too. Not for Owen, but for his son. He’d never get closer. He’d never look at his past as anything other than a prison.
“He never loved me. He never did anything for me. But he gave me you. He gave me you, baby. It’s hard as hell to hate a man when he gave me the love of my life.”
I went over and sat on Wreck’s lap. I cradled his head against my chest and held my knight as he cried for a father that did not deserve his tears. Owen Wreckmond’s heart gave out two weeks later. We got the call while we were having breakfast with the kids. Wreck nodded, said he’d handle the arrangements, and then he went back to having breakfast with his children.
All I could think about was how much we’d suffered so he could have his money. How many nights his son went unloved. How we’d been forced under the rule of greed and in the end, he’d had no choice but to leave it on earth.
Owen Wreckmond left every single dime he owned to his son. Every share in Globe Tonight. He gave me my 24% back in Goodford Finance. The house, the cars, the offshore accounts—every single asset Owen owned went to his son.
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