by Mia Ford
“Have a seat,” Noah said. “Please.”
His voice was raspy and rough, leading to an even darker realization that he may not be well at all. I wasn’t sure if it was life in general, Nick, or his health, but something had drastically changed Mr. Landers, and it was not for the better. However, as his eyebrows relaxed and he folded his hands in his lap, I realized there was no hidden bitterness left inside of him, and it took me by surprise. Six months was a very long time for someone like Noah, and it could lead to many changes, including, as it seemed, a completely different viewpoint on life.
Nathan motioned to the seat next to him, and I smiled politely, sitting down and crossing my legs. Noah looked at me for a moment and back at Nathan, but I couldn’t tell what was going on in his mind. He seemed to be distraught, but my being there didn’t seem to bother him at all.
“First, I would like to thank you for coming,” he said with tired eyes. “And I would like to congratulate you both on getting married. I had no idea. I’m sorry you had to cut your honeymoon short.”
I was surprised by his words, but I kept my mouth shut. Instead, I smiled kindly and nodded. Nathan reached over and took my hand, squeezing it tightly in his. I could tell he was having a hard time already, and I couldn’t blame him. Noah looked and sounded terrible, and it was heartbreaking.
“A lot has happened,” he said, grabbing a handkerchief and coughing into it. “Your brother, Nicholas, is being investigated by the FBI for fraud surrounding some questionable international investments. Luckily, he did that on his own and not through the company. If that had been the case, there would be no company to discuss today. Since I kept control of the company and Nick had no ability to control where the money went, they did not freeze our assets. That being said, you can only imagine what this kind of scandal can do to a business’s reputation. Our quarterly profits are at rock bottom, and Nick has run off to South America with, what I am assuming is no real interest in coming back. Things are very bleak.”
Nathan sat there for a moment, taking all that information in. That was a lot of news for one tiny office, and even I was shocked, sitting there with wide eyes. Nathan looked around the room at the pictures on the walls and the books on the shelf. The room had been the same way since I had moved in here, with the exception of a couple of awards and some lame Father’s Day gifts. Nathan took a deep breath and looked back at Noah, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.
“And how does this affect me?” he asked coldly. I could tell it was an act, and a really hard one for him to put on. “You tossed me out of everything, remember? You put yourself and this company in this position.”
I reached over and patted Nathan on the arm, feeling that he was starting to let his anger run loose inside of him. He needed to listen to everything and really take it all in. Otherwise, he would let his emotions rule him and make a decision he might not be happy with later. The entire point of this was not to get him his old life back. He had a life with me. But it was to allow him to face the turmoil in his family and come out the other side feeling satisfied and without regrets at the decision he made. The touch of my hand seemed to calm him a bit, and he leaned back, staring at his father who had turned and looked out the office window.
“Why can’t you take over the helm again and bring the struggling company back from the brink?” Nathan asked. “That is what you have been known for your whole life. You are known as the man who built an empire and survived the darkest days of the economy since the great depression. You were known as one of the top businessmen in the world. I know that sitting around all day and playing golf with your buddies can soften you a bit, but I’m sure you have it in you.” Nathan looked at his father in the eye as he turned back toward us. “I don’t know what you want from me. I am not the cleanup crew anymore. I did it once when mom died because I wanted to do it for her, but I don’t owe you or Nick anything. Anything you might think I owed you from being your son has been more than paid off.”
“All right,” his father said sadly. “I can’t take over the company because I’m sick.”
“Sick? What do you mean sick?” Nathan sat forward in his chair and stared at the old frail man on the other side of the desk. I had a feeling that what Noah was about to say next was going to knock us off our feet. I reached over and grabbed onto Nathan’s hand, squeezing it as Noah looked him straight in the eye.
“I have colon cancer,” he replied. “It has spread everywhere, and there is nothing they can really do.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
Nathan
The words flowed so easily from my father’s mouth, but they hit me like a blow to the face. I leaned back in my chair, unsure if I really heard what I thought I heard. Everything in the room immediately sounded muffled and felt as if it were in slow motion. I looked down at Ronni’s hand grasping mine, but I couldn’t feel it. My father was dying of cancer and from the looks of it, he had known for a while. To make matters worse, while our father was here trying to handle the fact that he was dying, my brother was trying to fuck the company before the FBI caught on.
He must have realized he was driving the company into the ground and decided it was better to take the money and run than face my father and a federal prison. Since Mom died, it was hard to face my father, but to completely screw him over while he was facing a death sentence was low, even for Nick. My father had always been so full of life, living it on the edge, unlike me. It was so hard to wrap my head around the fact that he was dying. It almost felt like a bad dream that I couldn’t shake myself awake from. And even with all that information, my father was looking to me to save the day again. He wanted me to bring his company back, just like I had done when the great recession had hit us hard.
I had been the hero last time, bringing the company back, saving the family fortune, and raising us higher than when we started. It sounded great on the outside, but in reality, it was absolutely miserable on the inside. I didn’t even know what to say. I couldn’t get my mind clear enough to even think straight. They expected me to do this, but did I want to? Did I want to drag Ronni through hell by spending hours a day at the office, coming home late, grumpy, and tired? Did it mean enough to me to put everything we had worked so hard for on hold just to appease my dying father?
And after everything my father and Nick put me through, how they tossed me from the will, from the company, and forced me to choose between the love of my life and them? I didn’t even know if they deserved my help. Suddenly, all the noise of the house came rushing back into my ears, and I looked up at my father. His face was solemn, and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I looked over at Ronni, unsure of what to do in that moment. That was a lot of information to take in at once, and I couldn’t just make a decision right here on the spot.
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head and standing from the chair. “I need to think about all of this.”
I walked lifelessly back to the car, shock seeping into my system. Ronni took the keys from me and hopped into the driver’s seat, seeing that I was in no shape to drive. As we moved through the streets, I sat in silence, staring out the window. I wished I could say my mind was full of thoughts, but all I could feel was an emptiness inside. When we got back home, Ronni and I sat down on the couch. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the forehead. I could feel her love surging through me, and it helped me push forward. Had she not been there in that moment, I probably would have just sat there, staring at nothing, letting my mind go in all directions. She always knew exactly what to say. She always had good advice, and in that moment, that was exactly what I needed.
“Help me,” I said, leaning into her. “Tell me what to do. I don’t know what the right move is here. Should I just jump back in and take charge, forgetting all the terrible things that my father and brother have done to me? Should I turn my back and walk away from my family just like they did to me? Neither one of those choices seems like the right one. My father just told me he is dying, and I am
supposed to be able to think clearly enough to make a life-altering the decision? I can’t blame my father for having cancer, but it’s just like him to drop something like this on me without giving me any options. I am completely at a loss, Ronni.”
“First,” she said, rubbing her hands through my hair. “You need to take a deep breath. Remember how calm we felt lying on the beaches in Hawaii. Remember how important it is to really understand what you are facing and not go forward emotionally. You are an amazing man with an amazing future. You just need to figure out what future you want. Take a deep breath and sit there for a moment. I want you to really hear what I have to say, and right now, you can only hear what’s in your own head.”
I closed my eyes and focused on Ronni’s fingers running through my hair. I took in deep breaths, imagining the crystal blue waters and white sandy beaches we’d been forced to leave behind. I thought about our wedding day and how beautiful Ronni looked walking through the sand, holding a small bouquet of flowers. I thought about the feeling I had when we were finally confirmed as husband and wife. All of these things had just happened recently, but they were the best things to ever happen to me. I could feel my heartbeat begin to slow, and my mood begin to shift. Slowly, I opened my eyes and nodded at Ronni.
“You know just as well as I do, especially from your mother, how important family is to your life,” she said. “You have seen firsthand how different things are when you have a strong family relationship versus a bad one. That being said, not all family relationships are healthy, nor do all family relationships end well. We have seen time and time again how relationships with toxic people can bring you down with them. That’s why I don’t have a lot of close people in my life. I never want to be put in a situation where my life ends up a certain way because I got dragged down by someone who never really cared in the first place.”
“But how do I know if this is one of those situations?”
“Not everything is black and white,” she said softly. “This is one of those times where everything is not as it seems. You need to take some time and really think about it. Take the emotion and put it to the side and really dive into the inner workings of who you are. You need to think long and hard what you want out of your life, and where you want to go in the future. Not everything is about the here and now. Many things are about how the here and now affects the future.”
“But shouldn’t I be thinking of more than just what I want? Shouldn’t I be thinking about what my father wants, too?”
“What people want and what people need can often be two different things,” she whispered. “Sometimes when you take the time to really think about things, you realize that what is best may not be the most ideal choice for everyone. But, if they are given that as their only option, in the end, they will find that what is best turned out to be the right decision. You might be surprised how similar those decisions are between you and your father. You need to decide what kind of future you envision for your life.”
“You’re all I want in life,” I responded, smiling up at her.
“And I will always be here, no matter what path you choose,” she replied with a grin. “Remember that when two people get into a relationship, they don’t just magically become one person. What makes a relationship strong is having two individuals working on the things they want in life and having those things intersect. We don’t have to have the same dreams or timelines. We just have to have our lives intersect at the perfect point. When that happens, everything falls into place. Don’t think about me and us. Think about what you want. You always think about what I want, and now, it’s time to understand that no matter what choice you make, I will be right there, cheering you on the entire way. And at the end of the day, our lives will intersect, bringing us back together.”
“You are a wise woman,” I said, looking up at her and feeling much calmer. “I think I’m going to go for a walk on the beach, clear my head, and really think about things.”
“Sounds like a perfect plan,” she said, smiling. “I’m going to get dinner started so we aren’t starving in an hour.”
I stood up from the couch and kissed Ronni on the lips, walking to the door and looking back at her before I closed it behind me. I crossed the street and took my flip flops off before stepping into the moist, cool sand. It didn’t feel the same between my toes as the sand in Hawaii did, but it was still just as nice to be by the ocean when the sun was getting ready to set. The beach had always been such a big part of my life, and it was funny how I always reminisced about my mother taking me to the beach and never thought about the millions of beach trips my father would take Nick and me on. The three of us were thick as thieves, and no matter what was going on at home, or how much Nick and I fought, as soon as we were out there in the sand with our father, we were brothers to the end. Noah and I really had a strong and special relationship when I was a boy and I always was in awe by the fact that my father was so strong and so ready to always be there for us.
I really wanted to have that bond again, that feeling that no matter what life threw at us, we had each other to lean on. I just didn’t think, at this point, anything with Nick could be salvaged. As far as the company was concerned, I didn’t know if I really wanted to dive in and bring it back from the brink of disaster yet again. It would take long, hard hours repairing a company that was not even my legacy. It was my father’s. My father was smart enough with money that he didn’t need the company. He just wanted the company. My thoughts were drawn from my father as I looked ahead at a family walking through the sand. They were laughing and talking, and the dad reached down to swing his little boy up and onto his shoulders.
I stopped and watched them for a few moments, smiling as they passed. They were the perfect example of a happy family. The mom was shining brightly from her husband’s obvious love for her, and the child was carefree and happy to be with his parents. I watched as the boy clung to his father’s head, looking around in wonder at how different the world looked from that height. It was at that moment, everything faded away, and I knew exactly what my choice had to be.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Ronni
I stood there in the shop, staring out the front window, completely lost in my own thoughts. Nathan had been very quiet the last couple of days, and I didn’t want to push him for an answer to what was going on. The retail location was really coming along, and we had all come in today to see what we could do to get everything up and ready as fast as possible. Things were really starting to come together, and I was starting to get really excited about our future with the company.
We had already gotten several orders just from the photo shoot and handing out business cards. There were even orders placed by husbands who saw us there and wanted to get their wives something sexy for their next trip to the beach. When we had arrived this morning, there was a truck sitting outside, and we realized that it was our first shipment of suits arriving from the tailors. We immediately opened every box and sorted them by size, color, and style. We placed the stacks throughout the store, excited to get them on hangers and on the shelves. It was going to actually look like a store in here for the first time, and I couldn’t wait to stand back and soak it all in.
We grabbed a large tub of hangers and went to work, getting them hung up perfectly and uniformly, and placed neatly on the racks, with all the hangers going in the same direction. One thing I loved about working with Maria was that she was just as anal retentive as me about having everything sleek, smooth, and the least messy we could possibly get it. When you walked into a store to buy clothing, you didn’t want to have to search through loads of clothing just to find one piece that you are looking for. You want the customer to come in, pick out their favorite thing, and go right to the register to buy it. The longer they had to think, the worse off the store was.
I looked over at Maria and smiled as she pushed the first rack to the side and began working on the next color.
“Okay,” she said. “Spill it
. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nathan’s dad is dying,” I said, sighing. “And Nick ran off to South America after being chased by the FBI. He was involved with some international sales he shouldn’t have been.”
“Oh, wow,” she said, looking at me with wide eyes. “That’s nuts!”
“Well, now Nathan’s father wants him to run the show again and save the company,” I replied. “But Nathan hated it when he was there, and he is having a really hard time deciding what to do while also mourning the fact that his father is dying.”
“Nathan doesn’t own anyone a damn thing,” Maria said proudly. “He has done so much for his family, and that includes giving up on his own life to make sure their legacy lived on. But that being said, he would be a damn fool to walk away from all that money.”
“Nathan has money, remember,” I said, chuckling. “He doesn’t need the money. He just feels guilty, and that is really messing him up when it comes to making a decision on where to go next.”