5

Jason

I sit across from my father, Tom, in the living room of my childhood home. I despise everything about this place: the wide-open windows, the opulent furniture that makes guests feel cozy but turns my stomach. Living here was like being trapped in a nightmare on Elm Street—never feeling like home, just a mansion filled with possessions. If these eggshell walls could talk, they'd tell tales of dark secrets and abuse. Every minute spent within these confines reminds me that I never belonged.

My father's gray eyes narrow at me, his face flushing tomato-red. He crosses his legs, creasing his beige dress pants, and glares while grinding his teeth. I loathe him with every fiber of my being. His face is weathered with wrinkles, and his salt-and-pepper hair slicked back. The beige suit seems to suffocate him.

He settles opposite me on the chestnut brown couch.

We're here to settle the inheritance of my uncle Jake's business. His lawyer, Eric, leans in to whisper in his ear, and my father shakes his head. Uncle Jake passed away three days ago, the same day I spotted Penny at the bar. He had been battling terminal brain cancer. Uncle Jake was the one who treated me like a son. My father never played catch with me or taught me to drive; he was too preoccupied chasing my stepmother and trying to erase me from his life. He paints a facade to the media of our perfect family, portraying himself as caring and the ideal father figure. The media adores him, worships him.

When I graduated from Yale and was labeled a playboy and alcoholic, he took to social media to announce he was arranging my rehab, supposedly concerned for my well-being. Yet, not once did he call me during my stay, and his appearance to pick me up was nothing but a publicity stunt orchestrated by his PR team.

He's a complete fraud.

I hate him with a burning intensity.

If he were on fire, I wouldn't even bother to piss on him to put it out.

“It’s time,” Eric murmurs, his face wiped clean of emotion. He’s been the family’s lawyer since I can remember, but I never hired him for anything because he’s on my father’s payroll and I don’t trust him. Eric twists the ends of his bushy mustache. His pot belly hangs over his belt and the white crisp shirt he wears looks as if it’s going to burst sometime soon. And he reeks of body odor. I also suspect he doesn’t wash his ass. I don’t see how my father can stand the smell of him.

He reads the will slowly and steadily. Apparently, my father’s younger sisters will receive his vacation homes, mansion, and his cars and whatever stock he has left. I don’t care, I want to know who gets his business. I can quit Moon lingerie as I’ve never been into fashion. The only reason why I worked there was because Atlas needed the help. I’m good at numbers, which is why I was the CFO, but now Atlas has left to start a new company with Lilly.

“Jason, you get Wolfgang Enterprise Bank,” Eric announces, then he glances at my father.

Just as I expected. I smirk and gloat, taking in my victory and the sour look on Tom’s face. He looks like he wants to rip me in half.

My uncle’s business is worth close to thirty billion dollars, which will make me one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

“I knew my brother always made poor choices, but this one takes the cake.” His words are filled with venom as he rolls his eyes and taps his foot on the ivory marble floor.

I glare at him. He really thinks I care how he feels about me?

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

“Watch what you say about him. Unlike you, he treated me like I was his child.”

I’ve been wanting to say those words to him for the longest time. I was hoping to get a reaction out of him, but he doesn’t care. If I were dying, he wouldn’t care. That’s how much he doesn’t like me.

The feeling is mutual.

I don’t know why my father and uncle hated each other, but I don’t care. I’m sure Uncle Jake had a good reason.

They were like night and day. My uncle was the happy-go-lucky type of guy, and never let shit faze him.

A lump forms in the back of my throat and my heart hammers in my chest. If I had known the last time I saw him would be the last time, I would have said goodbye to him. He truly was a great man. I wish I’d had more time with him.

Eric clears his throat and says, “It says here you have to be married for at least one year to get the business.”

Uncle Jake didn’t have any children, nor did he ever marry—so he doesn’t have any heirs.

I glance at my lawyer, Phillip, and he nods. I snatch the paperwork from my lawyer and my eyes scan the paper, and sure enough, it’s right here in the clause.

My smile deflates.Marriage.My uncle knew I wasn’t the type to settle down. So why would he put that in the will? The thought of being tied down repulses me, especially when there are so many women that will give me what I want, when I want it. Relationships are complicated, nothing more than a business transaction. They always come with strings attached.

I glance at my father, and he smiles like the Chester Cat. He thinks he’s won, but he hasn’t. I deserve my uncle’s business. I invested a lot of money into it, and I want to reap the benefits of what I am owed. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a piece of paper stand in the way of what I want.

Who will agree to something like this? For someone to be my wife. So many women, but most of them are going to want more from me. They will want a family and to have my last name to open doors for them. Except for Penny. She’s the only woman I know who won’t put up with my shit, who only uses me for sex. She doesn’t expect diamond rings, nor does she want to use my name for clout. She didn’t even stick around for breakfast. Didn’t start planning our future as a couple. She’s the perfect woman for this deal. And we’ll be married for only a year. She can go her way and I can go mine and I’ll make sure she gets compensated financially while she’s married to me and offer her a job since she has a shitty one at the moment. I’ve been checking on her from time to time. But for now, I’m going to make it seem like I am already ready to be engaged to someone so Tom won’t think he has a chance of getting the business.

“As a matter of fact, I was planning to propose to my girlfriend soon,” I lie straight through my teeth, pushing the thick frames of my glasses up my nose.

The maid, wearing an all-blue outfit, sits drinks on the glass table and my father shoos her away as if she’s a fly. I pick up the glass of whiskey, watching him over the rim before I stick my finger into the liquor then in my mouth. Tom brought out the good stuff. Watching him frown makes me want to leap for joy. I keep my composure, remaining cool, calm, and collected.

He grits his teeth and balls up his fist, digging his nails into his palms. “To whom?” he asks in disbelief.

“Penny Giles. I’ve been seeing her since last year. We kept our relationship under wraps because she doesn’t like publicity.” The lies roll smoothly off my tongue.

He sits forward, resting his balled fist on the edge of his knee, tapping his Italian loafers on the marble floors.

“Bullshit,” he says. “You don’t deserve that business.”

Myfathermakes sure that I don’t forget that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me, and the only reason why he tolerated me was because of my mother.

When my mother was alive, he struggled to accept me, but when she died, he couldn’t wait to ship me off to boarding school. I never understood the hate he had for me. I would ask my mother why he hated me and she would only tell me that he loves me, but that he doesn’t know how to love properly, which turned out to be a load of horseshit, because he treats my half-siblings like they walk on water.

He’s a shitty man, but he always paid for my education and made sure I had everything I wanted and needed, even though he saw me as a burden.

“I’m getting the business. End of story.”

I get up from the coach, hover over him, and pluck one of his cigars from his shirt pocket and light it. Then I blow smoke in his face. Tom stands, yanks me by the shirt, gritting his teeth.

I laugh like a hyena.

There is no way this man can take me on. I’ll have him black and blue without breaking a sweat. I flicker ash on his thousand-dollar suit, plastering on a fake smile.

“Gentlemen,” Eric barks, and Phillip stands up, squeezing between us.

My father lets me go but hate fills to the rims of his irises.

“If I find out that you married to get my brother’s business, I’ll take you to court.” He wipes the ash from his suit.

“I would love to see you try, old man.”

Once I’m done smoking the cigar, I waltz to the fireplace and stab the cigar on the mantelpiece before tossing it to the floor. I beeline for the exit. Once I make it to the front French doors, relief washes over me as my shoulders sag.

Going against my father has always felt like being in a boxing ring. He will not rest until he has my uncle’s business, so I need to be on my toes. I need to make sure all my ducks are in a row and not have a single slipup.

I have got to find Lilly and ask her about Penny. The thought of her makes my dick hard. She’s the only woman I think about from time to time, the only woman I don’t mind the idea of fucking on a regular basis. I have a rule that I sleep with women only one time due to them getting clingy in the past—no repeats. Yet when I first laid eyes on her at the restaurant last year, I thought she was an angel fallen from heaven. But she made it known she wasn’t interested in me. That only made my dick harder. When she called me out of the blue and asked for a one-night stand, I hopped at the opportunity. Once we had sex, she ran back to her ex-fiancé. I was pissed. Not because I had feelings for her, but because she didn’t deserve the way he treated her. No one deserves to be treated like shit. I didn’t want her to go back because I wanted to keep fucking her. It’s selfish, but I don’t care.

I only care about my own interests.

“Why didn’t you introduce me to your girlfriend yet?”

I turn to look at my sister, Lacey.

Her round glasses sit on the bridge of her nose and she’s wearing a tight plaid skirt with a very revealing cropped shirt. She’s petite, with her mother’s blue eyes and Tom’s dark brown hair. Yet she doesn’t look like him, the spitting image of her mother.

Sometimes, I wondered where my life would be if my mother had left Tom.

Would my lifestyle have changed?

Would she have remarried?

Would she have died so early in life?

She was only thirty-three years of age when she died.

“I’ve been busy,” I shoot back and keep walking.

I don’t have a desire to talk right now, and after the meeting earlier, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.

Lacey always clings to me like white on rice and I never understood it. Our brother Jax goes out of his way to avoid me and we never say more than a few words to each other. Lacey never got along with Jax, says he’s an asshole to her.

We stroll outside, and the heat beats the hell out of me, so I use my hand as a shield for my eyes. The sun peeks through the tall, leafy trees.

Her eyes shine like the stars and her smile is brighter than the sun, revealing her straight white teeth. “Can I be your groomsman?”

Of course, she heard everything, always one to eavesdrop on conversations. Ever since she was a little girl.

Here comes the million questions.

I slide my hands in my pockets. “You can be the flower girl.” She slides into my Aston Martin, not bothering to ask me if I have plans. Just barges in. It’s cute and annoying at the same time. I get into the driver’s seat.

“I’m seventeen, not twelve. I’m too old to be the flower girl, and I don’t know your girlfriend to ask her to be a bridesmaid. You have any smokes?” She grins, kicking her feet up on my dashboard.

I tap the start button and the engine roars to life. “I told you about that. Smoking is not good for you.” She frowns and shakes her head so hard, I think it’s going to roll off her shoulders.

“Neither is lying, but we both do it.” She shakes her head. “You don’t even want to get married. But I understand why you’re doing it. Uncle Jake’s business is going to make you even more super rich.” Her eyes gloss over with tears. “I don’t get why Dad treats you like shit, but if my words mean anything to you, I like you, and you’re cool. And I sometimes wish that Dad treated you a lot better.”

Her words hit my chest, and I don’t know what to say. To have someone from my family be kind to me means a lot. It’s nice to hear that someone cares about me for a change, and not about what I can do for them.

She may be a brat, but she has a heart, and she isn’t mean or ever acts like her parents. Maybe having a good heart is something you are born with.

I don’t know how to respond to her kind words, so I nod.

“Take me to the convenience store.”

We ride in silence until I reach the nearest gas station. She asks me if I need anything, and I shake my head. Fifteen minutes later, she opens the car door, hops in, then slams it shut. She tosses her bag into the back seat, grabs a cigarette from the packet, puts it between her lips, and lights it up. A cloud of smoke fills the car, so I tap my window and watch her flick ashes out her side. The tip of the cigarette is orange, lightening up the car a bit.

I hate the smell of nicotine, and I rub the back of my neck. “Where to now?”

She glances back at me, twisting her body to fully face me. “To the skating ring. You haven’t taken me in several months.”

Guilt eats at me like a disease. “I’ve been busy these days, running a billion-dollar company.”

“A business you don’t even like,” she shoots back.

“True,” I reply.

I used to take her when I moved back to New York City after college.

Once we’re inside, we sit at a round table and slip on our skates, all the while Lacey tells me about the drama with her friends, her boyfriend who’s in a rock band, and how her mother doesn’t approve of him.

I don’t like her mother, but I agree with her. He’s probably a bad boy who’s strung out on drugs. They have a bad rep, but I’m going to hold off on the judgment until I meet him. If I meet him. I have a feeling she’s not going to bring him around me. Eventually, we’ll meet and when we do, I’m going to drill him with questions. I need to make sure that he’s going to be good to my little sister.

She rests her elbows on the table. “So, about this Penny. I want to know everything about her. What’s she like?”