I checked my phone again. Still nothing. I thought about texting him and asking if he was okay. I was pissed last night. My anger had matched his. We got nowhere. Both of us were too busy shouting and going on the attack to hear each other. We tended to be passionate. That passion ran hot and bubbled over. It was great for our sex life but not so good for our communication skills.
I was certain he wasn’t going to call. It was over. Instead of dwelling on the matter, I decided to be proactive. I opened my laptop and pulled up the file I had started when I was getting ready to go out on my own. I needed to get back to it.
Chapter 71
Nash
I tapped my pencil up and down on the notepad. I still had not figured out how to handle the Saige and Jace situation. It felt like no matter what I did, it was wrong. I had to think long and hard before I made a move. It wasn’t just me that I had to think about. Jace had already been put through enough.
I heard noise outside the office. A lot of noise. “What the hell?”
My office was quiet. Employees kept their voices low. Because it was so quiet, no one had to talk above a loud whisper to be heard. Things got quiet, and a moment later, my office line rang. I picked it up. “Yes?”
“Uh, sir, there is someone here to see you,” my receptionist said.
“Who?”
“Tell him it’s his father!” I heard a man shout.
I smiled. “Send him in,” I said with a great deal of satisfaction.
I didn’t expect to get an in-person visit. I expected an angry phone call or maybe an email. This was going to be very satisfying. My door was thrown open. It bounced off the wall as my father stepped through. I was glad to see he still had some energy. He looked so weak when I saw him in California.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he boomed.
I didn’t bother getting up. “Can you shut the door?” I asked Carly.
She looked terrified as she pulled the door closed.
“Did you hear me?” my father shouted.
“The entire office heard you,” I said calmly.
He grabbed the chair across from my desk and jerked it back before sitting down. “Why in the hell would you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You know what you did, you little shit,” he snapped. “You think you’re so smart. I want it back.”
“What do you want back?” I asked nicely.
“My company!”
I smiled and leaned back in my chair. “Ah, my company. I’m sorry, but that company is on its way to being dismantled.”
“Why would you do that? Why are you fucking with me?”
“I’m not fucking with you.”
“Where do you get off buying my company out from underneath me?” he snapped.
“It was never your company.”
“The hell it wasn’t.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Nope. When you started your company, you didn’t have the money. You had to use investors. Your investors had the majority share. They weren’t happy with the return on their investment. You made a lot of bad decisions. Buying them out was easy. They were more than happy to sell their shares.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I wanted to take away the one thing you had,” I said. “You walked away from me and Mom for that company. You gave all your time to that company and what good did it do you? If that company had been mine, I would have turned over a profit ten times what you have by now.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true,” I said. “Look around you. This is all mine. This is a fraction of what I own. I can buy and sell you a hundred times over if I want to. You thought you were so smart but look who’s laughing now.”
“You did this on purpose?”
“It wasn’t an accident,” I said with a sardonic laugh.
“Why? Why my company?”
“Because I want to take away what’s important to you. I want you to know a fraction of what it was like for me and Mom. We lost the house and had to live in a shitty apartment with no furniture. We had nothing. You know she followed your career. You got a write-up in the paper when you made your first million. Mom read it and cried. You made a million dollars, and we were left with nothing. I’m taking it away from you. Brick by brick, I’m going to take it all away.”