Like a Boss - Annabelle Costa Page 0,79
a handkerchief. I’ve never even owned a handkerchief… I usually go for the Kleenex. I can only see the side of Luke’s face, but he seems much more stoic than the other night. He’s not crying. He’s just sitting there, staring straight ahead.
After the eulogy, it’s Luke’s turn to speak. He wheels to the front of the room, up to the podium. It’s far too high for him in his wheelchair, so the clergyman hands him the microphone to use. Luke taps on it and the sound reverberates through the room.
“Hello,” he says. “My name is Lucas Thayer, and Thomas Thayer was my father.”
I look at Sophie and for the first time, a smile touches her lips. She practically glows whenever Luke is around. Whatever Luke’s father thought of him, it’s obvious his mother thinks the world of him, disabled or not.
“As some of you know, my father and I weren’t on the best terms.” He clears his throat. “We were close when I was younger, and he always expected I would take over Thayer Industries someday, which I did after his heart attack five years ago. But when I was twenty-three, I got into an accident and lost the ability to walk. Since then, all my father wanted was for me to get out of my wheelchair.”
The room is dead silent.
He lifts his eyes to look at the ceiling. “Well, Dad, I think we can agree after eleven years, it’s never going to happen.”
He keeps his eyes on the ceiling for a moment. Then they drop to the ground. “Or maybe I’m looking in the wrong direction,” he adds.
There’s a murmur throughout the crowd as Luke sits there for a moment quietly, just staring at the ground. He adjusts his body in the chair and smooths out the creases on his pants. His shoulders lift as he takes a deep breath.
“I’ve enjoyed running the company under my father’s guidance these last five years,” he says. “But now that he’s passed, I’ve made alternate arrangements.” He pauses. “As of yesterday, Thayer Industries has been sold to Waltham United.”
A collective gasp rises from the audience. Sophie obviously has no idea about any of this and her face goes white as a sheet. She’s not glowing anymore. She’s shaking her head in disbelief.
Luke waits a second for the buzz of the crowd to settle down, then says, “That’s all. Thanks.”
The “mourners” can’t wait to surround Luke—he’s effectively ruined his father’s funeral. I can’t help but wonder if that was purposeful or if he simply didn’t care. Luke’s sale of the family company is a “screw you” to his father, who probably deserved it. After all, what kind of man refuses to forgive his only son for being disabled? That entire performance was evidence that Luke never forgave his father.
“How could he do this?” Sophie hisses, looking at me. I shrug helplessly. “Tom wouldn’t have wanted this. Why would he do this?”
I don’t know what to say. This is a matter to be discussed between mother and son.
“I know he hated running the company,” Sophie says. “But he was so good at it…”
When it’s Sophie’s turn to speak, she stumbles on her way to the podium. Although she looks beautiful, she is visibly shaken. She pulls a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. She pauses for a moment, staring down at the paper, then forces a smile to her lips.
“Thomas Thayer was the love of my life.” She lifts her chin. “None of you knew him the way I did, but he was a good man. He was the sort of man who… who….” She bites her lip for a minute, then looks up from the paper. “Luke, my God, how could you sell the company?”
A hum rises among the mourners. Luke, positioned in his wheelchair by the first row of seats, is quiet for a second, then realizes that his mother is looking for a response from him. “Mom,” he says in a low murmur. “Can we discuss this later?”
“You were the one who chose to discuss it now,” Sophie says. She folds her arms across her chest, looking very much the cross mother. “What on earth were you thinking? Are you doing this because you hated him?”
Luke is good at fielding public attacks, but not so much from his mother. He’s struggling to maintain his composure. “I didn’t hate him,” he says. “It’s a purely business decision.”
Yep, Luke’s still as good a liar as he always was.
Sophie looks at her