been able to make her mine, to give Holden my name.
This isn’t the road I ever wanted Tennessee to have to travel. Susan has made her already difficult road a little bumpier, but I am going to make sure, after this, there isn’t so much as a pothole on her road. Not ever again.
Chapter Thirty-Four
LANDRY
The invitation stares back at me. It’s almost a living, breathing thing. This particular charity ball is one that I always donate heavily to and one that I never miss. Anyone who is anyone attends this event, which means that Susan will be vying for her own invitation. I don’t know if she’ll actually get one, but I always do.
Tennessee has retreated into herself and I don’t blame her. She has court in just a week’s time, so I can only hope that once that is finished and as long as the verdict is favorable, we can get back to our lives and go forward with our future.
A future that she is very much the center of for me.
Lifting my pen, I mark my RSVP in the affirmative and include my plus one as Tennessee Bradley. I hope by then that she’ll be Tennessee Astor, but I’m not so presumptuous as to include her name as such.
“Mr. Astor, Laurent Astor is here to see you,” Julie says, her voice echoing in the intercom.
Shoving the RSVP in the envelope, I seal it and place it on my desk before I touch the button and tell her that she can go ahead and send him in.
Laurent waltzes through my door a few seconds later and without a word he sinks down in the chair across from my desk. Lifting my gaze to his, I notice that his brows are knotted together and he looks distressed.
“Talk to me, Laurent,” I gently demand.
“About?” he asks like the true smartass that he is.
Leaning back in my chair, I lift my hands and lace my fingers at the back of my head. My eyes never leave his. I focus on him, watching and waiting. He doesn’t say anything, instead, he stares blankly back at me.
“Everything, son. What is going on with you?”
His lips twitch into a cocky smile. “I’m thirty, I’m good looking, and I come from money. I’m getting laid, Dad. What else should I be doing?”
I shake my head, my gaze never leaving his. “Don’t. That isn’t right. I thought that you and Bethie were working toward something?”
He snorts. “She’s the cute blonde receptionist. Of course, I wanted to tap that. She was a challenge because she didn’t immediately drop to her knees, but I got in there. Then I got what I wanted and bounced.”
“Laurent,” I warn.
Laurent stands, he takes a couple of steps toward my desk and places his palms down on the edge before he leans over.
“She wanted a happy little family and I wanted it with her,” he growls. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“If it’s true, then yes. I also want to know why you’ve treated her poorly.”
He shakes his head, looking down at the desk he inhales a sharp breath then lifts his head and his eyes find mine.
“Because it’s too much,” he grates.
He lifts his hands and slams them down on the desk, the noise echoing all around us. I press my lips together as I watch him. “It’s too much?” I rasp. “What is? The fear of rejection? The feeling that fills you with happiness? Tell me.”
“All of it. It’s easier to fuck and walk away.”
“It is,” I agree with a nod. “It isn’t fulfilling though.”
“You’re fulfilled with Tenny? You’re ready to be a dad to a toddler, sixteen more years of parenthood? Just for young pussy? Come on, Dad, nobody ever actually married the trophies like that.”
Anger immediately flows throughout my entire body, but then I remember that Laurent doesn’t know what a healthy relationship is.
This is the price that I paid by giving my kids some kind of stability, they lost something else. I fucked up. But I don’t think it would have been better had I left, I think that it still would have been a mess.
There was no right way to do any of this.
“I am fulfilled with Tenny, but the thing is, I would be fulfilled with her if she was sixty-two, too. Her age doesn’t fulfill me. The person that she is, the way that I feel about her, that’s what fulfills me, Laurent.”
“You’re going to be raising babies when you should be enjoying retirement