deep breath and exhaling out for this is going to be a long, hard story to tell. “I think he only agreed to have kids to pacify my mother and keep her quiet since he brought her over from Germany to Canada, where she had no family or friends. He met my mother at a party in Germany while backpacking across Europe. Once he found out that she was heir to a prestigious winery, he quickly charmed her, stayed in Germany to court her, and got her to agree to marry him within a short amount of time. I don’t believe he was truly on vacation or that meeting her was a coincidence. I think he was in Europe on a mission to meet someone to change his life and identity.”
“Why would he feel the need to change his identity?” she asks in confusion.
“When they got married, my father took on my mother’s maiden name instead of her taking on his name. He led people to believe that it was a romantic gesture on his part since he claims to have been so in love with her, but I now know that it was all a facade to change his identity,” I say with bitterness. “We didn’t grow up knowing our paternal grandparents as he said they were dead, but we found out that was a lie.” My father’s death made international news and his parents contacted us, seeking money.
“Why would he lie about that?” Layla looks at me in confusion.
“Apparently, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree as they were deadbeat parents. My father knew he was smart and good looking, so he left to form a new life. Once he married my mother, he made it known to her father that he wanted to help him with running Wilson Vineyards.”
“For a while, my father’s true colors didn’t come out. He worked hard and made a nice living for my mother and generated more revenue than my grandfather could have dreamed of. When my father suggested they open a winery in his homeland of Canada, my grandfather was on board with it. He purchased the land for the vineyard and my parents moved to Canada. I was born a year after their move and my brother came two years later.”
“Unlike in the United States, ice wine is very popular in Canada, so it was a smart business decision on my father and grandfather’s part to open a winery there. Profits were made within the first year and my father built a successful brand with the Wilson name. But as the years went on, he slowly pushed my grandfather out of the business in Canada. My father wanted complete control over the finances and decision-making. My grandfather wanted to make the company public and have a Board of Investors, but my father disagreed and wanted the company to stay private. So he re-paid my grandfather the money he paid for the land and took full control of running the Canadian winery. I always wondered why when my grandfather would come to visit he would ignore my father. Now I know.”
“Is your grandfather still alive?”
“No, he died five years ago. My father made it a big public relations campaign about the death of the founder of Wilson Vineyards and how he loved his father-in-law for giving him the opportunity to run the company. When we went to Germany for the funeral and the reading of the Will, my father was furious to learn that he left all assets of the German winery to my aunt and cousins, who weren’t involved in the family business. My father filed to make Wilson Vineyards Canada a subdivision of his new company, Wilson Enterprises, with him as the sole owner so that my aunt and cousins couldn’t have any control over what my father was doing. They hated my father and wanted nothing to do with him or have him involved in the business in Germany, so they had no problems with his actions.”
“As the years went on, we saw my father less as he worked more. He would only show interest in being a father when he decided he needed to mold our future for us. He made it clear that I was going to be the heir of the family business since I’m the oldest. My brother had shown interest in hockey and our father discovered that Rhys was a very talented hockey player, so his goal was to be in the