Serves Me Wright (Wright #9) - K.A. Linde Page 0,6

you.”

“Julian,” my dad said carefully.

My cool vanished. “You left Mom when she had cancer! I’ll never forgive you. I don’t care what you want to say. It will never get over it.”

My father pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t know about her diagnosis.”

“You think that makes it better?” I snapped.

“It’s not an excuse. I was wrong. Your mother and I had deteriorated years before the divorce papers. It should have happened long ago.”

“You are not helping your case.” I checked my phone. “Your five minutes are up.”

I stepped around him to head back inside. He grasped my elbow. I looked down at it as if it were nothing but vermin.

“Let me go.”

He didn’t. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “We both know that you’re only here because you want something. That’s the only reason you ever do anything. So, what do you want? A job? Money? The company? Whatever it is, you’re not getting it. You dug your grave; you can go lie in it.”

Then I shook his hand off of me and strode back inside without him.

My mind was a haze of anger. It so infrequently took me that I didn’t know how to get rid it. Jordan had the anger issues. He was the one who had been working on not being like our father for so long. I’d always been the easygoing, charismatic, younger brother. But if there was anything that riled me up, it was my father. I wasn’t going to be fooled by him.

I found Jordan with Annie. She was seated in his lap, and they were laughing and kissing. I’d never seen Jordan this happy. Too bad I was about to wreck it.

“We need to talk,” I said.

Jordan frowned as his eyes settled on me. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Alone.”

Jordan protested, but Annie was already getting to her feet. “I’ll go watch the show. Find me later.” She planted another kiss on Jordan’s lips before disappearing.

Jordan watched her go like a man dying of thirst. Then he looked back to me and stood. “You saw Dad?”

I pointed toward the back suite. It was being used by the band, but they were playing, so we’d have some time.

Jordan nodded and then entered the room. The band sure was hard on their space. Drinks and clothes and instruments were scattered everywhere. It didn’t matter right now. I shut the door.

“You invited Dad here without telling me?” I snapped.

Jordan ran a hand back through his hair. “I did. I should have told you, but I wasn’t sure if he was going to come.”

“Well, he’s here, and he ambushed me. Said he wanted a fresh start.”

“Is it impossible to believe he wants that?”

“Yes!” I cried. “Don’t you remember what it was like in Vancouver?”

“I do. I remember more than you do,” Jordan said. “But I also know that I’m like him. I’m just like Dad in so many ways, and Annie gave me a second chance that I didn’t deserve. I can’t help but think we should give him one even if he doesn’t deserve it.”

“What you did was nothing compared to Dad. And anyway, he’s had second and third and fourth chances.”

“He’s still our father.”

My eyes widened. “So?”

“Our cousins lost both of their parents young,” Jordan reminded me. “We’re fortunate enough to have both of our parents still alive. Hasn’t there been enough loss all around? Shouldn’t we get to know the man he is rather than what we idolized him as?”

“Do you think he’s changed?”

Jordan sank onto the arm of one of the chairs and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. It’s not like I’m going into this blind, Julian. I want him to be a better man, but I’m willing to believe he’s the same. And if he is, then that’s that.”

I sighed and turned in a circle. My anger never lasted that long. Everything had already drained away from me. Jordan hadn’t done anything malicious, and as per usual Jordan, he was already working with a contingency plan.

“I still don’t like that I was ambushed.”

“That was my fault. Forgive me about Dad?”

I waved him away. “Whatever. I don’t trust him.”

“I get that. He hasn’t earned our trust yet.”

A knock came on the door, and then Hollin burst into the room. “There you fuckers are.”

I chuckled. Hollin Abbey was our cousin on the other side of the family. My dad’s brother had five kids—Jensen, Austin, Landon, Morgan, and Sutton Wright. But my mom had two siblings, and we had been lucky to find the Abbeys—Hollin, Campbell, and