where Adam’s head was at right now, so I knew his father had to be completely in the dark.
Though Robert and Adam were closer than Adam was to his mom, Robert had only changed this past eighteen months since Cain had been sent to prison.
That wasn’t a long time to make up for pretty much neglecting his son all his life.
Even though I got the feeling Robert was trying, I also knew it would never be enough. Not for Adam, at any rate.
“I want to do what I’ve always wanted.”
Robert sucked in a breath before slowly releasing it. “What’s that?”
“Flipping houses.”
My eyes widened, and Robert’s brows flatlined. “You want to flip houses? Since when?”
“Since always,” Adam rasped, and I heard the shrug in his voice. “I just never thought I’d be able to do it.”
“Flipping houses isn’t exactly something you can do with no experience,” he pointed out.
Adam’s flippant, “Can’t you? Don’t you learn as you go?” pissed his father off.
“You’re not a contractor, Adam,” Robert snarled. “You’re my son. You’re supposed to be taking over my position in the company.”
“Your company is real estate, Dad. I don’t see the difference. I’ve decided. I don’t want to go to college.”
“You got an offer for Yale, and you’re going to turn it down?” Robert spat. “Over my dead body!” he tacked on, before Adam could say another word.
“Thanks to Grandad, I don’t care what you say, and considering you dumped this bitch of a wife on me, I don’t think I have to worry about your opinions anymore, seeing as you made me a man before I was ready—”
“Goddammit, son, you know why we had to do that.”
“To save Cain. Always to save Cain. Well, I saved his ass from being fucked. I saved him when he hurt the girl I loved—”
“Thea?” Robert breathed, sounding astonished, and I couldn’t blame him.
In all the days I’d spent with him, all the meals I’d eaten with him, and all the nights I’d slept under his roof, not once had I mentioned I had feelings for his son.
“I went against her, I married another woman to save that SOB of a brother, and for what? For him to call me now that he’s in jail, can’t graduate, and to finagle money from me? No thanks, no word of gratitude for raising his son? No. I’ve done my time. I’ve served the family, well, no more. I can do what I want to do—”
“You’ll change your mind. You’re too young to—”
“Too young?” Adam snapped back. “You can dare say that to me when, out of nowhere, I’m a husband and a father when I didn’t do a fucking thing wrong?”
Robert released a breath from between his teeth. “Adam.”
Just his name.
I wasn’t sure if he was saying sorry, or if he was asking for forgiveness.
Either way, I didn’t think he got what he was hoping for.
“I’ve made my mind up. Once I graduate, that’s it for me. I want to make my own path.” And with that, he cut the call.
For a second, I could only stare at Robert’s downturned head as he gazed at his feet, his elbows on his knees, his body hunched over.
Was it horrible that I hoped he hurt?
Adam had been right.
He’d been sacrificed for his scumsucking brother. The honorable son had paid for the bastard’s misdeeds, and was now a boy’s father, had a wife on his arm who he hated...
If anyone had the right to make their own decisions about their future, it was Adam.
Before he saw me, I stepped away from the door and trudged past his office and back onto the landing where my bedroom was.
It was only dumb luck, or bad luck, that had me overhearing that conversation, but now that I had?
I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
My first instinct was to call him, but he hadn’t said anything about this during training.
If anything, he’d dived into the water and we’d raced, pushing each other past our limits until we were both shattered, exhausted as we flopped onto the side of the pool and got our breaths back.
That was as much as we hung out nowadays, and it was more than before, so I was happy, even though I craved more.
Once we left training, that was it. I went my way, he went his.
He ruled Rosemore’s halls, I just tried to hide in the corners to get through the days until I was free and out of that damn place where I’d never fit in.