We walked out of the movie. The daisies were in my hand between us. Almost a barrier. But not quite.
I couldn’t believe that I’d actually been able to spit that all out to him. That we’d had that conversation and sat through a two-and-a-half-hour movie without trying to make out with each other’s faces. We’d been at Wright, and I’d barely been able to hold it together. But, somehow, back in that movie theater, we’d made it. The physical connection was there, as ever.
It was the emotional one that my heart was balancing on a tightrope. I didn’t know whether I’d make a misstep and plummet into the depths below.
“So…” I murmured. “Some movie.”
“Honestly? I think I’m going to have to see it again.”
“Why is that? Didn’t get your fill of the hot men?”
“I was a little distracted,” he said, purposefully meeting my eyes.
I couldn’t help the blush that crept onto my cheeks. Things with David were easy. Or they had been. That was what I’d loved about it. That it was effortless. And yet…we’d royally fucked it up. All the complications had reared their ugly heads and shattered that illusion of simplicity.
“So…we should talk,” I said.
“Your place or mine?”
I chewed on my bottom lip and weighed the pros and cons. Truthfully, neutral ground would be better, but at ten p.m., our options were pretty limited.
“Your place. Jen is watching Jason tonight at my place.”
“All right. Meet you there?”
“Yeah.”
David stopped and reached out to touch my arm. “It’s just a talk, okay?”
I released the breath I’d been holding. Right. Just a talk. Nothing more. We could barely keep it together at the office. What was going to happen when I was at his house?
No, I wasn’t going to think about that. I was going to drive over to his place. We were going to talk about why he never told me he was a Van Pelt. And then I was going to leave. Simple as that.
David’s mansion was close to my house on the south side of town. He lived in the country club in an outrageous place all by himself. But, apparently, with the cost of living in San Francisco, he only would have been able to buy a shoebox there for the cost of this place. I guessed…the same would be true for New York City, too. The place he was really from.
I parked in the driveway, doubting my every move. Being here with him was not smart. Hearing him out was though.
I didn’t want things to progress too quickly. I’d told the girls that I was willing to listen to David’s side of the story. Maybe even give us the second chance that I never had with Maverick. But I didn’t know what I was doing. And I didn’t know if I was ready for that second chance.
But I had no choice right now. I would listen to what he had to say. Make any decisions from there.
I left the flowers in the car and hoped that the summer heat wouldn’t ruin the buds. They were a sweet gesture. He’d looked so cute, standing at the front of the movie theater, holding them. Even if I hadn’t intended for this to be a date. It wasn’t a date.
Someone would believe that statement, I was sure…
David had already unlocked the front door, and I entered cautiously. He slipped off his jacket and slung it on the back of a barstool. He glanced down at his phone before depositing it on the island in the kitchen and sauntering back into the living room toward me. He looked delectable in a polo and shorts. I liked him in relaxed attire as much as a suit. But what really did me in was seeing him in his own element with the confidence that came with that.
He gestured to the couch. “Have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“Just water. Thanks.”
“Don’t mind if I have some bourbon, do you?”
“No.” Though I was surprised.
“Good. This story…well, it needs something a little stronger.”
I watched him pour a knuckle’s worth of amber liquid into a glass and down it before pouring another. He brought it over along with my water and left them on coasters on the pristine glass coffee table.
What a contrast in our lives. A glass coffee table was one of the most ridiculous pieces of furniture you could have with a toddler in the house. It would always have fingerprints and Legos and juice and Cheerios and fifteen books and a smashed SpaghettiO or something. It would definitely never look like…this. #MomProblems
“I suppose I should start at the beginning.” David took a seat in a chair across from me and sighed, as if this were going to be a long event.
“Wherever you want to start is fine.”
“Bear with me.” He took another sip of his bourbon. “When I was at Yale, I was getting a business degree so that, once I graduated, I could start working at the family company. I had every intention of taking over and running it when my father retired.”
I swallowed. Oh God, I hoped I was ready for this.
“I was home for the summer and working for my father when I came across a string of suspicious emails that led to me finding out all of my parents’ dark secrets. I’ll spare you the boring details that you likely already know, but it was a long track record of dirty dealings and stolen money.”
“Before that, you knew nothing?” I asked in disbelief.
“Did you know that your father had invested money with the Van Pelts before it went public?”
I shook my head. “I guess I didn’t know much about the business as a child and had no interest when I grew up.”
“Right. I was kind of a reluctant bystander in this. Destined to take over the company to make my petulant, irritable father proud of me. A man who couldn’t even hug me, let alone treat me with affection. I’m not sure that I ever heard him tell me that he loved me.”
David glanced away, lost in his own memory. I could tell that it still pained him to think about it all these years later. I hadn’t had a great father, but he’d still doted on me. I knew that he loved me. I couldn’t imagine growing up in world where I doubted my parent’s affection.
“Anyway, I confronted my parents about what I’d discovered.”
“That must have been difficult.”
He laughed sardonically. “You have no idea. This was my legacy, and I was about to turn it upside down. But I was convinced it was a mistake, some error. That I was doing the right thing by bringing it to my parents’ attention so that we could discuss it like adults.”
I frowned at that. I’d always believed the Van Pelts were monsters, and David had worked under the impression for most of his life that they were the good guys. How had it hurt him to realize that he’d been played? It must have destroyed his sense of self to make him change his name and move to San Francisco.
“As you can imagine, it didn’t go well. Obviously, it wasn’t a lie, and I’d discovered years of careful manipulation and a decades-old Ponzi scheme. Instead of being rightfully horrified at what they’d done, they insisted that I couldn’t tell anyone. Even made it seem like I was in on their secret club now that I knew.”
My hand moved to my mouth in horror.
“But I couldn’t take over a fake company. I felt cheated and lied to. I told them I was going to go to the police. That this wasn’t right. They tried to tell me that no one would believe me, and then when I became more adamant, they told me they would disinherit me.”
“Disinherit you? That’s preposterous. They knew they’d lose everything. You’d have nothing to inherit anyway.”
“Yeah, but at the time, it was a real threat. I was insane with anger, and throwing a disinheritance on top of it.” He shook his head. “I completely lost it. I couldn’t believe they’d do that to their only son.”
“I can’t believe anyone would say something that cruel to you when you were the one doing the right thing.”
“They didn’t think it was the right thing. They’d been doing this so long, they were blind.”
“God, what fucking assholes,” I said, jumping to my feet and burning with indignant rage against the Van Pelts all over again.
“They are,” he agreed.
I ground my teeth together. No wonder he’d abandoned them. I couldn’t even believe that Katherine had stayed on their side. That anyone could side with the Van Pelts. I felt validated. But, if he was so against the Van Pelts, then why the hell hadn’t he told me? Of course we didn’t like them, but I might have understood his own distaste for them; instead, he’d lied and proven he was more like them than he cared to admit.
“Sutton, please, sit down.”
“Okay, okay.” I plopped back on the couch and took a long drink of my water. “I just…I don’t feel like this explains why you lied to me. If anything, I feel like this all would explain why you should have told me.”
“I know.” He steepled his fingers together and stared down at the bourbon in his almost-empty glass. “This isn’t easy. I don’t…I don’t talk about these things. In fact, the only person who does know any of this is Katherine, and we don’t see eye to eye. Confiding in people is hard from me. And, God, I just…I don’t know how to say the next part.”
I took a deep breath and then let it out. I was letting my fury get the best of me, and I needed to hear out the rest of his story. “Go ahead. I’m listening. I want to hear the rest.”
“Well, when they said they’d disinherit me, I told them I couldn’t believe that they’d do that to their only son.” His eyes moved up to mine. “And my father said…that I wasn’t his son.”