Chapter 183 THE BEGINNING

Chapter 183 THE BEGINNING
Maverick's Pov

Everything about the funeral had tried to make my father look gentle, respectable, caring, loved.

Lush white flowers surrounded the casket in neat arrangements. The grass was trimmed so perfectly it barely looked real, bright green beneath a pale gray sky. It didn't rain either, the sky just stayed heavy, adding to the atmosphere. Even the breeze felt almost staged, soft enough to stir the trees without disrupting the mourners dressed in black.

I wondered if they were rented. There couldn't be this many people that cared about him enough to wail so loudly.

The cemetery was too beautiful for a man like my father and that thought stayed with me the entire ceremony.

Raymond had convinced me to come. “You’ll regret it if you don’t,” he had said quietly over the phone two days ago.

I hadn't thought so, but here I was. I stood near the back with my hands shoved into the pockets of my coat while they lowered him into the ground, and I felt… nothing.

There was nothing left to give.

The priest spoke softly about forgiveness and eternal peace while dirt thudded lightly against the casket below.

Bodhi wasn't here. I'd texted him about it this morning but he didn't come.

Well, hadn't come… yet.

Maybe.

Around me, there were various manifestations of grief ongoing.

His ex-wife cried quite delicately into a handkerchief while her relatives wrapped arms around her shoulders. My step-sibling stood nearby looking frankly devastated, red-eyed and trembling, like the world had lost something precious.

I was somewhat bothered by that. He must have met the version of my father I had first known, the one who had maybe loved my mother and I.

One of his business partners stepped forward to speak, his voice strong as he described my father as generous and driven. Another person called him loyal. That nearly made me scoff out loud.

Then Raymond’s name was called.

He walked to the front slowly, hands folded together, dark suit wrinkled probably from stress. I sat up, tuned back in. Out of everyone there, he was the only person I wanted to hear what he would say.

Raymond got some papers out of his jacket and laid them flat on the raised podium. Then he cleared his throat twice before speaking.

“At his best,” he began carefully, “he was determined, intelligent, and capable of loving deeply, which he did.”

I crossed my arms tighter over my chest. At his best, he’d said. That distinction fucking mattered to me.

Raymond continued speaking to the crowd, offering short stories that painted my father as a warm man, even getting a few chuckles here and there. Then, after a pause, his eyes flicked briefly toward me.

“He was also flawed,” Raymond said gently. “Painfully flawed. He hurt people he should have protected and sometimes, he was loud and brash about things that deserved a gentle hand.”

A subtle shift moved through the crowd. I hoped it was discomfort, I wanted it to be.

The rest of Raymond's speech continued in a similar light, and at the end of it, I felt something, for the first time since I'd seen the casket.

Melancholy.

Then he stepped aside and the priest asked if anyone else wanted to speak. Raymond looked at me and I shook my head immediately.

The priest asked again. I shook my head at Raymond a second time.

Because if I walked up there, I would ruin this funeral. I didn't want to say anything kind about him. His last words to me certainly weren't.

The ceremony ended soon after, and eventually people began dispersing in small clusters.

Raymond approached slowly. “You okay?” he asked.

I shrugged. I was, mostly but…

He nodded like he expected that. For a moment we stood in silence watching the grave. Then Raymond sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s something else.”

I glanced at him but he was still looking at my father.

“The will,” he said softly, although his expression tightened. “You weren’t included officially.”

That didn’t fucking surprise me, ot even a little bit. I shrugged again.

“But,” he continued quickly, “there must be assets that can still be directed your way. I’m going to see what I can do legally.”

I nodded. Because if there was a way to get money from him, I wanted every cent I could take from him. It would piss him off even in the afterlife.

He clapped me on the back and turned away. I took that as a cue to do the same.

It was officially the end of the funeral and… Bohdi didn’t come.

That thought followed me home like a shadow.

Hours later, after I had gotten back to the dorm and was trying to study, my phone buzzed. I grabbed it absentmindedly until I saw who it was.

‘I wanted to come, I did. But Dad would be watching.’

I stared at the message for a full minute. That was it.

Part of me wanted to be angry he hadn’t come. Another part knew showing up would have cost him just like it had cost me. One more part of me wanted to ask about his fianceé.

But I just typed back, ‘I understand.’

And I did, I really did.

After that, things between us changed slowly, painfully and, like a train barreling off its tracks, I couldn't stop it.