40 - Forged

When I got back to the city, I had several missed calls and texts. With no cell service on the island, they had all come in at once as soon as it was in range, making my phone sound like a broken record.

The first thing I checked was my messages from Luca. “Hey, babe. Don’t have too much fun with the kid. You need a real man to entertain you.”

I laughed at that one. His next one said, “Since you haven’t responded, I’m going to send pictures of a real man until you do.”

Every one of his messages after that was a photo of himself in various states of dress. I saved each and every picture to my phone to look at later, and I was not ashamed of it. If he didn’t want that, he shouldn’t have sent them.

The last text he sent was just: “And now I can either assume you’re out of range or you just want photos of me.” Winky face.

“Both,” I texted back.

“She lives!” was his immediate response.

My dad—or whatever he was to me—had also called and texted. He’d left three voicemails and a text asking me to call him back. Whatever it was, it seemed urgent, so I did.

“Fay,” he answered. “Are you home?”

“I just got home, yes,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t go anywhere. I’m coming over.” He hung up the phone.

“Oookay,” I said aloud, moving to prepare a pot of coffee. It was still morning, and I hadn’t had any while we were on the island. I had a feeling I was going to need my wits about me when facing my dad.

I sat at the kitchen bar and waited for my dad to arrive, the scent of the brewing coffee permeating the air. Before long, it was done, and I poured a cup, adding my fancy liquid creamer.

I didn’t know what my dad—or should I call him George?—could want, but the urgency of his messages filled me with dread. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I sipped my coffee and waited for him to arrive, each passing minute causing me to jump to bigger and bigger conclusions.

What if he wanted to bring up Owen again? To try to force me to reconcile, even though we’d already divorced? That would be insane, but at this point, I didn’t think anything was beyond him.

Or maybe he wanted to apologize for trying to push Owen and me together. Ha! That was unlikely.

Speculating would get me nowhere, so I resigned myself to waiting. When George finally arrived, he didn’t bother knocking; he let himself in. “Fay. We need to talk.”

The most terrifying four words a person can hear.

“Hi, George. What’s going on?”

His eyes narrowed at my use of his first name, but he ignored it. “You need to stop pursuing this lawsuit and the case against Max,” he stated.

“And why would I do that?” I sipped my coffee with false nonchalance. “After everything he’s done, he deserves justice.”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll assemble a board meeting to get rid of you,” he said, his voice cold.

“Ah.” I set down my mug. “See, now you’re revealing who you really are. My whole life, Max has been the favorite. For years, he received special treatment, fewer expectations, and better gifts, while I was left forgotten on the sidelines. No matter how hard I worked for your approval, it was never enough. I think I know why that is. Would you like to hear it, George?”

He remained silent, his eyes both furious and icy.

“You never loved me like you loved Max because I was never truly your daughter. I was a child you got stuck with when my mother died, and although you loved her, it wasn’t enough to make you love me. To your credit, you pretended to, but it’s hard when you look at someone who isn’t yours, isn’t it? Lucinda didn’t hide that part of her as well as you did. I was foolish not to notice it for so long. But you never loved me, George. Admit it.”

The man who raised me sighed and sat down. “I loved your mother.”

“But…?” I arched a brow.

“No. I never loved you. You were a stain on my reputation and a reminder that your mother had a past. She never told me who your father was, only that he was too young and reckless for a child and that she didn’t want to steal his future. When she met me, I didn’t know she was pregnant, but when I found out, I knew I loved her too much to leave her. I raised you because of my love for her, but I could never bring myself to love you.”

“And there it is.” I knew it, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. I held back the tears that threatened to fall because this man would never see me cry again. “I don’t care what kind of hell you try to unleash on me, George. It will never hurt me again. You’re a terrible person and a small, small man, and I am done with you.”

George Lush looked both shocked and relieved at my words, and I didn’t know how I felt about that.

I rose. “I think it’s best you got out of my house. With or without your permission—which I don’t need, by the way—I will be going after Max with everything I have. I’d suggest you start preparing for the storm because it will buffet you if you get in the way of it.”

His expression shifted to one of rage once more, and he left without a backward glance or a goodbye.

Good riddance, I thought, sinking back into my chair. The coffee tasted like ash in my mouth now, so I abandoned it to compose myself. Then, failing that, I let the tears fall.

* * *

That evening, I needed a distraction, so I asked Nadine and the girls to meet me at Club Fyre. I was going to drink until I forgot. They said they had a surprise for me, and I allowed myself a small measure of excitement at that.

I took a cab to the club, so I could leave my car at home. I’d be drinking too much to drive, anyway. Tonight was about living, about living without people who didn’t matter, and about moving on with my life. Toxic people would stay toxic, but they could do so far away from me. I was ridding myself of the poison and letting myself cleanse.

When I got out, my sparkly silver dress glimmered in the lamplight. The line to the club was packed, but I was Fay Lush. I could skip the line. I nodded to the bouncer as he let me through, and I headed inside to meet my friends.

Nadine waved me over to their booth in the corner. She wore an Irish green dress and black heels with silver studs, and her black hair was long and wavy. Rachel wore a blue dress, and Emily had on a pair of black leggings and a violet camisole.

“Hey, girls!” I shouted over the music.

“Fay! Guess what?!” Nadine yelled, grinning from ear to ear.

“What?!”

“The market went down, and Lush Productions’ stock plummeted!” She was smiling way too hard about that.

“Ooookay. Why is that a good thing?!” I had to yell to be heard over the bass of the music.

Nadine looked from me to the girls, then back to me. “We bought all available shares!”

I still wasn’t getting it, and I think it was obvious because Nadine rolled her eyes. “We want to give them to you,” she said.

The lightbulb went on in my head. “Oh.”

“Yes!” The manic gleam in her eye made sense now as she said, “You’re now the biggest shareholder!”

Well, dang. Looks like George wouldn’t be able to go to the board, anyhow. I grinned. “You guys are the absolute best. Have I told you that lately?”

“You can always tell us again!”

I laughed. Tonight wasn’t a night to drink to forget. Tonight was a night to drink to celebrate, and I was going to enjoy every minute of it. I owed these women so much, and as I looked at them, I knew I would be okay. Their support meant the world to me, and I finally felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. I felt like I could take on the world.

Man, George was going to be livid when he found out what they’d done for me. After everything he’d put me through, I wasn’t even remotely sorry about that. In fact, it seemed like he’d get his own sort of justice out of this.

My lousy family—who were not family to me in any sense of the word—were about to get what was coming to them, and I was the weapon that they forged, which would be used against them.