Page 65 of Expecting an Argument
“I still looked for him, though,” Beau said. “I looked for him at the championship game. I kept turning my head to his usual seat in the bleachers, waiting to see him there like he promised.”
I rubbed my belly, cradling my babies in my arms.That’swhy we lost the game. Back then, I had gleefully thought Beau’s luck had finally run out when the game-ending whistle blew. I relished in the sight of his head hanging in shame, finally humbled after all those years of him being the top dog.
Never would I have guessed that he had actually lost something much bigger than a football game.
Beau turned to the shelves. “And as much as I hate to admit it, even ten years later, I still look for him. I used to always turn my head when I saw a tall blonde man in the corner of my vision—even when I was at a club. Sometimes I think he’s backpacking across the world like I did after Katie and I broke up, and one day he’ll come back like I had to.”
I chewed on my lower lip. “Has he ever talked to you?”
“Once,” Beau responded. “High school graduation day. Right before the ceremony, he sent me an email from his businessaddress.”
Oh God, no wonder he had been such an ass when I walked across the stage. His dad disappeared and then sent a fuckingemailabout it?
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “He said, ‘Someday you’ll understand, Buddy.’ I thought maybe when I got to college I’d get it. Or after Katie and I got married. Even now, holding the company and family legacy on my back and my back alone…I still don’t understand why he left me.”
My throat went tight as he turned to face me. How many times had I stayed awake at night wondering the same thing? Why did my dad leave? Why wasn’t I enough to stay for?
How many times had I forced myself to prove that I was enough to stay for…but still never gave any man the chance to leave?
“And now that Annie and Brady are coming,” Beau said, “I never will understand why he left.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat that felt heavy as an anchor. Beau might have been rigid, secretive, and a bit of an ass sometimes, but he wasn’t going to be like either of our dads.
A tear escaped and I quickly wiped it away with the heel of my palm. “We’ve got some fucked up families, don’t we?”
Beau scoffed and shook his head. “You don’t even know half of it. Grandma had a pill problem. Great-grandpa Louis got into so much trouble that his parents had to bribe police departments in multiple states just to keep him out of prison. And Grandpa…”
He threw out his hand to his grandfather’s portrait. “If I had followed through with that trial suing the hospital, everyone was going to find out Grandpa had dementia, diagnosed even before my dad left. If that information got out, the managers at headquarters would have questioned every one of his decisions. Dad could have even come back and challenged the changes inthe will.”
Beau’s eyes widened and he cursed under his breath.
I shifted on the bed. “Listen, I used to be a witness for will updates at my old firm. You don’t have to explain to me how tragic it is.”
Beau let out a shallow laugh.“Tragic.”
He shook his head, his jaw ticking like he was making a decision. Before I could say anything, he crossed to his window and pulled the curtains open.
He pointed out to the pasture bathed in the blue haze of twilight. “Who do you think owns all that land?”
Where was he going with this? “Um…the company? A family trust?”
Beau turned from the window. “Who owns the company itself? What about this house? And the stocks? And all the other investments? And buildings? And mineral rights?”
My only other guess would have been Beau’s father, but then why would Beau worry about his dad contesting the will? Then my eyes slowly widened as the realization dawned on me.
“Your dad is just the CEO of Fontaine Energy,” I said softly. “Butyouown it all.”
He stepped around the footboard to stand on the side of the bed closest to me. “Imagine not only dealing with the death of your grandfather on your 20th birthday, but also finding out that he left you everything. I went from drunkenly puking on the dirty bathroom floor of the frat house to being worth $860 million with a single fucking phone call.”
My internal calculator whirred. I had thought my $98 million Herringbone verdict was an incomprehensibly large amount of money…but Beau’s fortune was worth more thaneightof them.
I had always considered Beau rich, but with hisfamily’smoney, not his own. Knowing that he was in complete control of nearly a billion dollars before he could legally drink…and hisestate was certainly wortheven morenow…
I wanted to throw up.
Beau placed his hands on the mattress and leaned in, his eyes tightening. “Everyone I let close to me only wanted a bite out of that fortune. I couldn’t take it anymore. Dad ran the company, so I just…ran. I traveled the world. I had five fake names. I crawled through every club and bar I found to escape the deep, cold loneliness.”
My lip trembled. “You weren’t the only one. I used to toss back shots on a Tuesday night and crawl into bed withanyonejust so I could forget that I was working myself to death.”
