Page 222 of Handsome Devil
“What if I lose?”
“You can’t afford to lose.”
I said nothing. What could I say to that?
She was right.
“Tell me,” she demanded. “Do you want this inheritance? Partnership in the company? To take over when I’m ready to step down? Or would you rather run away?”
“I want it.”
“Good. Because you’ll need to keep fighting for it. People will continue to try to take it from you. It’s the nature of the game.”
“I know that.”
She got to her feet and wandered over to the window, looking out. “Your grandmother’s been talking to Laurinda.”
That surprised me. But it was probably good news, really. Who needed to carry a grudge forever, over such a stupid thing? So my aunt fell in love with a terrible man. She was young. And she wasn’t even with him long.
My mother didn’t look thrilled about it, though.
“So?” I said.
She looked at me. “You have been, too. And I know you adore her.”
“So do you.”
“Of course I do,” she said simply. “She’s my sister.”
“And yet you never speak to her.”
“You know I keep tabs on her. Just like I do you.” She looked out the window, thoughtfully. “Mother was hard on her, but she’s not unforgiving. She’s getting old, you know. It brings about a certain… sympathy.”
“Good. Then maybe she’ll forgive me one of these days.”
She looked at me sharply. “Do you really think she wouldn’t cut you off and make Lexington her sole heir?”
I considered that. “Would she?”
“She would, if she thought you were becoming your father.”
Yeah. That, I believed.
She paced over to the bar cart and picked up a half-finished scotch she’d been drinking while she waited for me. “My mother and father came to Canada half a century ago with a dream. They made the Davenport name what it is, with hard work and singleminded devotion.” She turned to me. “You think she’d ever leave that legacy to the likes of Brett Easton, Junior?”
“Because my father is worse than Lex’s father?” I challenged. “Lex’s dad is a fucking gangster.”
“At least he works for a living.”
“You can’t be serious.”
She sipped her scotch and drifted her hand through the air, like,Who knows?
“Anyway, Lex isn’t his father,” I reminded her.
“I know. I keep tabs on Lex, too.”
Of course she did.
