One Step Closer(14)

“Caleb, consider that your father really did love you and had your best interest at heart. I know the two of you struggled after your mother died, and I understand your resentment. However, I ask you to understand that your father was watching the woman he loved lose her vibrancy and life. That type of pain makes a man do things he might not do in other circumstances. That had to be unbearable.”

Sure, Caleb had considered that before; but when you’ve just lost your mother, and then your father disappears around the same time, any understanding you might have flies out the window; especially when you’re twelve and puberty is messing with your emotions.

“You mean he took the * route when he abandoned my mother, leaving her to die alone? Is that the struggle you’re referring to?” Caleb returned sarcastically, his face and chest began to burn, his heart starting to pound as he relived the pain of the past. “How he married that gold-digging bitch soon after? That resentment?” Caleb snarled.

“It was four years later, Caleb. Remember?”

“Yeah, whatever. Time flies when you’re having fun,” he said bitterly. He got up to pace around the room, sucking in his breath. He couldn’t help but notice Jonathan’s calmness in the face of his rage. He ran a hand through his thick dark hair, again. “I’m sorry. I have no right to rant at you like this. It’s not your fault my father was the way he was.”

“I understand, son.”

Son. When it came right down to it, Jonathan had been there for Caleb far more than his father ever had, and suddenly he felt guilty for his temper.

After the call from Jonathan delivering the news of Edison’s death the previous day, Caleb had numbly packed a bag and gotten on a plane without much thought. He had no idea what difference his presence would make either way; when you’re dead, you’re dead. Does it really matter who shows up to plant you?

“What’s the supposed choice I have to make, Jonathan?” Caleb asked wearily. “What suit or tie to send to the coffin slinger?”

“No.” Jonathan’s face twisted in consternation at Caleb’s bitterness, before reaching into his briefcase and lifting up two envelopes. “Mrs. Jones is handling that. It’s in here.” He tapped the edge of the envelopes on his hand and Caleb watched him, perplexed. “Your father left two versions of his will. He wanted you to decide which version to have read. Whichever you choose will go on record and the other is to be destroyed without anyone but the two of us knowing about it.”

“What? Why?” Caleb’s brow furrowed in confusion and his lips pressed together in anger. He’d spoken to his father maybe ten times in as many years, and only seen him once or twice.

Jonathan contemplated Caleb for a moment. The young man was still so full of fury and pain. He could tell that Edison’s death hit him harder than he wanted to let on, and that regret and grief would probably hit like a tidal wave in a few days.

“One version all of it comes to you—”

Caleb’s face mottled as if he wanted to explode, but he kept a tight reign on his emotions. “I don’t want his f*cking money.”

He didn’t want the cosmetic business that bore the Luxon name either. That company was his mother’s vision, and Caleb felt his father had tainted that, too; when he brought that money-hungry bitch, Veronica, into it. It sickened Caleb and at the time, he’d vowed to wash his hands of his father and Lux Pharmaceuticals, as well. “I don’t want anything from him. Give it all to charity.”

Jonathan’s watery light blue eyes were sad as he looked at Caleb. He knew he had to be full of sorrow, if not for the loss of the actual man, then the loss of the father he should have had, and didn’t. No matter how strained their relationship, Edison was the only parent Caleb had for more than half of his life, and his unexpected death was bound to leave behind some damage.

“Unfortunately, that’s not one of the choices. He asked me to have you read this letter and the two wills, and then you’re to tell me which version I should read after the funeral. He knew you felt this way, but he has considered Wren, as well.”

Caleb sucked in a deep breath. Of course, he thought. The few times he’d seen any softness in his father it was something to do with Wren. He shrugged. “Okay. Give everything to her, then.”

“Caleb,” Jonathan began, “that isn’t one of the options, either. If you want her to have anything at all… you have to split the estate equally.”

Both of Caleb’s hands rose to tangle in both sides of his thick head of hair and his chest expanded to bursting as he sucked in a deep breath. The company was publically traded, but his father retained controlling interest with sixty-five percent of the shares.

“I’ll take it all, then sign it over to her.”

“There are huge tax ramifications of doing that. Your dad made sure that couldn’t happen. It isn’t an option.”

Caleb sighed. “Of course, not. Why would he make it easy on me? He f*cked up my relationship with Wren years ago, and now he wants to throw us together?” When Jonathan didn’t answer, Caleb made his way back to the sofa and sat down again. “Have you read it?”

“Yes. Just calm down and listen, Caleb.”

“Can I just sell her my half for five dollars?”

Jonathan cleared his throat and smiled. He admired Caleb’s protectiveness of Wren. “Not right away. You each have the option to buy each other out, if you both agree, but not for five years from the time of Edison’s death. After that time has passed you can sell it to her, but not below the current market value. It’s publically traded and doing so would devalue the stock for the rest of the shareholders. You can gift it to her at that time, though, she’ll have to pay huge capital gains tax.”