Landon & Shay: Part Two (L&S Duet #2)(6)

Speaking of helping others, I was going to try my best to help my mom next. She’d been crying herself to sleep a lot with the stress of the divorce with the way Dad was draining her for pretty much every cent she had.

While Shay was at school, I headed down to Chicago to visit my father’s law firm. I hadn’t spoken to him since Mom and I moved out to Los Angeles. He hadn’t tried to reach out, so I hadn’t seen a reason to contact him. When it came to picking parental sides, I was in my mother’s corner until the very end.

I walked into the law firm, feeling like a foreigner in the space. I couldn’t believe I’d spent so much time there sifting through paperwork, trying to make my dad proud of me, trying to build a better relationship with him.

I nodded to April, Dad’s assistant, who was sitting in her cubicle outside his office. “Hey, April. I was hoping to talk to my dad today.”

She frowned. “Oh, sorry, Landon. You should’ve made an appointment. Mr. Harrison is busy today. Maybe try back next week.” She went back to click-clacking her fingers against the keyboard.

“Yeah, but you see, I’m only in town for the next thirty-six hours. I was hoping to meet with him before I head back to Los Angeles.”

She glanced up and then looked back at her computer. “Yeah, sorry. It’s not possible. He’s a very busy man.”

I didn’t have time for this, so I ignored her and walked straight toward Dad’s office door.

“Hey! You can’t do that!” April hollered, chasing after me, but I was already inside.

He sat on a phone call with his bushy eyebrows lowered and that same stern look upon his face. When he looked up at me, he grimaced and waved me away.

“Sorry, Ralph. I told him not to bother you today,” April called out, apologizing profusely for my intrusion. Since when did April call her boss by his first name?

Dad gave me a harsh look and pointed toward the door.

I took a seat instead.

“You can’t do that,” April whisper-shouted.

“Watch me. Close the door on your way out, will you, April?” I said, crossing my arms and making myself comfortable.

Dad grumbled a bit before speaking to whoever he was on the phone with. “Mr. Jacobson, I do apologize, but we just had a distraction at the office that I have to deal with, so if you would excuse me, I’d like to reschedule our conversation for a later date.” He paused. “Yes. Indeed. I’ll have April set it up with your assistant. Thank you. Goodbye.”

He hung up the phone and frowned like a regular Scrooge. “Close the door on your way out, April.”

She did as he said without any back talk. I’d have bet he liked that—having someone who never went against him simply because he signed her paychecks.

“What do you want, Landon?” he asked, glaring my way.

“It’s good to see you, too, Dad.”

“I don’t have time for small talk, boy. Get to your reason for being here or leave.”

“I’m here because of Mom. You are really doing a number on her, and I wanted to see if we could come to an arrangement to just get this whole divorce thing over with, without you taking so much from her.”

“Your mother knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry me. It was all in the prenup she was so willing to sign.”

“Because she loved you, Dad. She signed it because she loved you and wanted to be with you.”

“Yes, well, she should’ve thought that through beforehand. Now she has to deal with the outcome of divorce.”

“She’s barely keeping her head above water with the lawyer bills. Can’t you at least help her with that? Or just call it a done deal? You have enough money to put an end to all of this.”

“I refuse to pay for your mother’s lawyer fees. She is a grown woman and should be able to take care of things on her own. It’s not my fault she doesn’t understand the value of savings. She should’ve been working for years instead of looking after you like you were a damn newborn. This is her own doing. There are consequences to life choices, boy, and now your mother has to deal with said consequences.”

“How can you be so harsh? You loved her at some point. You had to if you married her.”

“People change, your mother is a prime example of that fact.”

“What did she do to you?”

He knitted his brows and clasped his hands together. “It’s not what she did to me, Landon. It’s what she did to you. She babied you. She coddled you all your life, making you the way you are.”

“The way I am? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Weak. She made you weak—her and that messed-up brother of hers.”

Every hair on my body stood up as he brought up Lance. I gripped the edges of the chair as my knuckles turned white. “Lance wasn’t messed up. He was sick. He had an illness.”

“Bullshit,” Dad huffed out, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “Your uncle was a child who threw a fit because he couldn’t figure out how to hold down a goddamn job or keep his life together. He was a user and he manipulated your mother with his sob story into taking him into our house. He was the definition of weak, and your mother let him influence you. You should’ve never been allowed to be around that psycho and his issues.”