Touched (The Untouched Trilogy #2)(98)

“When you’re born into a family such as mine you’re as happy as they allow you to be. Your life is not what you really want. Your life is what is expected of you – which is one reason I dated a certain type of woman, a woman that would meet their approval.”

“Oh,” I said, knowing I hadn’t received the Raine endorsement.

“They haven’t been very vocal about it but I know they don’t approve of my relationship with you. I thought maybe, just maybe if they saw how happy I was with you, that they’d let it be, that they’d accept you … accept us.”

I thought back to Allison’s ballet. Aiden’s parents’ and their friends’ reactions were rather bizarre when they realized I was Aiden’s date. I had also been offended when Aiden told me that he would not have invited me had he known his parents would be there. I understood better now what he’d meant by that. He wasn’t ashamed of me, he was ashamed of them.

“Mom and Dad argued about it incessantly. I didn’t get it. I mean, what’s the big deal, right? He told her it would be the demise of the family and the business. She was extremely proud of me and wanted me to be happy. She tried to make my father see that, but he wouldn’t budge and made her feel guilty for supporting me. She cried quite often – fighting my battles for me. It lasted until the end of my sophomore year at Harvard and I’d had enough so I changed my major and went along with what Dad wanted. Every summer I was with him, learning the business. Hell, I probably know more about it than he does at this point. When I finally accepted my fate, that’s when Aiden Wyatt was born. It was my escape.”

“So basically you’re doing all this for your mother?”

“I suppose it appears that way, but that’s only part of it. Dad has huge oppositions to this family being traded publicly. He’s adamant about it remaining a privately owned business and he refuses to seat anyone at the throne that’s not family.”

“You have siblings and I’m sure there are other family members,” I said.

“I’ve played that card several times over. He feels that I’m the best choice. I’ve never said it to him but given his choices, I’m the ideal candidate. Nicholas was the charismatic playboy until a few years ago when Dad cut him off and now he wants in, but Dad’s thrown up his hands. Sloan does have a bit of a business edge but not to the degree needed to run R.I. And then there’s Allison, she only sees dance. She’s always been that way so he never really bothered to change it.”

“And what about your relatives?” I asked.

“Most of them have some position in one of the companies but nothing comparable to this. My cousin, Stewart would be next in line I would imagine but, of course, Dad prefers his offspring run the company that he built.”

“Your mother seems to be fine with this so I find it surprising that she fought for anything else.”

“You wouldn’t know it to look at her or to even speak with her but she has a lot of insecurities and worries that I’ve taken on and to reduce those, I do what I have to do. She lost both of her parents at an early age and she was sent to live with her grandmother who was also raising great-grandchildren. It was very hard for them. She didn’t want that for us.”

“Excuse me for saying this, but that’s ridiculous. You’re one of the richest families in the world.”

“I guess, but sometimes no matter how your present is, you can’t shake off the remnants of the past.”

That much I could agree with. I didn’t think I would ever shake off my past. “Yet she still encourages your music?”

“To a certain degree but not to the extreme it once was. It will remain a source of tension between my parents.”

“That would explain why your father responded the way he did when your mother gave you the sheet music at the penthouse. His reaction was really odd; now I understand why.”

“He feels as though she feeds into the music thing and he’s absolutely against it. She knows the passion that I have for music and she knows the sacrifice that I’ve made so she tries to walk the thin line between the two of us.”

“I understand now why you were so upset and didn’t want to talk about it after breakfast. I’m sorry I pushed.”

He turned to look at me. “You couldn’t have known Aria. I’ve never explained this to anyone before.”

I grabbed some rocks and attempted to mimic his rock skipping. He laughed when he saw my first attempt. I tossed the next one and it skipped almost as far as his. He turned to look at me and smiled.

“Was that luck or am I missing something?”

“What? Only guys are allowed to skip rocks?” I asked.

“Yes, something like that.”

“My dad taught me how to skip rocks,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment. He sensed that I wanted to say more and he was allowing me to do that without interruption.

“I think Dad wanted a boy but there he was with three half-Italian girls. We were feisty to say the least. Since I was the oldest, I was lucky enough to do some of the things a father would typically do with a boy.”

“So does that mean that you can do everything that I can do?” he asked, jokingly.

“Yes, but better,” I said, smiling. “I loved my mother dearly but with my dad, it was just different. We had this special father-daughter thing. Maybe it was partially because he did the boyish things with me, I don’t know. I remember the first day he taught me to catch a baseball. It was my tenth birthday and the one gift that he was the most excited about was a glove and a bag of baseballs.”