Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“I don’t get this. I can’t understand this!”
“You can understand it. You just don’t want to, Silva. Grandpa doesn’t want me to help with his security company. He wants me to do exactly what you called me a monster for doing, only on his command this time around. He’s made several threats to get me to fall in line. He said if I don’t work for him, he’s gonna expose that Mama worked as an escort before she met our father. He’s going to tell her family, our grandparents back in Lebanon, and you know what that’ll do. Destroy them.” He heard what sounded like a cork popping. Then liquid pouring into a glass. “I’m going to send you a copy of the letter Grandpa gave me when I hang up from this call with you, so you can see and read it for yourself. I’m not makin’ this shit up, Silva.”
“But didn’t Grandpa still help you? I mean, let’s say all of this is true. He didn’t have to.” Her voice quivered, as if hanging by a thread.
“Grandpa didn’t help me out of the kindness of his heart, Silva. He did it so I would owe him. Something to wave over my head. And all that so-called help? He threatened to undo it… said he’d call some folks and have those murder cases reopened, and I’d be pinned to them. The same money that paid ’em to be quiet is the same money that could pay to make them take me down. Knowing Grandpa, he’d even have some crimes I had nothin’ to do with pinned on me, too. So yes, he told part of the truth, Silva. A rich guy I went to school with, and who knew what family I came from, propositioned me. An offer to make some money. Initially I turned him down, but a few weeks later, I approached him and asked if the offer still stood. I did it.”
She sobbed in a quiet whimper.
“I used that money to keep us in that fuckin’ house that you loved so much, to go to college so I could take some business courses to fulfill my dreams, and the rest of the money went to pay off all of Mama’s hospital bills and Dad’s debts. I didn’t have hardly a dime afterwards, but I was okay with that. Dad was back on his feet, but because I had rejected Grandpa yet again, I was kicked out of my own house. You thought I just moved out, but I didn’t. Grandpa made him do that to me. Instead of groveling though, I got a job and lived my life on my own terms. That’s why I was workin’ at that hole in the wall restaurant, makin’ barely minimum wage. I needed to take care of myself, without Dad’s blood money.”
“This… this is so horrible! I don’t know who’s tellin’ the truth and who’s lying, Lennox.”
“Think about the timeline, Silva. Think about everything I shared with you tonight, and you will see that I’m tellin’ the truth. I never wanted it to come down to this. I never wanted to hurt you, for you to know, but since Grandpa opened that floodgate, I’m going to tell you the ENTIRE story, and not just the bit that makes me look good, the way Grandpa handles delivering information. He’s extorting me. He’s blackmailing me. He’s interfering in my life! He now has someone following me around. Not every day, not consistently. But I know what I feel, and I know what I saw. He’s called our mother a whore to my face!” Silva wept louder now. “He never said it in front of you. He was careful, but he said it to me and Dad plenty of times.
“He’s tried numerous times to ruin my aspirations of runnin’ my own fitness center, like tryna keep me broke, using scare tactics and the like. You know that’s always been my dream, since I was like fourteen years old. He even interfered with financing a few years ago when I tried to open one up, so I had to use a foreign bank this time and do everything secretly, without telling a damn soul. I’m tellin’ you right now, Silva, not because I trust you—I don’t completely anymore, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual—but at this point if it gets back to Grandpa that I’ve got what I need to get started, I’m ready for him.”
Even in the heat of anger, he felt an overwhelming sense of calm come over him.
“I am tired of his shit. He has destroyed our friendship. He has weakened my and our father’s bond, too. He’s like a virus, starving all the good cells and feeding the bad ones. This isn’t just about me workin for him, Silva. It’s about control. Because I said no. I stood up to him. Do you really think someone like Grandpa can’t get someone even better for whatever fucked up position he wants to use me for? Just think about that! He wants me because I don’t need him! He’s just using you! You’re a pawn in this game, something he can rub in my face. He knows it hurts me that you wouldn’t speak to me, just as he’d planned. And he knows that I blame him for it. He wants all the credit and accolades for destroying our nuclear family.”