I was glad Mitch wasn’t there to hear any of that. While they weren’t close, my father and brother were at least on reasonably decent speaking terms when necessary.
“I feel sorry for you. I do, Dad. All you’ve ever done was to try to control my brothers. Then you decided to give me a much freer rein than you did the other three, I guess, in hopes, I would toe the line. We didn’t ruin it, Dad. You ruined this family all by yourself, just like Mom worked hard to build it all by herself. You destroy every person you claim to love. You ran Mitch away all those years and kept him away from us growing up. You’ve worked Grey halfway to death and never wanted to support his initiatives in the company. He had to sneak away to get any personal success. Same thing with Grant, and then you tried to destroy his chance at happiness, humiliating Alex the way you did. But the worst of it all is how you screwed over Mom time and time again. All because you couldn’t keep your pants up—”
He reached out to slap me once again, but I grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
Staring into his eyes, I said, “Don’t ever put your hands on me again. You weren’t there to raise me. You were just there to make sure there was money in the bank account. Mom was the one who gave a damn. It’s a damned shame you don’t see what strength you have in my brothers. You’re hell-bent on destroying their lives, too, although they’ve committed everything to you. I’m glad Grant got the hell away from you. And if Mitch and Grey are as smart as they seem, they’ll cut ties with you, too, before it’s too late! But I’m done! Hurting Madison, deceiving Greyson and me on this business deal...that was the last straw!” I growled.
“If you walk out that door and sever the business deal, consider yourself not my son! And don’t come back begging for forgiveness. You stay away from both your mother and me! Do you hear me, Kent? If you do this, you don’t have a father!”
I shook my head. “I guess I’ll continue being the bastard I’ve always been then, huh? Because you sure as hell have not been much of a dad!”
I stalked out of his office, slamming the door behind me.
I heard my father call out my name, but I was over it. There were no words left to speak. He’d made himself clear and drawn a line in the sand. There was no going back.
CHAPTER 28 – KENT
I had made it back to Atlanta a few hours before. After picking up my car, I returned home to get my thoughts under control. I had to make Madison see me so I could explain, but first, I wanted to make sure I was calm after my confrontation with my dad.
I was heading towards Madison’s house when I received the phone call. I had been ignoring my phone calls from my family all afternoon. The only person I wanted to talk to was Madison, but she was still ignoring my calls and text messages.
I’d finally given up on ignoring my family’s calls when I noticed them coming in back to back from everyone. Initially, I figured they’d heard about me and my Dad’s clash.
“Hello?”
“Kent, it’s Mitch.”
“What’s up?” I grunted.
“It’s Dad.”
“Look, I don’t give a damn about him. He fucked me over, Mitch! Grey tried to warn me, and I didn’t listen—”
“Kent! Dad’s in the hospital.”
“What? For what?”
“He had a stroke.”
“A stroke? What happened?”
“We don’t know. Grace found him in his office about twenty minutes after you left. She said he was lying on the floor, and she called nine-one-one.”
“Where’s he at, Savannah Crescent?” I asked, referencing the newest hospital built back home in Chatham County.
“No. Savannah Crescent flew Dad to Emory.”
“I’m heading there,” I said, turning my car around in the middle of the street.
“Whose with him?”
“Everyone. We’ve been trying to reach you but couldn’t get through,” Mitch said.
Mitch and Blake had been visiting in Savannah, so I figured all of them had ridden on one of our family’s private jets together.
“I’ll be there in about twenty minutes,” I told my brother.
I shut off the phone, and my brain turned on as I rehashed our argument. This was my fault!
WE HAD BEEN AT THE hospital for the last couple of hours, and there hadn’t been any word about my father’s condition. I was sick to my stomach, my belly in a cluster of knots. I couldn’t sit down, and I couldn’t meet the weary gazes of my brothers and sisters-in-law, nor the distraught one of my mother.
This was all my fault. If I hadn’t pushed my father the way I had and spoken the words I’d spoken, we wouldn’t be here. Why hadn’t I let him have his say about it and then did what I was going to do anyway? Why did I have to have the last say and push him on it?
Worse still, why hadn’t I accepted what he had to say about the business deal. We all knew how my father was. I should have cut my losses without saying a word to him and worked behind the scenes to resolve the issue for Madison.
A hand clutched my shoulder.
“Here, drink this and take these,” Emma said, holding a cup of water out to me and two aspirin in a white paper cup.
I hadn’t seen her since we’d attended the ballet for my mother’s birthday earlier in the year.
“No, thanks, Emma. I’m fine,” I muttered, turning away from her.
She walked around to the front of me once more. “You’re not fine, Kent. You’ve got a headache. I’ve been watching you for the longest, and I know you’re stressed, but you need to calm down. Getting upset and making yourself sick won’t make this any better on you or your family.”
I shook my head.
“Why won’t they tell us anything?”
“They will as soon as they have news for you. They’ve been in surgery for a couple of hours, and all we can do is continue to pray. It’ll be fine, I believe it in my heart,” Emma said, pressing her fist against her chest.
“Why aren’t you in there, Emma? You’re one of the best surgeons this hospital has!” I demanded.
She was a great surgeon, and our families were great friends and had been for years. I trusted her skills as a surgeon. She was a brilliant woman.
“I’m not the best, Kent. I’m working towards that, so thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m just a surgical intern.”
“Yeah, whatever. But still, if you were in there, you could share some information with us,” I argued.
“If I were in there, I probably wouldn’t be out any time soon. I’d be in there with the rest of the team doing everything I could to heal your father, Kent,” Emma assured me.
I pulled my hand down my face.
“Something else is going on. Care to share?” Emma asked, tugging my hand and pulling me away from the rest of the group.
I looked at my family and then back at Emma. We had been good friends throughout high school and even during college, although we seldom saw one another. She was one of the rare people I could trust. I wished Madison was here. I trusted her unconditionally.
“My father and I argued earlier. He was upset, and Mitch told me Grace found him twenty minutes after I left. It’s my fault,” I said, looking at Emma.
“Quit beating yourself up over this. I know you, Kent. You’re convincing yourself this is your fault, and you’re raking yourself over the coals. Whatever happened with your father had nothing to do with what the two of you went through. His stroke is a result of something else. A person’s health doesn’t take a turn like this over an argument. There are other underlying issues. This isn’t helping your mother at all. Look at her over there,” she said, turning me by the shoulder. “She needs you strong.”
My mother looked so forlorn beside Greyson, whose arm was wrapped around her. Nicole sat on her other side, holding her hand. I wanted to wrap my mother up in a hug, but I couldn’t move beyond the feelings of guilt surging up inside of me.
I walked to the window and rested my head against the cool pane, gazing out on t
he city below. Everyone was going on with their lives as though all was well. They didn’t seem to have a care in the world as they rushed from one place to another. None of them were standing here worrying about if their father would die or not. And if he didn’t make it, they didn’t have to worry it was their fault the horrific thing they had done had claimed his life.
I could feel Emma’s hand rubbing up and down my back in comforting circles. It felt good to have a friend there with me, but I couldn’t help wishing it were Madison.
“Mrs. Black?”
I turned at the sound of someone calling my mother’s name. My stomach knotted up at the sight of the tall thin man in the surgeon’s uniform, wondering what news he had on my father’s condition. I quickly made my way to where he stood, with Emma following close behind.
“That’s me,” my mother anxiously replied.
Joining my brothers and sisters-in-law, we all formed a semi-circle around the doctor in our private room. This scene was reminiscent of my family gathering to support Mitch at Cedars-Sinai in L.A.
“I’m Doctor Lang, and I was the chief surgeon operating on Mr. Black tonight. We’ve finished surgery on your husband, and it was successful,” the doctor said. “The stroke was the result of a blocked artery to the brain, which supplies blood. This blockage reduced the blood flow and oxygen to his brain. We’ve restored his breathing and heart rate to normal. His blood pressure is still quite a bit high, but we’re addressing that as we speak.”
“So, when will we be able to see him?” my mother asked.
The doctor inhaled deeply and then sighed. “He’s not out of the woods yet, and I’m not certain if that will happen tonight. We’ll have to monitor him closely, but I will allow two of you back. We’re transferring him to ICU. You won’t be allowed in the room with him for more than five minutes. So, once we get him settled, I will let Doctor Spencer here take two of you for a brief visit.”
“Mom and Grey, you guys go back,” Grant said.
Mitch nodded his head in agreement, and the others looked to me to see if I would confirm. I did not disagree.
Greyson was the only one that had not been on bad terms with our father. My father had told me he didn’t want to see me again, so I knew there was no place for me back there.
“That’s fine,” I muttered and turned away.
“Kent, where are you going?” Mitch called out, coming behind me as I breezed through the doorway.
“I’ve gotta get outta here, man.”
“Look, I know this is hard for you. All your life, you’ve been closer to Dad than the rest of us, so—”
I shook my head. “What life were you living? We weren’t close. Dad let me do whatever the hell I wanted, but that didn’t mean we were close, Mitch. Hell, did you even know he and I argued today? It was about a business deal that caused Madison’s kids to lose their community center. He decided to cut me off. Told me he never wanted to see me again,” I said, releasing a sarcastic laugh.
Mitch gripped my shoulders with both hands. “Kent, breathe. We’ve all been down that road with Dad. Every one of us and we’ve all handled it the best way possible. Dad was speaking out of anger. I assure you he didn’t feel that way.”
I shook my head. “Grey hasn’t been in that position with him. He’s stood his ground against Dad, but not to the point they became estranged like the rest of us. Mitch, you didn’t see the look in his eyes. This is my fault. I’m the reason he had the stroke.”
Mitch’s head fell back, and he closed his eyes before leveling his gaze on me again.
“Look, go home and try to get some rest tonight, Kent. But whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up over what happened here tonight. You couldn’t have known this would happen.”
Mitch released my shoulders and headed back into the hospital conference room. It didn’t matter what anyone said. I knew this was my fault.
CHAPTER 29 – MADISON
I grabbed my bathrobe and wrapped it around me. This Sunday had been one of those slow and lazy days, where I ignored my phone calls and text messages.
Napping and reading a book consumed most of my day. I’d recently gotten up to eat a salad and shower before bed. I had finished my shower when I heard the phone ring. I rushed to dry off and wrap up in my robe before picking up my phone.
Staring at the caller ID, I was angry when I saw his name on there.
I sent the call to voicemail like I’d done all weekend.
The phone chimed seconds later with a text message.
KB: WE NEED TO TALK.
I SLID THE TEXT MESSAGE off the phone.
More than being hurt, I was angry.
Angry that I hadn’t stuck with my instincts and keeping barriers firmly in place.
Angry that I’d allowed my feelings for him to blind me to the truth.
Angry that I’d allowed things to get so far out of hand that I barely spoke with my family.
Angry that all I wanted at the moment was to run into his arms so he could make the hurt go away.
But that wasn’t going to happen. If I were to see Kent Black at the moment, I’d try my best to kick his ass. My eyes dropped to my tattoo, and my head filled with memories he and I had created over the last few months.
The tears began to fall from my eyes once more, and I was pissed. I had to get past this crying jag before Monday arrived. I’d have my hour and a half warm-up class followed by five hours of rehearsal. The last thing I had time for was crying all day.
But for this moment, I would immerse myself in my emotions. Because once I finished, there would be no more pity party.
I forced myself up from the couch and grabbed the remote to my TV. Flipping it to Pandora, I allowed it to remain at the previous station.
Tears filled my eyes again as I pressed my fist to my lips. Dirty Honey’s When I’m Gone started playing. Before long, I was dancing around my living room, singing those sad lyrics.
There was no gracefulness to my dance, no elegance to my movements. If my public were to see me, they wouldn’t recognize that nimble ballerina that graced the stage.
My sleek bun was nonexistent, and in its place was a wild, frizzy shock of hair all around my head.
No beautiful, multi-layered colorful tutu graced my waist. I’d gotten hot with my head-banging dance and tossed my robe onto the couch.
My dance moves were unapologetically wild. Tears flowed from my eyes, and my arms flailed all around.
But it was what I needed to purge the worst part of the pain I felt from my heart.
Women often think being cheated on is the worst thing. No, the worst thing is finding out your man is a liar.
I’d been in both situations, and I honestly had to say this was worse because a cheater couldn’t be trusted and couldn’t keep his pants up.
A liar was capable of any and everything, including cheating. His ass couldn’t be trusted to walk five feet away from you without checking his status. The last thing I had time for was checking up on or babysitting a man. I’d be better off all by my damned self.
When the song went off, I noticed the screen of my phone light up. I had missed three more calls.
I started to ignore it, but it began ringing again.
Why was Nicole hounding me? I hoped that asshole hadn’t put her up to calling me. But the more I thought about it; I realized that wasn’t a possibility. She didn’t want him with me anyway, so if she were calling me, it surely wouldn’t be on his behalf.
“Hello,” I answered breathlessly.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I replied in an irritated voice.
“I’ve been calling you since Friday evening repeatedly, and you’ve refused to answer. If you didn’t answer these back to back calls, I was about to drive to your house.”
“That’s a bit much.”
“No, your failure to answer all these calls was becoming a bit much. I started to worry if you were okay.”
“Didn’t you think I might be busy
and think it might be best to call you back, rather than you hounding me?” I asked.
Nicole sighed on the other end.
“You know normally I’d be ready to check that smart mouth, but under the circumstances, there’s no time for that,” Nicole replied in a defeated tone that sent my senses on alert.
“Under what circumstances, Nic?”
I prayed everything was all right with our parents. I hadn’t spoken with them in a few days, and it never occurred to me that something might be wrong with them.
“Vic is in the hospital, Madi. He’s suffered a stroke, and we’re all here at Emory with him.”
“Oh, my God!” I said, plopping down on the couch.
I could imagine that I had sent the family into turmoil. I couldn’t imagine Victor Black sick a day in his life. He was too much of a stubborn asshole to get sick. In my mind, he was invincible. How could something like this happen?
“Can you come down here for Kent?”
“Excuse me?”
“He needs you, Madi. Can you come down here to support him? I mean, everyone’s here, but I can tell this is tearing him apart. I’ve never seen him like this before,” Nicole said.
Shaking my head, I replied, “No, I don’t see what this has to do with me. He’s got his family down there, that’s all he needs.”
“He needs his best friend, too, Madi.”
“Whatever. Friends don’t deceive each other. Friends can trust each other and have one another’s back through the worst of times,” I argued.
“Which is why you should have your angry behind down here at the hospital!”
“No! And you don’t have any right calling me up demanding that I do, Nic.”
She sighed and remained silent for a while.
“If there’s nothing else, I was busy, and I need to get back to doing what I was doing before you called,” I said, recalling my pity party of one.
Smooth: The Sons of Victor Black: A BWWM Romance Page 18
