Suddenly comprehension dawned. The man was angry, yes, but not because he couldn’t connect with his daughter. He was angry with Mitchell. He’d talked to Kendra. She’d let him in, and she’d told him. Everything.
“Do you know what else she remembers?! She remembers the oblivion that a bottle brought her and because of your inaction that night she spent the next five months crawling into one every damn night!” he yelled, and Mitchell found his eyes widening even further.
“What?” he gasped but the man either didn’t hear or didn’t care that Mitchell had no idea about that latest development.
“At no point, Astley, did I instruct you to lie to and use my daughter! At no point did I tell you to try to worm your way into her life by playing at being a suitor! Under no instructions of mine did I ever tell you to pretend to be someone else! I never told you to do any of that! You were supposed to help her, not hurt her! You were supposed to be trustworthy!
“I trusted you, Astley,” he said in a fierce growl. “I trusted you with the most precious thing I ever had, and you broke that trust. You broke her,” he gritted out, and Mitchell sat there with a gaping mouth at the man.
“And I have no need for such an untrustworthy man in my organization,” the man said as he rose to his feet, and Mitchell scrambled up himself while staring at the man in shock.
“What does that mean?” he managed to ask.
“Exactly what you think it does,” the man said angrily as he went to turn away.
“You can’t fire me for this!”
“Excuse me?” the older man asked with narrowed eyes.
“I was just trying to do my job. I was just trying to do what you asked of me!”
“I never asked you to do this, Astley. You lied to her. Repeatedly.”
“It was the only way,” he said firmly and watched as Howard continued to glare at him, obviously not believing him in the slightest. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see her that first night. If she’d have known who I was and why I was there, she’d never have opened herself up to me. She was angry. She was angry and hurt.”
“Because she’d been lied to for twenty years. And yet somehow you thought that the best course of action to then take with her was to lie to her as well,” he said fiercely.
“It was the only way,” Mitchell ground out. “You wanted her to do what you wanted. You told me to do what it took.”
“That was never meant to include deceiving her. That was never meant to –”
“You never specified anything,” Mitchell interrupted firmly. “I had a goal to achieve and did what I could to reach it. You were the one insistent that she see things your way.”
“I was the one insisting that I should go to her straight away! You and the others said it would never have worked!”
“It wouldn’t have! Two years ago Kendra would have turned you away. She had enough to deal with at the time. She didn’t need your presence muddying the waters!” Mitchell said fiercely.
“At least my presence would have prevented her from becoming an alcoholic!”
“That’s not my fault!”
“You could have stopped it. You should have stopped it! And you never should have let her go.”
“She’s a grown woman. She made her own choices.”
“And you made yours.”
“For your benefit.”
“I fail to see how abusing my daughter’s trust was for my benefit.”
“You wanted me to get close and get her thinking the way you wanted. That’s what I was doing.”
“Your methods leave something to be desired, Astley. You know the principles I require of all my employees. Honesty. Integrity. You failed on both counts. You failed me. Pack your things up, Astley. Get out of here. And get out of my life. If I ever see you near either me or Kendra again, you’ll regret it. Sorely. Come anywhere near either of us and you’ll rue the day that you ever met me. Go back to your life in the city and be grateful that you’re doing so uninjured. Because that’s more than can be said for my daughter,” he finished angrily and decisively before storming towards the door and slamming it shut behind him.
Mitchell just stood there staring at the empty room and felt a surge of anger about it all. This one assignment had been a thorn in his side ever since he’d been given it. Kendra had been a thorn in his side the whole time. And after all the time spent trying to get the job done, now he didn’t even have any employment. And he could kiss goodbye to a reference as well.
With frustration surging through his veins, Mitchell picked up the closest object to hand and hurled it at the wall opposite. Great, just great, he thought as he watched shards of glass fall to the ground. Now he was not only without a job, but he was also going to have to pay for a broken mirror and lamp.
Running his hands through his hair, he collapsed onto the settee behind him and tried to think of how he’d managed to screw up his life so badly. He was in love with a woman who hated him, who hated him with a very justified reason to do so. He had no job, and no prospects of getting one without a reference from Howard Powers. He didn’t even have a desire to head back to the city.
The only thing he did have was money to do what he wanted for the moment. For a fleeting second Mitchell thought of packing up his life and heading off to travel and see the world like Kendra had done, but the prospect of doing so alone didn’t hold any real appeal. And the prospect of doing so and finding himself thinking of the woman he loved the whole time also chaffed against him.
Mitchell found himself laughing ruefully at the situation that he found himself in. The lie that he’d conjured up when he’d first arrived in Granville was turning into reality. He was out of the rat race, with nothing to do but embrace life in the small town of Granville.
Ah hell. Why not? He’d already come to the realization that the place had latched itself onto his heart. He’d already realized that he enjoyed the town and surrounding area. Why not just do what he’d claimed he was doing from the start? He could hang out in Granville and see what he wanted to do with his life now. What was stopping him?
Kendra’s presence could be a problem, but he knew that Howard wanted her to go back with him for at least a little while, and it wasn’t like she got final say over who could live in the area. If she didn’t like him there, well then, she could just leave, couldn’t she? She could go marry Notaku and live with him.
Mitchell cringed at the thought. If that happened, maybe he would head out. But right now there was nowhere else he’d rather be. Nowhere else for him to go to. Nowhere else that would welcome him. Well, Granville might not actually welcome him either, not after they found out what a liar he’d been and his real reason for turning up there. But it was worth a try. He had nothing left to lose, after all.
Nothing at all.
* * *
This shouldn’t be so difficult. It really shouldn’t be, but Kendra found her hand shaking as it hovered over the telephone receiver.
Looking up, she spotted a bottle sitting on her bookcase and drew in a shaky breath. It would be so easy to turn back to that sweet oblivion. So easy to use some liquid courage. Kendra wasn’t sure that it was a smart thing to keep the bottle around but Notaku had told her that it would strengthen her. She wasn’t sure of that, all it seemed to be doing was tempting her right now.
Staring more intently at it and its contents, she found her breathing coming in heavily. As she felt that familiar pull and tug she noticed something: Notaku had marked the glass. He’d drawn a line at the level that the bottle was at.
The bottle wasn’t full. She had, after all, poured herself some glasses a couple of nights ago when he was here with her. The contents had ended up down the sink, but it meant that the level of Vodka in the bottle had decreased. Notaku must have drawn on the mark before he’d left, after she’d gone to her own room and crashed out after the strain of the evening’s events.
That mark meant something though. It meant that she hadn’t touched that bottle
since. It wasn’t just a sign of the level of contents, but rather a sign that she hadn’t gone back to it. Yes, the bottle was a way to imbue her with courage, but not in the way that she’d originally thought of. That mark was giving her courage. If she could resist that lure, then she could do this.
Stiffening her backbone, Kendra picked up the handset and dialed the required number. With a shakily indrawn breath she waited for the other person to answer the phone and tried to think of what to say.
She just didn’t know. So much had happened. So much had changed. So many things had occurred. And they’d lied to her. Hurt her. Abused her trust. What could she say after all of that? What could she say to get the two of them back on track? She didn’t know.
As the voice on the other end answered, Kendra inhaled sharply and closed her eyes while hugging herself with her free arm.
“Hello?” came the voice again, and Kendra finally opened her eyes. Catching sight of the bottle across from her, she inhaled deeply again and finally found her courage once more.
“Hi, Mom. It’s me. I think it’s time that we finished that talk,” she said and couldn’t contain the tears that started to stream down her face when she heard the catch in her mom’s breath as well.
Chapter Eighteen
“Wow,” Kendra breathed as she took in her surroundings. “This place is …,” she said, searching for the right word.
“Ostentatious,” Howard Powers said from her side, and Kendra looked over at him as he frowned at his own home.
“I was going to say ‘big’.”
“It’s more than big, Kendra,” he said with a smile her direction. “It’s ridiculously huge,” he said and looked around himself again.
“It’s certainly spacious,” she added in an attempt to defend the man’s home to himself. Which seemed a strange turn of events. Things had certainly changed over the past five days. After her initial meeting with her father, Kendra had spoken to Betsy and Notaku and told them about everything.
When Howard had told her that he needed to get back to his own home and the demands of his business, he’d invited her along with him. She’d been hesitant but Betsy had encouraged her, as had Growling Bear and Falling Eagle. They’d told her to embrace this new chapter of her life. They’d sent her on her way, reminding her that they’d always be there for her.
She’d spoken to her mom about it all as well, and Marilyn had encouraged her too, telling her that the pair of them deserved the chance to connect after so many years apart. So Kendra had packed her bags and headed off in Howard’s private jet to his home. A home that was much larger and finer than she’d ever have imagined her biological father ever owning.
That same twinge of anger assaulted her at the thought of everything that she’d missed out on but Kendra pushed it away. She was trying to overcome the past, to get on with the future ahead of her. She was making progress with her mom and also her new father, she didn’t need to hold on to the old resentment she felt. It was difficult to let go though.
Howard’s sigh pulled Kendra’s attention back to him. “It’s ridiculous really. It’s far too big for me. Far too big for anyone,” he added, and Kendra smiled at him.
“Why did you buy it then?” she asked as he made his way towards the grand staircase in front of her.
“Build it, you mean,” he said with a quick look her way, and Kendra just looked at him in confusion.
“You built this place?” she asked in amazement.
Howard shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets, a gesture she’d come to recognize as being indicative of the fact that he was nervous. “What else was I going to do with my money?” he explained self-consciously.
“But you give to a lot of charities,” she said. “I’ve seen you in the papers. You’re quite the philanthropist.”
“What else was I to do with it? I didn’t have anyone to leave it to. It may as well do some good in the world.”
“Does that mean –,” she started then abruptly stopped and watched as he came to a stop to look over at her.
“What?” he asked, and she debated whether or not to ask the question that she hadn’t voiced yet. The one that she’d been worried about the answer to. The one that she knew might change things between them again.
“Kendra,” he encouraged as his eyes followed her arms as they wrapped around herself. “What did you want to know?”
“I … I guess I was just wondering if that meant that … well, that you didn’t have any other … kids,” she finished softly. She’d never heard of him having any, but then again she’d never heard anything about Howard Powers’ personal life. Nothing. An oddity for a famous man, but there was never anything written or published about the man’s private life.
Everyone knew about his business and accomplishments, everyone knew about his charitable works and donations. But when it came to family there was nothing. He could be married with a dozen other kids, and she wouldn’t have known. And she’d been so afraid to ask. Afraid that she’d end up jealous of some half-siblings and the fact that they’d gotten a dad and she hadn’t.
It wasn’t exactly fair of her to feel that way, she knew, but that didn’t make the emotion go away. And yet it also seemed selfish to want the man not to have had another family after everything that he’d been denied. Shouldn’t he have been allowed some happiness after everything that he’d had to go through when he was younger?
Staring at her, Howard seemed to study her face, and Kendra couldn’t help but shift nervously at his intense perusal.
“No,” he said suddenly, and Kendra looked up at him in surprise. “No. No other kids.”
“That you know of,” she said with a quirked mouth and watched as he tensed. She hadn’t meant to bring up a sore subject, but she’d wanted to lighten the heavy mood that had descended on them. In an effort to cover up her faux pas she instead looked around and said, “Seems a big house for just you.”
“I’m told it goes with the image of a wealthy businessman who’s a multi-millionaire,” he said with another shrug.
“Well, I guess,” she said with a tepid smile.
“You don’t like it,” he surmised as they started walking again, and Kendra thought of how to word her reply. “Don’t filter yourself around me, Kendra. I want you to be open with me, to feel comfortable telling me anything.”
“Okay, well, in that case, I guess I don’t. I feel out of place. It’s like a completely different world, completely different to what I’m used to and where I’m supposed to be. I feel like an imposter. Or … well, or even a charity case,” she said hesitantly.
“You’re not a charity case. You’re my daughter. This is yours as much as it is mine,” he declared, and Kendra came to a stop herself this time, staring at him with wide eyes.
“No,” she said firmly and watched as he stopped to look at her.
“No?” he asked in confusion.
“I don’t want it. This isn’t mine. This is yours. I’m happy with my life, I don’t need a life like this, or even any part of it financially. I know that you’re my father and I’m willing to foster a relationship between us, but that doesn’t mean that I want a cut of your possessions,” she said decisively.
“I don’t understand,” he said as he stared at her in confusion.
“I don’t want your money, Mr Powers,” she said and watched as his eyes clouded over. She knew why as well; it was the way that she referred to him as Mr Powers. Kendra knew that the man wanted her to call him something else, something less formal, more intimate, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it yet. To her he was still a stranger.
“You’re very much like your mother,” he said softly as he continued to stare at her, and Kendra looked at the man in surprise. They hadn’t really spoken about her mom since that first night. She’d been reluctant to bring the woman up who had lied to the both of them for so long, and he seemed just as reluctant. “She was always stubborn,” he added with a soft smile, and Kendra studied the man mor
e closely. There was something still there. Something still lingered with the man and his feelings towards her mom.
“Still is,” Kendra said with a smile. “She kind of had to be,” she added and watched as he raised a brow at her comment, obviously waiting for an explanation. “Mom had to deal with a lot when she was younger. Stubbornness and determination helped her through it all.”
Howard’s eyes misted over, and Kendra wondered what he was thinking. If he was thinking of the fact that things would have been easier for her mom if she’d told the father of her child. Kendra had spoken to her mom a few times since that initial call and thought that she had a much better understanding of the woman’s motivations behind everything, but hadn’t shared that with her father yet. She wasn’t sure if it was her place to, after all, but he hadn’t seemed interested anyway.
“She had a lot to contend with,” he said sadly, and Kendra only nodded. “As did you,” he added as he stared more fully at her. “That should never have been the case,” he said fiercely before stopping outside of a door and opening it. “This is your room while you’re here,” he said and gestured for her to enter.
Kendra stepped through the doorway and took in the lavish suite there. It was large, with high ceilings, a full bath off to the side, and a walk-in wardrobe that was larger than her own apartment over the diner. What had Howard said, ostentatious? Oh yeah, it was definitely that. And ridiculously over the top for a single man.
Unless he wasn’t single any more. She’d asked about children, but she hadn’t asked about a wife. Looking over at him she noticed the absence of a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean much nowadays. He might not wear one, or he might be in a relationship without marriage. He certainly had been with her mom.
Kendra was intrigued but wasn’t entirely sure how to bring the subject matter up between them. Things were so tentative and new right now that she didn’t feel comfortable prying into all of his affairs. Her brain stopped for a moment while she smiled to herself at the inadvertent use of the word before continuing in her thought process.
Masks and Lies Page 16
