Bennett

"You seem happy."

I jumped, a picture frame containing a photo of me and Henley slipping from my hands. I managed to catch it before it hit the floor and I placed it on my desk again, looking up with a scowl to see my father closing my office door behind him, a briefcase in his hand.

My father...

It was strange to even think of those words. A man I'd thought had been dead all these years was alive and well before me.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I was hoping to check in on Lee."

"You're in my office."

My father frowned, put off by my responses. "Bennett."

"What did you say to him to make him so upset?" I asked, pushing myself up from my seat. "I don't know what you're expecting of me, but you're essentially a stranger to me. Lee and I were just getting our lives back together and then you showed up only to disrupt them again."

My father gave me a look that reminded me too much of myself. "I told your brother something he should have known a long time ago. I don't know the extent of what your mother put you through—"

"No, you don't."

"Bennett, do you think I left you two alone because I wanted to?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"I don't know what to think," I responded thinly. "But maybe instead of appearing out of nowhere and upsetting Lee, you should have approached us with more consideration."

Guilt flickered on my father's face. "I thought what I told him would make him feel better."

"Obviously you were wrong."

"No, I don't think I am. I just think he needs time to process this and come to terms with it. I think it's better for him to know."

"Don't speak as if you know him."

My father ran a hand through his hair. "I was going to let your brother tell you on his own accord, but I guess you won't have a conversation with me if you don't know what's going on."

I leveled him with a flat look. "I'll wait for Lee to tell me."

"Lee is not your mother's son."

"...What?"

"A few months after Lee was born, his mother died in an accident. Then shortly after that I met your mother. I asked her if we could raise Lee to believe that she's his birth mother because I wanted Lee to experience having a complete family," my father explained. "She agreed immediately and I thought everything would be okay. However, I would have never asked her to do that if I knew what kind of person she would end up being."

I gripped the edge of my desk. Was he telling the truth? How was I supposed to believe him? What if this was some elaborate trick?

My father handed me a piece of paper. "I brought proof."

I took it from him, my heart skipping a beat when I realized it was an official birth certificate. Lee's first name and birthday were up at the top, but I didn't recognize the surname written there. And where it listed the father's name, my father's first name was printed there with the same last name as Lee's above. I didn't recognize any part of the name that was listed after the mother's maiden name.

"Cohen?" I said out loud.

"That was my surname before I married your mother. We went to court to have your brother's last name changed to Calloway after we married."

I tossed the certificate onto my desk. "So, you went to that length because you wanted Lee to experience having a complete family?"

"Yes."

"And yet you left us? Leading us to believe you were dead this whole time?"

My father carefully picked the birth certificate, putting it back in his briefcase. "I already told you I didn't leave because I wanted to and I had no idea that your mother told you I was dead."

I still didn't believe him, but the inkling of suspicion started in the back of my brain. My mother was capable of plenty of things. She rather Lee dead than have him tarnish the family name. Was my father the same? Had he done something that made her throw him out of the family?

But even if that were true, how could she make us attend a fake funeral? Why go that far? Why not just tell us he left? This was nauseating. I barely had memories of it, but I remembered attending a funeral. And if it wasn't my father's, whose was it? How did she get away with it for so long? Did she pay off everyone we knew? Did she trick them too? Was that even possible?

"When I heard wind of her being incarcerated, I figured I could come to meet you boys without her knowing," my father said, placing his briefcase down on my desk.

I had to resist the urge to push it off. "That's the only reason you came? So, if she hadn't been arrested, you never would have shown up here again?"

"No," he said, holding my gaze. "I wouldn't have."

I balled my hands into fists. "Then why bother?"

"I didn't know how she was treating you two. If I had known, I would have come right away."

I scoffed, walking away from my desk, toward the windows. "If you came here to try and be a savior, it's too late. We already saved ourselves. How did you even find out?"

He came to stand beside me, shoulders tense. I hated how similar our reflections in the window panes were. He was as tall as Lee and as sharp-featured as me. "Even though I wasn't in your life, I still tried to keep up on news about you two," he told me. "I signed up for internet search alerts. I read magazines. Anything that might even have the chance of mentioning you two, I would read."

"Like the media would have any idea of what our lives are actually like," I said dryly. "Lee and I avoid it as much as possible."

His gaze dropped to the floor. "I'm aware. Information about you two is limited out there. Anything that did pop up just mentioned how smart you were, how successful. How the Calloways were a perfect family. I didn't know anything was wrong."

"Perfect?" I echoed, laughing without humor.

"When I read the article about your mother's arrest, I was outraged. To think she would go so far..." My father's tone shifted, irritation bleeding into his voice. "I should have known better. I should never have trusted her with Lee. I should have known she would treat him differently for not being her blood."

My stomach hardened. He hadn't just left Lee behind. "Why did you leave, then?"

"Because it was either leave Lee with her or lose him completely," he said, sighing. "I had no place to go when your mother kicked me out. No money to my name. No car. No house. Everything was in your mother's name. If I hadn't let her take Lee, she would have reported me to child's services."

This made me pause. "What do you mean? How did you not have any money? You had the hotel—"

"No. Your mother had the hotel. I had nothing when I met your mother. And she made sure it stayed that way, even as the hotel business grew. It was always her business, not mine."

Confusion momentarily caused the tension to leave my body. I turned toward him, my eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean? What about when you divorced? You would have gotten half her money—"

"We're not divorced," he said. "Legally, we are still together."

"What?"

My father nodded as if agreeing that he, too, was bewildered by this situation. "It's a mess that can't be easily explained."

"That's not important, anyway," I said quickly, not letting myself get distracted. "How it happened doesn't matter. Why it happened does."

"I never was meant for the kind of life your mother wanted. The money, the power, the fame. The business. It was too much for me. I couldn't be the husband or father she wanted me to be." My father walked over to the bookshelf as he talked, running his hands along the framed awards the hotel had won over the years. "My mental health declined. It affected my work, my life. I know it sounds pathetic—"

"It doesn't," I said immediately, setting my jaw. "Don't say that."

He turned to me, startled. "Bennett."

I faced the windows again. "Keep going."

"Whenever a journalist would come to interview us, they would always write in the article that I was behind the success and that she was just my wife enjoying the benefits of having a wealthy husband. Which is far from the truth. She is the reason why the hotels are so successful. It was never me. It was always her. No matter how hard I worked, she worked harder."

I knew that much was true. If there was one thing I could say confidently about my mother, it was she worked harder than anyone else. Dangerously so. "You're still not explaining why you left," I said, but the bitterness had left my voice.

"When my mental health began to affect my work, we fought more. I told her I didn't want the same life she did. Sacrificing family time for the business never sat right with me. Even more so as it became more about being wealthy than being happy." He let out a long breath. "I didn't grow up with money, Bennett. I grew up with second-hand clothing shops and surviving paycheck-to-paycheck. But I was happy. I wanted more in life than just to sell my soul to my work. I was miserable with your mother. Every day was like hell."

I closed my eyes. He sounded like Lee. Overworked, depressed. My mother had been like this even to her husband?

"When I asked her if we could take a step back from the hotel and focus on our family, she lost it. At first, she accused me of trying to deceive her into handing the company over to me. Then when I told her I wanted nothing to do with the company anymore, she accused me of trying to sabotage it. She believed I wanted to take everything away from her. That if I went back to having nothing, I wanted to drag her with me."

My mouth felt dry and I swallowed. "You wanted her to leave the company?"

"No. I wanted us to take on fewer responsibilities so our entire lives weren't only about the company. She twisted it into her own viewpoint. I don't know why or how. I took her last name to make sure her name would be the one everyone knew— just as she wanted. I just wanted to support her. I wanted my wife. Nothing else."

"You wanted your wife so badly, but not your children?" I asked tersely because it sounded like he was explaining his love story and not why he abandoned me and Lee.

"I wanted to be with you two, too," he responded, his voice hitching. "I didn't want you to continue to grow up in our absence. Some days I would come home and you wouldn't even recognize me when you were younger, Bennett. I hated it. But by the time I realized I took the wrong approach with your mother, it was too late. She'd given me an ultimatum."

An ultimatum. My skin prickled. How typical of her. I knew about her ultimatums all too well. And I knew what my father would say next because I also knew my mother too well. "Leave quietly or she'd make sure you never saw Lee again?" I offered.

"Your mother was quick to adopt Lee," my father said, rubbing his forehead. "I realized then it was because she wanted him as leverage against me. Lee wasn't old enough to be able to decide for himself. How could I win a custody battle? She made sure nothing was in my name. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I had no money, lots of debt, terrible credit. It made sense for her to have everything in her name. She paid for everything. But again, it was so if I crossed her, I would have nothing. But I don't think she ever thought I would be okay with nothing."

Anger flashed through me again. "Nothing, huh?"

"What would you do, Bennett?" he snapped. "I had nothing to offer you. No place to live. No car to drive. No health insurance or income, since your mother fired me from my position in the company. She had me completely dependent on her and I never realized it. I would have never won a custody battle and even if I did, your life would have been miserable. I knew at least with your mother you wouldn't have financial problems. Just because I grew up that way just fine didn't mean I wanted you and Lee to have to deal with that."

"Still, how could you never try to see us? How could you ignore us all these years?" I demanded, glaring at him. "You just said it yourself. You rather be poor and happy. I think we would have been happy living with a person with that mindset over her any day."

"No," he said. "You guys were already doing so well. I couldn't take that away from you. I don't know when things turned so bad after I left, but you two were fine the whole time I was there. You don't remember?"

I didn't say anything for a moment. He was right— growing up, my mother was always hard on us, but not to the same extent as she had been these past few years. I didn't know what changed, either.

"She promised that she would raise you and Lee to take over the company together. To split the responsibilities. To make it different than it was for her and myself as long as I stayed away. And I dared come back, she would tell Lee everything. I didn't want Lee to ever find out that your mother wasn't his mother too. He loved her so much." My father shook his head, his hair falling in his face. "I know I was wrong to leave as I did. To fall for her threats. But given my mental state back then, I truly believed I was doing what was best for you boys."

I stared at him. "Yes, you were very wrong."

"Bennett..."

"But my mother is even more so. She finds your weakness and exploits it to the point where you feel like you have no choice but to obey. I would be a hypocrite if I resented you because of that," I said, gritting my teeth together. "But you know what I learned? All you have to do is reach out of that abyss and ask for help. If you had shown yourself to Lee or me, we would have helped you. My mother is only human. There is only so much she can do. Once we became legal adults, you should have come back."

My father shoulder's slumped. "I know... I was a coward. I couldn't convince myself that you'd be better with me in your life. I figured you hated me for leaving. That even if I came back, you two would want nothing to do with me."

"Well, you're wrong there since my mother told us you were dead."

He flinched. "I can't believe she did that. How did she pull off such an elaborate lie?"

"I imagine paying enough people off can get whoever you want to believe whatever you want."

"You said you went to a funeral?" He made a face. "I did have a cousin who passed away around the same time. Did you speak with anyone at the funeral?"

"Only a few people I did not recognize."

Silence settled between us as we came to the same conclusion. It made me sick. But if this was how I felt, how did Lee? No wonder he'd been so upset. His life had been a lie. The mother that he loved turned out to not be his mother.

But...

Maybe that was a good thing.

She had treated Lee so terribly. And it was starting to make more sense to me why, too. Why Lee was always overworked while I loitered my day away. Why Lee was always held to a higher standard. I'd always thought it was because Lee would become the CEO. But maybe all that time it wasn't.

Maybe it was so she'd turn Lee away from wanting to become the CEO.

"Your mother must have felt threatened by Lee," my dad said, confirming my thoughts. "She's not her true son, but because she adopted him, he has just as much right to being the heir as you do. More so because he is older. But I am sure she never wanted Lee to take it over. I am sure she's always planned on you taking it over."

I smiled wryly. "Then she never knew Lee at all. Because the harder she worked him, the more he wanted to protect me from having to live the same life as him. The point that he..." I cut myself off, setting my lips in a straight line again.

My father held his hands in front of himself, looking unsure. "Can I ask you to tell me about everything that's happened while I was away?"

"I will tell you. But only because you deserve to be aware of what you left your sons to deal with."

To my surprise, my father accepted my intentionally spiteful words with a lowered head. "I'd like to hear everything."

And so, I told him, without leaving a single thing out. Because I wanted him to know the consequences of his actions. His shoulders sank with every revelation, his features growing steadily more dejected.

But when I finished, I didn't feel as satisfied as I thought I would. Instead, my pulse raced, and the sad expression on his face made my heart hurt. I didn't understand why.

Or maybe I did. Because after rehashing the events with Henley over the past year, I couldn't help but remember how powerless it felt to have someone you loved used against someone else you loved, where no one would come out without being hurt, and being so convinced it wouldn't work out you didn't dare to expect a happy ending.

"That's why I had to come and tell Lee that she isn't his mother," my father said quietly after a moment. "That way he doesn't have to live thinking his mother did that to him."

"Lee still loves her," I said, hating the truth of the words. "I know him. This isn't something that will change how much he's been hurt. It will only add more."

"He's always had a soft heart. Just like his real mother."

"You need to tell him everything you told me today," I said, hearing my phone vibrate on my desk. I walked over to it and my father followed behind me.

"I plan to. I'd hoped to be able to tell him all this when I told him about Dolores in the first place, but I didn't expect him to leave."

I picked up my phone seeing a text message from Henley.

Have you heard anything from Lee or Henry? Lee's not texting me back. Do you think they're still fighting?

I paused. Had they still not made up? After this long? It was already almost five o'clock. The entire workday had passed.

"Is something wrong?" my father asked.

"I don't know," I answered distractedly, forgetting I was supposed to be upset with him momentarily. There was no way Lee and Henry were really fighting. The longest they'd ever been mad at each other was a few hours. Had something else happened? No, if something had happened Henry would have texted me.

My father picked his briefcase up from my desk. "I'll leave. I talked a lot today. Think over my words and let me know when you make a decision."

"A decision?"

"If you want me back in your life or not. I won't force it."

He walked to the door without another word. I watched after him, my hand gripping my cell phone tightly.

"Maybe it would be best for you to disappear again and Lee and I could go on pretending that our father is dead," I said, making him stop.

His posture went rigid.

"But we know you're alive now. That's not a choice we can make a choice anymore. You'll always exist to us now. You're our father. It might not be easy to form a new relationship, but it's not impossible."

A beat passed.

"Leave your number. I'll call you."

I tried to ignore the moisture in my father's eyes as I handed my phone to him so he could give me his number. I wasn't doing this for only my sake. I knew Lee. He would want our father back in his life. Because even a bad mother was better than none to him.

And I...

I looked down at my new contact.

Dad.

Author's Note:

Oh, no... is this what they call an info dump? I think I went too ham on the back story for one chapter.

Anyway, let's pretend I didn't disappear for a month. I was dealing with really bad anxiety (and as someone who usually only has general anxiety about things like going to new places and phone calls, this was a shock) over something that happened, but everything turned out okay, and I am slowly feeling back to 100%. 

Thank you for your patience! Or maybe there was no patience. I didn't dare look at the comments on the last chapter lol

Jordan