Page 67 of Indescribable Love
“How much did they pay you?” he asked, still sitting with his eyes closed.
“What?”
“How much did they pay you?” he repeated tightly, carefully enunciating every word. “I’m sure it was more than just the flight and hotel.”
“Um…”
Now he did open his eyes and stand. “How. Much?”
Greg Wylder had aged. He looked like the kind of man that lived a hard life. His gray hair was disheveled. His jaw was stubbled and his blue eyes were a bit dull and vacant. His clothes looked secondhand, and he was a lot smaller than he remembered. Simon allowed himself a moment to really look at the man who was the source of his every insecurity and realized he felt nothing—not anger, not pity, and certainly not love or affection. He simply had zero emotion. He was staring at a stranger.
“Ten thousand,” Greg finally said when Simon continued to stare at him. “They paid me ten thousand.”
“And that’s not enough for you?”
Greg smoothed a hand over his hair. “Like I said, I wanted to talk to you and Jax about something. I guess Noah too. It involves the three of you. You see…”
“No.”
His father’s eyes went a little wide. “What do you mean, no?”
“You don’t get to talk to any of us. You lost that right. You don’t get to show up with your hand out time and time again, holding us emotionally hostage anymore,” he said harshly. “The producers may have been stupid enough to give you money—just like Jax and I have been for years, but that ends now. We’re done here. If you ever show up at one of my venues or try to reach out to me, I’ll have you arrested. As a matter of fact, I’ll make sure to have a restraining order filed by the end of the day!”
And for the second time today, he waited for the fight, but it didn’t come.
And also for the second time that day, the person he thought would argue with him looked defeated.
With a curt nod, his father took a step back. “I’m not sure why you asked me to come here if this is how you felt. I know I’ve shown up in the past and…and your people always give me a check and toss me out. I thought maybe you finally wanted to see me and allow me to make amends.”
“You can’t,” Simon told him. “There’s nothing you can do to make up for the things you did. You were a horrible father and a poor excuse for a person. And for the record, I never would have invited you here. You were lied to.” Then he let out his own mirthless laugh. “But that seems to be the theme of the day today. Lies. And I’m done with it.” He walked over to the door and yanked it open. “Nikki will have a check for you. The last one.”
“But…what about the documentary? They told me…”
“They lied to you!” he yelled. “There isn’t going to be a documentary! It’s over! It’s all over, so I hope you cashed the check already.” Nodding to the door, he glared back at his father. “Leave. Now.”
“Look, Simon, I get that you’re pissed, but can’t we just talk about this? I’m here and…and it’s been a long time. I would think this would be a good opportunity for us to maybe talk things out. You know…reconnect. Make amends.”
Rage filled him like it never had before. “Amends? You think we can make amends? Are you out of your damn mind? Are you high right now?” Then he grunted with disgust. “You probably are. There hasn’t been a day that I can remember when you weren’t drunk or high. Why would today be any different?”
Then the signs of the father he knew started to emerge—the sneer, the belligerent stance. “Watch yourself. I’m still your father.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. The kind of father you were? I don’t even think you know what the word means. Fathers don’t belittle their kids. Fathers don’t torture and torment their sons for fun. And fathers actually show up and give a damn about all of their kids, not just the one most like him.”
Greg laughed mirthlessly. “That bugged you, didn’t it? The fact that I finally got a kid I was proud of. Jax is a real man with an actual career. Sure, you’re making good money and you’re famous, but…it’s still singing. You have people doing things for you because you think you’re too good to have to do it for yourself. Walking around here today, I saw people scurrying around getting your drinks and getting you a stool. People are making sure you look good and sound good. None of it’s on you. Jax takes down guys twice his size.” He gave Simon a snide look.
“Leave. Leave before I have security come in and physically remove you.”
Slowly, Greg Wylder made his way to the door and gave Simon a bland look. “Yeah, you always were a pissy little kid. Looks like that hasn’t changed.”
Simon slammed the door shut after him and wished like hell that this day would just end. How had everything gone so damn wrong? This morning, he was happy and in love.
The snort of derision was out immediately.
Love. Pfft…that’ll show me…
He always swore when he fell in love that it would be real and forever. Sure, it was a little unrealistic, but with Juliette, he had seen his future. After everything they’d shared, he never imagined she’d do something like this to him. He trusted everyone and never had anything like this happen.
He wasn’t prone to being someone to make rash decisions or think in definites, but he knew without a doubt that he would never let something like this happen again. It would be a long time before he’d give his heart to anyone again.