The dining room was just as lavish as the rest of the apartment with a long table that ran alongside one of the huge windows overlooking the city. At the far end of the room, I could also see an outdoor terrace with a swimming pool. It was emitting a warm blue glow as lights shone up from below the surface of the water.
The room felt too big and too grand for a father-daughter dinner. It felt so formal and nothing like my meals back home with my mom. We always sat on stools at the kitchen counter whenever we ate. We didn’t have a proper dining table, and I found I was somewhat grateful for that. Matthew’s setup didn’t feel comforting or homely at all.
We took a seat at the massive table, and waitstaff arrived moments later. I hadn’t seen them in the kitchen, so I had to wonder if there were other rooms I’d missed on the tour. It wouldn’t have surprised me.
“I know you’re not feeling well, so I had Jacques prepare something light to start with,” Matthew said. “If you’d like something else, I can have him put it together—”
“This is perfect,” I said, interrupting Matthew as a bowl of chicken soup was placed before me along with a freshly baked but plain bread roll. “I’m not sure I could handle much more than this.”
He smiled at me before he started on his own bowl of soup. I felt bad he was being subjected to the same bland food as me, but I was glad he hadn’t had his staff go to extra effort to accommodate two different meals for us.
I took a small mouthful of the soup and was immediately surprised by how something so basic could taste so good. It made me wish I were feeling better so I could try more of Jacques’s cooking. If he could make chicken soup taste this good, I couldn’t begin to imagine what else he was capable of.
I lowered my spoon after taking several mouthfuls and considered my father. I knew I needed to ask him about Noah’s family, but I wasn’t sure where to begin. I also wanted to find out what Noah was doing at his office today, but I didn’t know how to bring that up without admitting I’d gone there to ambush him.
“How has school been?” Matthew asked, breaking the silence between us before I had a chance to broach any of the topics on my mind.
“It was fine. Nothing too exciting going on really.”
“Have you had a chance to take your car for a spin yet?”
“Uh…” My cheeks reddened as I remembered what a disaster my attempt to drive it had been. “Once. It didn’t go well. I’m not a very good driver.”
“Your mother said you were still getting comfortable on the road.”
I was surprised he’d spoken to my mom about it. Perhaps he’d wanted to get her approval before getting me the car. If that was the case, I’d be even more surprised she didn’t tell my father the car was unnecessary. Mom accepted charity even less easily than me.
“That sounds like she was trying to put it nicely,” I said. “I’m a terrible driver. I just get so nervous.”
He gave me a conciliatory smile. “Would it help if I arranged a driving instructor for you?”
I hesitated.
“They might be able to help you gain a little confidence?”
After my disastrous drive with Anna, I’d been determined not to get behind the wheel again, but perhaps Matthew was right and with an instructor I could build the confidence I needed. “Uh, yeah, that might be a good idea,” I agreed. I couldn’t be worse than my experience with Anna.
“Okay, I’ll have Caldwell set it up.”
“Thanks.” I smiled.
“Also, Caldwell tells me you haven’t used the credit card I got for you.”
“Oh, uh, I haven’t really needed to yet. They have everything I need at school.” I’d completely forgotten I even had the credit card. I felt uncomfortable at the idea of using Matthew’s money. It was bad enough he’d paid for my schooling and given me a car.
“Well, it’s there to be used.”
“Like I said, I don’t really need anything.”
He chuckled under his breath. “You must be the first teenager that has to be encouraged to use their parent’s credit card,” he said.
I shrugged. The whole thing made me uneasy. I didn’t like spending money unnecessarily, especially his, and I had enough money saved in tips from working at my mom’s café to get me by.
He took a sip of his drink before he continued. “I hear you’re doing well in all of your classes.”
I guessed that meant he’d been checking up on me again. “Yeah, I’m doing okay. I like schoolwork and kind of throw myself into it.” Especially when I was trying not to think about a certain boy who’d broken up with me. Not that I was going to admit that to Matthew.
“I was the same at your age,” he admitted. “I always had my nose in a book.”
“Really?”
He nodded. It wasn’t surprising given what a successful businessman he seemed to be. But it felt nice to know we shared that in common.
“Mom never really understood it,” I said. “She’s always been better at hands-on learning rather than book learning.”
Matthew chuckled. “Candice was the same back when we dated. You could show her how to do something once, and she’d be a master in minutes, but there was no way you could get her to learn it out of a book.”
It was strange hearing Matthew talk about my mom. My whole life, I’d never heard details of their relationship. I had only ever focused on the fact he’d left and wasn’t around. “Mom never really told me much about the two of you dating.”
The lightness in Matthew’s eyes dimmed somewhat at my words. “I don’t blame her. She must have hated me, thinking I’d abandoned the both of you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think it was that. I get the feeling she never talked about you because she found it too hard.”
“I find it hard to talk about too. It took me a long time to get over your mother,” he murmured. “To this day, I haven’t met someone as special as her. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve experienced since finding out I could have had the both of you in my life all this time.”
I slowly stirred my spoon around the bowl as I summoned the courage to ask my next question. With a deep breath, I blurted it out. “What would you have done if you’d got my mom’s letter about me?”
My stomach twisted with nerves, and I couldn’t look him in the eyes as I waited for his reply. Matthew reached across the table and took my hand in his. Slowly, I peered up at him.
“I would have done whatever it took to keep you both in my life,” he said. “I had a difficult relationship with my father, but I will never forgive him for not telling me about you. I regret that we’ve missed the last seventeen years together more than anything.”
Matthew really wanted me in his life. He truly wanted me. And I could see it now so clearly in his eyes. I gave him a smile as he squeezed my hand. When he released it, he coughed and glanced away, like he was struggling to keep his feelings at bay too. He turned his attention to his food, and I took this as my cue to eat something myself. It was hard sharing emotions with someone when you were still only on the precipice of getting to know one another.
The soup Matthew’s chef had prepared was amazing, but I barely seemed to taste it anymore. It was hard to focus on eating when your long-lost father had just told you how much he wanted you in his life.
“I suppose you would like to hear about what happened with the Hastings family,” Matthew said.
My eyes lifted in one swift movement to meet his. After everything Matthew had just admitted, I didn’t want to put a dampener on our dinner by turning the conversation to a topic that seemed so fraught with pain and anger. I also didn’t want to hear what he had to say if it was going to support Noah’s claim that Matthew was a bad person. The thought made me a little queasy. It felt like we were finally bonding, and I didn’t want to ruin that.
I wasn’t sure when I’d have another opportunity to talk with him about this though. And if my father truly had a malicious side, it was better I know that now. I had Noah’s side of the story, but I needed my father’s too. It was time I had the whole truth.
I slowly nodded. “I just feel like I’m stuck in the middle of something I don’t fully understand. You seem to hate them just as much as they hate you. And me… They hate me too just by association.”
“I’m sorry you’ve been made to feel that way. I’ll do my best to explain,” Matthew started. “There’s a history with our families, and it’s not very pleasant.”
He drew in a breath as if bracing himself for the story he had to tell. “Back when your grandfather and Noah’s grandfather were young and just starting out in their careers, they worked together,” he said. “James LaFleur and William Hastings were both brilliant and determined scientists, but they also shared a stubborn competitive streak and an inability to compromise or forgive.
“They fell out after a fire started in their lab and destroyed years of hard work,” he continued. “To this day, no one could tell you for sure what caused the fire, but they both blamed each other and went their separate ways. That might have been the end of the feud, but William Hastings lodged a patent on the cancer treatment they’d been working on together. A treatment my father believed had been lost in the fire.”
“Wait, so you’re saying that William stole my grandfather’s work?” I asked.
“It was both of their work, but yes,” Matthew said. “It only confirmed to my father that William had started the fire to cut him out. It commenced years of backlash and fighting. They were constantly competing or attempting to sabotage one another. My father was in and out of court for almost a decade trying to prove he had a right to his own work.”
I swallowed as I considered what Matthew had said. His account of what started the whole feud was far more detailed than Noah’s had been. This was the first I’d heard about a fire destroying their work, and that was certainly a more reasonable explanation for my grandfather’s hatred than mere jealousy. If William really had started the fire and stolen my grandfather’s work, then maybe the LaFleurs’ vendetta against the Hastings was justified.
“This isn’t just about your father though, is it?”
“No.” Matthew let out a sigh. “I’ve had my own hand in the battle between our families. All my life, I saw my father being torn apart because he couldn’t manufacture the treatment he worked so hard to create. And he had to watch as William Hastings grew rich off the back of it. I often wondered if my father would have been a different man, a softer man, if he hadn’t been so brutally betrayed.”
Matthew seemed to get lost in his thoughts for a moment but then shook his head and continued. “Anyway, a couple of years back, the patent ended on the treatment they’d fought over. So, I started to manufacture a generic version of it. William had been charging extortionate fees for the drug for years, and the price on it was so high that most people couldn’t afford it.
“I hated knowing that people who needed my father’s treatment couldn’t access it, so I decided to sell it as cheaply as possible. I don’t make any profit on the drug. Actually, I think we might run at a loss. But, our company is diversified enough that it is not an issue. If one good thing came out of William’s betrayal, it was that my father was always striving to be ahead of the game and constantly innovating and developing our products.”
“So, William Hastings hates you for selling the same product as him but cheaper?”
“Yes,” Matthew replied. “I haven’t seen any new developments come out of Hastings Laboratories in years, and they rely too much on this one drug. I think he’s suffered a big hit to his bottom line because of it.”
If what Noah had told me was true, it sounded like my father’s actions were sinking the Hastings’ company entirely. Whether Matthew knew that or not, I wasn’t sure. Still, I felt a sense of relief at his explanation. I took no joy from the fact that the Hastings’ business had suffered due to my dad’s actions, but it sounded like Matthew was simply trying to do the right thing.
He was also yet to mention my aunt. Like Noah, Matthew had focused only on the business side of the rivalry. But I now knew it was so much more than that. Maybe my father found it just as difficult to talk about as Noah.
I cautiously continued my questioning. “I understand there’s this history of business rivalry,” I said. “But I still don’t understand what it’s got to do with me. Why are you personally so against Noah and I dating? You warned me about him before I even met him.”
Matthew swallowed, and his eyes glassed over for a moment. He quickly glanced away before I could see his expression clearly. My question seemed to have hit a nerve. His throat bobbed as he swallowed again and slowly faced me once more.
“There’s more to the story.” He paused, but I didn’t press him as I could see he was going to tell me. He was just steeling himself for whatever it was he had to say. I sat silently, but I leaned forward slightly as I waited.
“My sister, Georgina, went to Hastings Laboratories one night.” As Matthew spoke, his eyes fell and his head lowered slightly. “It didn’t end well.”
I swallowed because this was what I’d wanted to hear more about, but seeing the pain in Matthew’s eyes, I quickly decided not to push my father for any more of an explanation.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I said softly. “I already know about the fire and the affair.”
“Affair?” Matthew’s eyes snapped to mine.
“Noah told me everything,” I explained. “He told me his father and your sister were having an affair. That’s why they were at the lab together the night of the fire.”
“That’s not true.” Although Matthew hadn’t raised his voice, his words came out so forcefully it was impossible to miss the certainty with which he spoke them.
I shook my head in confusion. “But Noah said…”
‘Noah was just repeating what his grandfather told him,” Matthew replied. “William Hastings simply assumed my sister was having an affair with his son. He never would have believed what they were really up to.”
“So, if they weren’t having an affair, what was Georgina doing with Noah’s dad?”
Matthew let out a sigh. “It’s my fault she was there,” he said. “I thought that I could work with Liam Hastings to try and repair the rift between our families. Georgina was helping us. We wanted to put all the toxicity behind us so we could work together once we had more control of the companies. But we had to do it in secret because our parents never would have understood. Their hatred of one another was too ingrained.
“I’ve regretted trying to work with the Hastings family every day of my life since. All Liam and Georgina wanted was peace, and yet their deaths only drove our families further apart.”
He sat up a little straighter in his chair and took a deep breath, regaining his usual calm composure. “So, as you can imagine, this conflict between our families isn’t something I take lightly. I hope you can see why I didn’t want you anywhere near the Hastings boy. It felt too much like history repeating itself, and I don’t think I could endure the pain of losing you too.”
“I understand,” I said, nodding slowly. Both Noah and Matthew had lost so much because of their families already and were scared to lose any more. I didn’t want to be the cause of more pain for either of them.
“Given what you guys were up to, do you think the fire that killed them was an accident?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your grandfather thought William started the fire that destroyed his work all those years ago. You don’t suspect he started this one?”
Matthew shook his head. “I might not like William Hastings, but I know he would never risk his son that way.”
“And your father?” I hated asking the question, but it felt like it needed to be asked.
“I’ve considered the same thing many times myself, but I always come back to the fact that, despite their faults, neither of our parents would ever want to hurt their own flesh and blood. It was simply a tragic accident.”
He sounded so certain, but there was the tiniest flicker of concern in his gaze, and I had to wonder if perhaps my dad still wondered the same thing sometimes.
I glanced at my bowl. There was still some soup left, but I’d lost my appetite after talking about my aunt’s death.
“Do you have any pictures of Georgina?” I asked. “I’d love to see her.”
“Of course.” Matthew smiled and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He flicked through it for a moment before turning it so I could see the screen. The picture on the display was of a young woman, maybe in her twenties. Her eyes were bright with mischief, and she looked a lot like Matthew. They both had the same dark hair and light-blue eyes. Matthew had told me before that I looked like her, and I thought I could see some similarities. We shared the same eyes but also the same smile and small button nose.
“She’s beautiful,” I said.
“She was,” he agreed. “She was always laughing and had a terrible knack for getting herself into trouble. She had an infectious personality that was impossible not to love.”
“It sounds like she was a lot of fun.”
He smiled but let out a slow breath at the same time. “Certainly more so than me. I think I used to be more fun, but I threw myself into work even more after she died. It feels like it’s been so long since I did anything just because I enjoy it. I’m afraid I wouldn’t remember how anymore.” It was sad hearing Matthew talk about himself that way, but it was understandable knowing he’d lost his sister.
“I’m sure we can figure out a way to remind you,” I said, and his eyes lit up. I got the impression that one throwaway comment meant more to him than anything else I’d said tonight.
“Speaking of fun, I’ve stolen enough of your evening,” he said. “I should get you back to your friends.”
It felt like we were ending the night too soon, but after everything Matthew had just shared, there wasn’t much more to say. I still had so many questions, but I wasn’t going to force them on him now. He’d be back in Weybridge soon enough. Hopefully we’d have another chance to talk about everything then.
Matthew joined me in the car when his driver dropped me back at Cress’s house. We didn’t say much on the drive, and I imagined it was because we were both still reeling from our conversation at dinner.
I glanced at Matthew, watching the city lights flickering across his face as he stared out the window. He looked like his thoughts were a million miles from the car. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for him to lose his sister, and he was clearly still torn up about it years later.
I felt like I finally understood why Matthew had warned me to stay away from Noah. It might not be fair that Matthew judged Noah for his family’s mistakes and associated him with the danger that getting close to one of them presented, but fear wasn’t always rational.
I also understood where Noah was coming from. He too didn’t want to lose another family member in his grandfather. But I wasn’t so sure Noah’s anger toward Matthew was fair. The actions my grandfather had taken seemed justified given everything William did to him. I hadn’t wanted to take a side in the fight between our families, but after speaking with Matthew, I felt like I had no choice but to back my father up. He was just trying to do the right thing, and he didn’t deserve to be vilified for it.
There was no way to change what had happened. The only thing I could control was what happened next. Noah had chosen to believe my father was the bad guy. If he couldn’t understand Matthew wasn’t the villain in this situation, there was nothing I could do.
As the car pulled up outside Cress’s house, I realized I still had one last question for my father.
“You know,” I started. “Noah went missing from our school excursion today. My friend Wes was visiting his dad at the hotel across the road from your office and said he saw Noah leaving your building.” It was the only way I could think of broaching the subject without upsetting my father or letting him know I was there too.
Matthew’s eyebrows lifted with surprise, but his features quickly returned to neutral
“Why would Noah have been in my building?” he asked calmly.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Wes had this crazy theory that he went there to see you.”
My father raised his eyebrows slightly once again. “That really is a crazy theory,” he said. “If Wes saw him there, I’m sure it was just a coincidence.”
I watched him closely, trying to gauge what he was thinking. I couldn’t really figure him out.
“Yeah.” I laughed awkwardly. “That’s what I said too.”
In truth, Wes had suggested it was all just a coincidence. I was the one who couldn’t stop wondering why Noah was there. I was still questioning it. Despite all of my father’s honesty tonight, I had to wonder if he was still keeping things from me.
