Cesar
"Where is all of this coming from? I asked you for a favour, you agreed, and then all of a sudden you're pushing Casey from left to right. That is why I inquired about it."
" Really, is that all? Is she your little spy? Did you—do you want me to hire her so that she can start spying on me at work and giving you back details about what I'm doing at the company? Are you scared to leave your company in my hands?" I smiled and continued,
"I knew you couldn't just give me the company, just—leave it in my hands like that."
"Caesar, I don't know where you're getting all of these things. I gave you the company because I trusted you, you have proved yourself. You started your company on your own from the ground up. It was a no-braining decision."
"Really? Because right now it feels like you're trying to undermine me. It feels like you're trying to—"
" Caesar, you listen to me," Leonard said, his tone was starting to get serious as if something was about to actually happen—like he was about to take the bait—before Irina jumped in.
"Please, stop, the both of you. It was my fault."
"Caesar..," she said, looking at me.
"I am sorry, It was my fault. I was the one who asked your father to find a position for Casey at the company. I didn't think it would cause this much trouble, and I feel so bad that I am the cause of this disagreement between the two of you. Please, I take all the blame. Please, if you want to blame someone, just blame me. But your father, all he wanted to do was help. That was it."
"You're apologizing to him? Why the hell are you apologizing to him? That is my fucking company. I gave it to him. In fact, he's still under my supervision as the contract states, so why the hell are you apologizing to him? Do not apologize to him. You only make him big, big-headed."
"Really? Big-headed? So, what? Do you think that me taking my young, unique company with a lot of young innovation, and mixing it with your old piece-of-ass company is you helping me? You think you're actually helping me? You think you're actually doing something noble? You think that this can make up for all the years that you neglected me, for all the years you acted like I didn't exist? You think that it gives you a clean slate?"
I couldn't help it, but laugh again at his mediocrity.
"I did not think that it would buy you or buy your forgiveness. I was not buying your forgiveness." he tried to defend himself.
"Then what is it?" I asked him.
"It is your legacy. It is my legacy. I thought it could be your legacy and the legacy of your kids. This is Blackwell. I put my blood and sweat into it for you. Okay, Cesar? For you. And you finding problems with me every time with it. If you did not want the company, you should not have taken it."
"What? So, you want it back? Do you want it back? Is that it?"
My father sighed as if this was all tiring.
And then, just before I was about to tell him to take his company and throw it where the sun doesn't shine, suddenly a young, innocent voice broke through.
"Dad, why is brother Cesar so mad? Cesar, why are you so mad at my dad?"
I looked at Victor and looked at Leonard.
All that pent-up anger, frustration… I don't know.
Yes, I was angry at him.
I have been.
I have been angry at him for years.
Years.
"It's complicated, kiddo. It's just grown-ups having a disagreement. We're gonna be fine."
"Really?" he asked, not believing a word.
"Yes."
"Do you not want to work with my sister Casey? She's really hard-working. She helps me with my homework, and she's really smart, and she's really good with numbers."
I couldn't help it—the way Victor said that. I just found myself smiling as I replied,
"I bet she is, my little man. I bet she is."
And then I stood up. "Well, I guess that this dinner is done. See you again next month."
I was just about to leave when my father's voice came again. Of course, Leonard just couldn't take anything sitting down.
"Where are you going?" he asked me. "We haven't even had our late-night drink, the two of us."
"Oh, for God's sake," I muttered, unable to stop myself. "You just want to strangle every minute of my life for your own amusement, don't you? You just like seeing me suffer?"
I came today to fulfil my monthly dinner sips with his family. I wasn't going to cause any problems. But then my father just had to pester me again and again—just coming to have dinner with him in the month with this new family he made for himself. The one that he actually gives his full attention to. The attention he's never given me.
Me, sitting there, eating, forcing everything inside my mouth, forcing it down—and then for him to do this.
"You know what? Fine," my father snapped too.
I guess we know where I get my anger from.
"You don't want to hire Casey as your PA, it's fine. Don't hire her."
"I am glad you said that," I snapped back, "because I was not going to give her the position anyway. If you would like to know, I would've kept her waiting and waiting and waiting—until she would've had enough of waiting and found herself something better to do. You're not putting a spy in my freaking office."
"All right then, there we have it. If you would've said this from the very beginning, there wouldn't have been an argument in the first place. When I asked you for this Favour, you would've just said you were not interested, and we wouldn't have to start licking your bum, now would we? I already did it when you were young. I'm not about to do it again."
"Licking my bum? Licking my... bum?" I repeated, stunned. "You've never even changed a diaper. Do you even know how to change a diaper? Do you even know when I was born? How I was born? If it was by C-section? If it was a normal birth? Do you know that?"
I wasn't done.
"You weren't even there when I was born. I hope you do better with this one," I added, nodding toward Victor.
And Victor, sweet and clueless, just said,
"He wasn't there when I was born either. My mom told me."
The room turned dead silent. Awkward for no reason and every reason.
All eyes shifted toward Victor, then toward Leonard.
And then, all of a sudden, Casey shoved her chair back so hard it nearly toppled. She stood up abruptly.
"I'm so sorry," she mumbled, then walked out of the dining room at incredible speed.
She was about to cry—I could tell.
Now, all of a sudden, every single pair of eyes turned to me. Accusing. Blaming.
"What?" I snapped at all of them.
My father sighed, shaking his head as he started to stand.
"Now look what you did. Now Casey thinks, because I wanted her to work at the company, it's her fault."
He moved like he was about to follow her. But I stopped him.
"It's okay," I said. "I'll go talk to her."
" And tell her what exactly?" Irina asked, almost sceptically.
"If I'm the one who made her mad, I'll apologize. I'll tell her it has nothing to do with her—but everything to do with him," I added, pointing directly at Leonard.
Then I grabbed my jacket and muttered under my breath, "Let me go see if I can find your runaway teenage daughter."
"She's not a teenager," Irina snapped.
Well, mother hen, I thought, but I didn't say it out loud. I shrugged. "Well, she sure acts like one."
And with that, I left the table, heading out of the dining room to look for Casey.
First stop—her bedroom. Empty.
Then I tried the obvious places. The library. The kitchen. Even the hallway near the guest rooms. Nothing.
In the end, I had to ask one of the maids.
"She's probably in the garden," the girl told me gently.
So I went. The garden was quiet, dark, and wrapped in the soft golden hue of a few pathway lights. It wasn't much, but it gave enough light to see her.
And there she was—sitting on the bench.
Still. Not crying. Not pacing. Not doing anything dramatic.
Just... sitting. Maybe taking in the moment.
Maybe trying to make sense of it all.
And for a minute, I didn't move either.
I just stood there in silence, watching her.
There was something about her that pulled me in. The way her shoulders lifted slowly with each breath, the way her eyes stayed locked on something invisible in the distance.
Then, after what felt like hours, she shifted slightly—and I think she realized I was there.
Her head turned, and her eyes landed on me.