The Fallen King | ✓

Chapter 28

~Chapter 28~

Finally, it was Christmas Day. Surprisingly, the morning went rather well and most people seemed very happy with the gifts they had received. Not to brag but I think I gave out the best gifts.

Zack and I always used to compete about who was the superior gift giver and the lack of that competition this year throbbed like a dull ache in my chest, constant and never-ending.

I did my best to push the thoughts away. Zack wouldn't want me to be upset, especially today. It was his favourite holiday after all. I had half a mind to think that he would personally come back from the dead to kill me if I didn't enjoy myself today so I put on my best smile and tried my hardest to converse with everyone like normal over lunch.

Uncle Mitchell, my dad's half brother, had been invited to join the festivities as well and he definitely added a spark of brightness to the house which had been missing. There really was no one better to add that shine than my uncle.

Uncle Mitch was ten years younger than dad and the product of my grandad's second marriage after his first wife died as collateral in a bank robbery when dad was a child. His new wife, Maya, was a ray of sunshine and she'd definitely passed that joy down to Uncle Mitch. The man was always smiling or had a stupid joke to tell. At forty, I was certainly surprised that he was still a bachelor.

She was Spanish so had given him his tanned skin and brown eyes with small flecks of green that were so different from dad's electric blue ones.

Lunch had gone surprisingly well as well. Mother hadn't made a single snide comment about anyone over lunch — in fact, she'd been civil for the entire time I'd been home — which I was shocked about, to say the least. Maybe I was slightly harsh in my perception of her but I held so much bitterness towards her that it was hard not to.

Dad had a smile on his face the entire day, the first I'd seen since Zack's passing and it was the best sight I'd witnessed in months. I looked up to my father. He'd stayed strong in so many impossible situations and somehow even managed to patch up his relationship with mother despite all they'd been through.

He was smart, kind, funny and, above all, the best man I knew. I'd gotten him a pair of custom silver cuff links shaped like our family's company logo (interlocking twin crowns) for Christmas with Zack's initials — Z.K. — engraved on them and I could've sworn I saw a tear slip down his cheek as he had hugged me, understanding the emotion and hidden message in my gift instantly.

Dad was a stoic man. He'd never been one to display much affection but the care he held for his children was obvious. Despite the fact I liked to believe I was his favourite, he was remarkably close to Zack as well. Although it was Nathan who was going to take over the company, Zack had worked with dad the closest on it for the past four and a half years.

As soon as he'd finished school, he'd joined dad in running the company. He had attended all the import business meetings and helped revolutionise the brand. In fact, it was Zack who had overseen and redone all of our marketing and given the brand the new fresh feeling it needed. He was the one who'd drawn up the initial concept for the interlocking twin crown logo we now used.

As much as Zack didn't like to believe it, he was extremely talented. He was sharp, creative and observant with a knack for leadership. He was so good, in fact, that I had a feeling dad might've given the company to him instead of Nathan but I doubted Zack would've accepted. He'd said countless times how he couldn't see himself running a business and that it was all much too corporate for his tastes yet I still felt like he would've thrived in a creative position.

If given the opportunity, Zack and Nathan could've worked side by side with Zack handling the brand's image and the creative side and Nathan managing the business and corporate side. Yet that prospect had been ripped away and I knew dad felt that harsh truth too. He wanted that for his sons; his two eldest working together was his dream deep down, one he couldn't have for himself because of the age gap and stark differences between him and Uncle Mitch.