"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered."
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When Alastair Stone agrees to spend the year with his controlling father in the beachfront city of Wrightwood, California, he has no idea...
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My flight landed in New York and I felt like dying. I was heavily jet-lagged and I have survived longer flights without feeling so exhausted. At this point, I just need to sleep for days.
My phone was still switched off and no one knows where I am. The whole flight I wondered what am I going to do after I land? I cannot just go to Nathan and beg him to help me solve everything.
I know that man. He doesn't give away anything for free. He made his intentions clear on the phone. He still wants me. I need to get that thought out of his head. Even though being in New York is making me nostalgic, it is also reminding me of the life I left behind.
There is a heavy ache in my chest. I keep rubbing it but the pain persists. I have felt heartbreaks before this time the pain just wouldn't stop.
I check into a hotel and if I know my father then he'll be here shortly. He still tracks my cards, after all, it is his money that I'm blowing. I know it makes me a hypocrite. I hate him because he never really gave a shit about me but he has also always provided me with everything that money could buy. I wished love was on the stock too.
It doesn't take him long. I hear the knock on my door exactly thirty minutes later. I open the door and I'm greeted by my father. A woman is standing behind him. She is looking at me with eyes wide, lips parted in wonderment.
Yeah, I have that effect on men and women, both sometimes.
"Who is she?"
"She is my fiance and I would like to know what are you doing here? Is this one of your mother's ploys to get my attention again?"
"Honey, you are being very rude. Hi, I'm Kayla, it's so nice to meet you. Matthew has said so many wonderful things about you." I could smell a fake from a mile and this one was pure sunshine. Why the hell is she with my father? She looked younger than him, a good ten years younger. Look at me, pot calling the kettle black.
My father's expression softened after her words. I gaped at her in complete shock. Where the hell is my father and what type of black magic she has performed on him? He is listening to a woman. That's a first.
"And yet I wasn't invited to the wedding."
"Who told you that?"
"Oh C'mon. You don't have to act surprised Dad. I get it. You don't want anything to do with me."
"Are you done? This is all your mother sitting like a devil on your shoulder whispering these words into your ears I've never once uttered. I specifically told your mother that I will be sending my private jet to that god awful place you live at now. That's why I'm surprised to see you here so early. You are my only child and I want you here. I've never been straight to you about a lot of things and I guess I should have known that Kate would do something like this. That woman has no limits."
