The Son Who Returned to Expose Their Shame novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Strong One
My father straightened his bow tie.
"Upstairs," he said. "Now."
The guard didn't know what to do, so he did nothing.
We rode up to the tenth floor without a word.
His office was the same. A model of the harbor under glass. Duck decoys. A framed photo of Bryce at his MBA graduation.
There used to be one of me on a sailboat at twelve.
It was gone.
He shut the door and didn't sit down.
"You want to know why," he said.
"I know why. I want to hear you say it."
He went to the window and looked out at the water.
"Bryce had a DUI at twenty-one. You remember."
"I drove him home from the station."
"A second one, with a girl in the hospital, he'd have got fifteen years. The lawyer said so that night. Fifteen. And the company would have been in every paper in the state."
"So you swapped us."
"You had a clean record. The lawyer said you'd get probation. A year at most." He turned around. "The judge wanted an example. That wasn't my fault."
"You testified I took my keys."
"I testified to what was best for this family."
"I'm in this family."
He looked at me like I'd said something childish.
"Roark, you were always the strong one. You were born strong. You'd survive anything. Bryce lost both his parents in the water when he was nine. He's fragile."
"He's not fragile. He backed over Gran's azaleas last night after offering me a quarter million to leave the state."
That stopped him for one second.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Son Who Returned to Expose Their Shame from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend