Ryan

Ten years ago

M y father has always been a vicious man, but as I stand beside him at the altar during his third wedding, I wonder if I'm going to end up as cruel as he is one day.

"Look at that piece of ass," he whispers to me as Megan, his bride, makes her way down the aisle. Unlike my father, my future stepmother is kind and soft. She's gentle. I don't know how she doesn't see through my father's bullshit.

Does she realize he's a pathological liar?

Does she know that he'll do anything to destroy the people around him?

My dad sees money everywhere. Every person he interacts with is a dollar sign to him. If someone isn't worth enough, he'll ditch them. End of story. Megan seems to think that my father loves her, but what he really loves is that she's fallen so hard for him she agreed to sign a prenuptial agreement that his lawyers drafted - not hers.

He's going to screw her over.

Megan comes from money. Her parents are gone. They left her a fortune in their company when they died, but she isn't involved in the business. Her advisors cut her a check every month, and she trusts the board and CEO to do things above board. I'm pretty sure my father is plotting some sort of hostile takeover, and she has no idea.

And I can't get close enough to warn her.

My skin itches as I stand here with my dad. I want to tell Megan not to do it. I want to warn her that she's signing her life away, but I don't. I don't say a damn word as she reaches the altar and promises to love my father forever. I don't say anything at the reception where the top dogs from every company in Siren City have come to party.

I certainly don't say anything as I park myself at the open bar and drink until my head is swimming.

I'm 25. I've got two degrees and no student loan debt because my father knows people. I'm next in line for the throne of my father's company, and once he dies, it'll all be mine.

A girl parks herself next to me. Megan's little sister. She's smart. Unlike her sister, she isn't nice. In fact, she's kind of a royal bitch.

"Elizabeth."

"."

"What do you want?"

"The same thing you do. For this marriage to have never happened."

"Now why would you say a thing like that?" I don't bother turning to look at her as I sip my drink. Elizabeth is clever, but her parents viewed her as the weaker of the two sisters. They never had any intention of giving her the company. They believed in birth order, as my father does. Fortunately for me, I'm an only child. Elizabeth doesn't have that luxury.

"I think you understand the kind of man your father is."

Yep. He's a 60-year-old businessman who just married a 30-year-old he met at yoga. Why my father took a yoga class, I don't know. It was some sort of business thing. "Yoga for professionals." Who knows? But he met Megan and they hit it off. At least, that's the official story. If anyone asked me for the unofficial story, I would venture a guess that my father planned their meeting. He's nothing if not cold and calculating. He likely identified Megan as someone who would be a good investment and then arranged a "chance" encounter.

"I'm aware."

"He's going to destroy my sister."

I'm silent.

"He's going to take our company, isn't he?"

I don't say anything for a long time. The two of us sit there at the bar as we quietly watch the dancing and drinking that's happening in the ballroom. My father goes big with his weddings. I'll give him that much. He rented out the entire hotel for this, which means he has access to every single ballroom. He's in this one, but there's dancing and drinking in three other ones, as well.

"Isn't he?"

"Look, I'm not in charge of my dad." I don't know what she wants me to say. Is he a dick? Yes. Does that have anything to do with me? Not really. I work for him. With him. One day, I'll take over the company because that's my destiny. That's the life my father has planned for me. Who am I to disobey?

I know exactly what happens to people who get in my dad's way. My last stepmother, Jennifer, realized that he was going to make a sale that would put nearly five hundred people out of jobs. She confronted him about it, and he didn't care. When she decided to cause a fuss, he left her. Now Jennifer works at the mall and the last time I checked up on her, she was barely making ends meet.

Yeah, my dad isn't the type of person I go head-to-head with.

Not me.

If Elizabeth is smart, she won't, either.

"You say that, but you're his son. You're his favorite son."

"I'm aware." My brothers, Oscar and Phoenix, try to stay out of my father's way. They'll do just about anything to stay out of the limelight. When my dad has a new project, he sends it to me. When he needs a photoshoot or someone to talk with reporters, I'm the one he calls. I'm well aware of the fact that one day, I will be the person running his company. We all know it.

What does Elizabeth care about any of that?

"He's going to hurt her, . Staying silent isn't going to benefit you in any way." Elizabeth's voice is firm, but there's an aura of stress there. Unfortunately for her, she's wrong.

Staying silent is going to benefit me in every way. My mother is gone; not dead, just remarried. I don't have anyone who can protect me from my father. The only way to get by in this cruel, ugly world is to play his game, and I'm playing it. I have been for a long time. I know perfectly well what happens when you don't listen to Edgar Shadowvale, and I'm not going to make the same mistake everyone else does.

I have no interest in getting in my own way. I plan to not only surpass my father's expectations, but I plan to be better than he's ever been. I have something my dad never had. I have the knowledge that my mother loved me more than anything else in the world.

And before she died, she had me make a promise.

I don't plan to break it.

When Elizabeth realizes I'm really not going to help her try to save her sister from this marriage or the monster she's chosen as her man, she makes a sound of disgust, pushes back from the bar, and turns to leave. She pauses, though, and looks back at me.

"You're going to regret this, ."

And then she's gone.

Yeah. I fucking doubt it.