“Ah, shit,” I muttered under my breath, entering Dad's new bedroom.
It was the IV stand and the EKG machine I saw first, then I was hit with the scent of lemon pledge and a concoction of chemicals that I'd never be able to name. A nurse stood next to his new deluxe hospital-style bed and marked down his vitals on a clipboard.
All of the new sensory information smashed together creating a gray sludge in my head. None of it made any sense. The room and the experience of coming home was more or less familiar, but completely alien at the same time. It was like when a character was suddenly replaced by a different actor on your favorite TV show.
I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad.
“Lucas, come on in.” Dad was bare to the waist and looking tired. He usually kept a figure whose jolliness rivaled Santa Clause and now… Well he was thinner than I'd ever seen him, and it scared the hell out of me.
“Hey, Dad.” I slowly stepped into the room; careful not to knock any wires lose. The nurse flashed me a respectful smile as she walked past. No doubt to give us a moment to ourselves. “How're you feeling?”
“With both hands.” He smiled, slowly pushing himself off the bed. For being an industry giant he was always surprisingly quick with a few bad Dad jokes. He put a shirt on, then clasped his hands over my shoulders and looked me over as if seeing me for the first time in a decade.
Dad and I weren't super close, but we still talked occasionally. After Mom died we all stopped doing the holiday get-togethers. It was amazing how much she held the family together.
There was never any reason to come home anymore, but I'd still see Dad a few times a year whenever we both happened to be in the same cities. He'd usually take me out to dinner and tell me about some new breakthrough in medicine or technology his company was working on.
“How have your jokes gotten worse over the years, Dad?”
“Practice, my boy.” He patted my shoulder. “If it's worth doing once, it's worth doing—”
“A thousand times.” I smiled cutting him off. He'd probably told me that around a thousand times too. It used to annoy the crap out of me, but this time I was glad to hear him say it. It made this whole experience feel more normal.
“It's good to see you, Lucas.” He hugged me and I hated how far my arms were able to wrap around him.
“You too, Dad.” My voice broke off at the end. My eyes started to water like I’d been punched in the nose. Again.
Shit. I wasn't prepared for any of this. I thought I was coming back to hear that he was getting remarried or something. I should've known better. Mom was the only one for him. I'd never seen him with any other women after she died.
King men only ever fall in love once, and when we do, we fall hard.
The only exception to that was Richard. He’d never fallen in love, at least not to my knowledge. I wasn’t even sure the corporate robot knew how to spell the word love.
We broke apart when the nurse came back in with a tray of steaming food. Dad made his way to the wall of windows, dragging the wheeled IV stand behind him like he was leading a child, then put a hand on the glass.
It was only then that I realized why it was this room instead of any of the others. From here he could see all of Caldwell Hope.
With his factories and his charity work; a lot of families depended on him. It was more than just that though, he put this place on the map and had the biggest hand in its growth. It was obvious that he cared a great deal about the people here.
He still thought of it as his city.
He was their protector.
“How bad is it?” I asked the nurse. She hesitated, drew in a deep breath, considered her words, then just frowned. Dad didn't bother to turn back around.
Jesus... my stomach twisted. I had spent so much of my life actively trying not to give a damn about anything and all that training was undone in but a few moments of tense silence.
I was really worried.
Richard walked in a moment later. All the elitism and disapproval he'd thrown my way earlier was gone. There was only an uncharacteristic graveness in his features, which bordered on genuine sadness. Then he looked at me, “It's bad.”
Chapter 4
Richard
“You've got to be kidding.” I was as stunned as if I'd just grabbed a live electrical wire. “You want us to do what?”
I knew the terms would be… unconventional, but this was insane!
“You heard me.” Dad was still facing out the glass door that led to the back yard. “The first of my sons to produce an heir will receive all of my assets and fortune. The other gets nothing. Not one red cent.”
Dad turned back to us, stopping at Lucas first who was leaning against the wall near his bed. “Lucas, your fame has left you detached from people. You're incredibly talented, but also reckless. You need patience and something in which to be invested?”
Then he walked over to me.
“Richard, your passion for industry and self-mastery has allowed you to achieve more than I could’ve ever dreamed of, but it’s come at the expense of everything else. You need to learn to step back and see the whole picture.
“You both lack lasting personal connections and you’re too blinded by your own success to see how important that is.”
“Dad.” Lucas pushed himself off the wall. “I know I didn't turn out exactly how you wanted, but what you're asking is... It's fucking crazy.”
I shot Lucas a sour look. He was our father not a construction worker at the dive bars he's used to playing at. “What he means is leaving all of this up to chance isn't wise. There are so many things that could go wrong. This is a lot of money we're talking about.”
“Five point two billion dollars to be exact,” Dad said, as if the number was more of a burden than a blessing. It gave me pause. “Boys, I'm dying and the only way this family survives is through children.
When you really boiled it down, money just meant options. How could billions of options ever be a bad thing?
“I don't like talking about this, but let's get it all out on the table,” Lucas said. “What happened to the will you had while Mom was alive? Fifty-fifty split between your surviving heirs. That was fair.”
“Fair?” What did Lucas know about fair? I was the one that went on to college, then grad school. I worked my ass off to continue and grow the King legacy. “Where have you been these last ten years? In no universe is getting high and plucking your guitar worth two billion dollars.”
“You know what happened, Dick,” Lucas growled. “I had to leave.”
“Yes, I know why you left,” I turned to give Lucas my undivided attention. I hated that damn nickname. He matched me with a scowl. Lucas leaving when he did was the only responsible and selfless thing he’d ever done. That didn’t give him a free pass to act like an asshole the rest of his life. “But tell me again why you never came back?”
“You—” Lucas stepped toward me, his hands balled into fists.
“Boys,” Dad interrupted.
“Now don't get me wrong.” I continued anyway. This was a long time coming. If we were putting everything on the table, then this needed to be addressed as well. “I think Lucas is entitled to something, but half was always insane. We should use this time to consider a percentage more in line with his contribution to the King brand.”