The Pull of Destiny (71 page)

“I’m a businessman,
sweetie. Buying people off, buying companies out, that’s what I do. Now, are
you going to stand there with that pious look on your face or are you going to
tell me how much it ‘ll cost to get you out of Luke’s life?”

I pursed my lips, deciding
to stand my ground. I wasn’t about to let Mr. Astor threaten me into doing what
he wanted. Only one person could tell me to get out of Luke’s life, and that
was Luke himself.

“I’m not going to be
bribed.”

Mr. Astor nodded, much
like he had expected I would say that. “Fair enough.” He chuckled evilly. “I’ll
just watch you crash and burn. That should be fun.”

“I don’t get it,” I
started, shaking my head and staring at Mr. Astor, trying to figure the man
out. “Why are you so negative towards Luke?”

Mr. Astor did a small
double take. He was obviously not expecting me to come at him with that.

“Huh?”

“He’s smart, kind,
generous- Luke’s a great guy! So what if he made mistakes, did some things he’s
not proud of... we’ve all done that! What will it take for you to realise what
an amazing son you have?”

I was almost pleading, so
heartfelt was the sentiment behind the statement. All Luke wanted was a
positive relationship with his dad. Yet his dad was always focusing on the
worst that Luke had done. And that stony look on his face told me he wasn’t
trying to hear me.

“Spare me the theatrics,”
he grumbled, just as Faith ran into the room, her brown hair streaming behind
her. She made a beeline for her dad, a photo gripped tightly in her hand. Hope
and Luke followed at a more leisurely pace. I winced at the look Hope gave the
messy kitchen.
Sorry!

“Daddy! Look at the
picture I took with Luke!” Faith screeched, waving it in front of her dad.

Making an effort to seem
interested, even though it was obvious to us older folk that he didn’t care,
Mr. Astor looked at the picture. “That’s very nice, sweetie.”

Hope gave him a
perfunctory peck on the cheek. “How was work, dear?” she asked him.

“Bearable,” Mr. Astor
replied. He gestured to me. “I’m having more fun with Miss Sawyer, here.”

“Celsi! You’re here too!”
Faith spotted me and ran to hug me.

Hugging her back, I
smiled. “Hi, Faith!” I looked up at a beaming Hope. “Hi, Hope.”

“Hi Celsi,” Hope replied,
walking over to try and wrest Faith away from me. “Okay, Faith, time for your
nap.”

She picked up the
squirming girl and walked out of the room.

Mr. Astor’s phone rang and
he strode off to answer it.
Good riddance
.

“How’d it go?” Luke asked
from beside me.

I turned to smile at him.
“Okay,” I said vaguely, noting the concerned way he stared into my eyes.

“He didn’t try to
brainwash you, did he?”

Too close for comfort.
I wondered if I should tell him what
his dad had proposed, then dropped it. Telling Luke would only make him mad and
I didn’t want that to happen. I’m so over drama.

“Nope.”

“Good.” Luke tapped the
tip of my nose. “Coz I’d hate for you to get brainwashed.”

Giggling, I said “You’re a
trip.”

He smirked back. “Takes
one to know one.”

“I really should be
leaving,” I said softly.

Luke nodded
understandingly. “Go clean up first. I’ll drive you home.” He dangled his dad’s
car keys in my face. “I still got the Murcielago keys.”

“You show off.”

Our noses brushed as he
kissed me slowly, his arms wrapping around my body.

“I’m sorry he cut our fun
time short,” he murmured against my lips. “We can bake and make out some other
day.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Luke grinned widely. “You
better. Now go clean up.”

Luke’s Point of View

As CiCi was leaving the
kitchen is search of the bathroom, dad walked back in.

“She’s quite something,
isn’t she?” he asked conversationally.

Warily, I looked at him,
wondering ‘what now?’ It was always something with him.

“Sir?”

“Your friend,” dad
elaborated. “She’s a special case. Actually seems to like you.”

I grumbled, “I’m not sure
why you sound so surprised.”

“Well, she’s not a gold
digger, I can tell you that much,” dad continued, sounding jolly as all get
out.

“I could’ve told you
that.”

Dad started pacing like a
drill sergeant, his hands behind his back. “Are we even yet?” he asked out of
the blue.

“Huh?” I asked. I was way
too slow to keep up with dad’s rapid subject changes.

He stopped to face me, his
brows drawn together in a frown. “You’re clearly doing this out of spite.
Dating Miss Sawyer, I mean. So are we even yet?”

“What?” I yelped.

“I know you, Luke. You
love doing things to piss me off. This has got to be another stunt geared to
make me mad. Let me off the hook. This round goes to you. I fold.” His lips
bared in a creepy smile and I glowered at him, seething inwardly.

“Don’t flatter yourself,
dad. My world doesn’t revolve around you anymore.” I ran a hand through my
hair. “Sure, there was a time when I did stuff to piss you off, I admit it. But
since you don’t care what I do these days, I don’t have the energy to piss you
off anymore. Me and CiCi- it’s 100 percent real.” Dad’s eyes widened as I
continued. “No gimmicks.”

“You’re serious, aren’t
you?” he breathed, looking like he had just seen a ghost.

I nodded, just as CiCi
came back into the room, her face freshly scrubbed. “Dead serious,” I said.

CiCi put a cool hand on my
shoulder. “I’m ready to go,” she said.

“Okay.” I turned to dad,
who was still looking stunned at my revelation. “I’m going to drop CiCi off.”

To my utter surprise, dad
said, “If you reconsider, let me know,” over my shoulder to CiCi.

As I hustled her out of
the room, she replied, “I won’t reconsider. But thanks anyway.”

“Reconsider what?” I asked
curiously as we walked to the elevator.

She bit her lip, looking
up at me. “Don’t get mad.”

Not good.

Stepping into the
elevator, I said, “Okay, something obviously happened when I was gone. Tell me.”

“Promise you won’t get
mad?”

“CiCi!” I thumped my fist
on the ‘down’ button, annoyance running through my veins.

She cupped my face in her
warm hands, stroking my cheeks with her thumbs and instantly calming me. I
loved when she touched me like that.

In a hesitant but
determined voice, she told me what dad had said to her.

“Are you kidding?” I tried
to hide my irritation at dad’s meddling, but I was on my way to being well and
truly pissed off at him. “He tried to bribe you to dump me?”

She giggled softly. “I
said no.”

I hugged her close to me.
“I love you for standing up to him,” I whispered in her hair. He was playing
mind games with you. It’s his thing.”

“I don’t understand him,
though.” CiCi looked up at me, her eyes filled with a concerned light. “It’s
like he doesn’t want you to be happy.”

***

As soon as I got home from
dropping CiCi off, I headed straight to dad’s office/hide out, opened the
double doors and strode in, enjoying the surprised look on his face as he
glanced up from the dossier on his desk.

“Let me guess,” he
started, the patronising tone that I hated dominating the tone of his voice.
“Miss Sawyer told you about me trying to buy her off and you’re not happy with
it.”

I planted my hands palm
first on his desk, staring at him. “What do you want from me?” I demanded.
“Outline your master plan for my life, coz I just can’t read the clues you’re
handing out.”

Dad grinned lazily up at
me. “Feisty, Mr. Astor.” His eyes turned cold. “Siddown.”

Throwing myself
gracelessly onto the chair facing him, I said, “You never, ever show an
interest in my life, but as soon as you found out that I’m dating CiCi, you
want to mess it up for us? Why? Don’t you want me to be happy, especially with
my whole situation?”

I avoided talking about
the aneurysm with dad if I could help it, mostly because I knew he didn’t give
a damn, but on this occasion, I was mad enough to make an exception. CiCi made
me happy. Why couldn’t dad see that?

Dad eyes me severely.
“Your happiness is important, but preserving the Astor name- that’s also
important.”

“What does that even
mean?”

“It means that Astor’s
don’t date commoners.”

The snob was back in the
building.

“This Astor does,” I
announced. I was my own person. I could date whoever the hell I wanted! The
chair legs scraped against the tiled floor as I stood up, preparing for my
grand exit. “And if you don’t like it-.”

“Sit down.” Damn. Grand
exit denied. Scowling, I sat back down, glaring at the wall behind dad’s head.
“Don’t interrupt. You lost your friends because you chose Miss Sawyer over
them.”
“They’re shallow jerks,” I muttered. “I’m better off without them in my life.”

Hey, I know he said ‘don’t
interrupt’, but I’ve never been good at taking orders!

“You got expelled from
Dalton because of this girl.” Dad continued talking like I hadn’t said a word.

I shook my head. “Nope.
That’s not-,” I started, trying to defend CiCi’s part in my expulsion.

“I talked to Ahmed.” Dad
stared intimidatingly at me. “He told me the reason you swung at him is because
he insulted her. I mean, you thought that was a good idea? Ahmed, Wendy- they
were your friends before this ‘CiCi’ girl was even on your radar! And now
you’re willing to give up everything just to be with her? Do you see how
complex your life has been with her in it?”

Great. Now dad was trying
to blame CiCi for all my problems. Dumbass.

“None of this is her
fault, dad.” I hunched forward in my seat, the bright light sending a flare of
pain shooting into my temples. “If anything, it’s all repercussions from my
previous actions. Karma, dad. Nothing to do with CiCi.” Sighing, I continued.
“I still don’t know what the hell you want from me. What do you want me to do?”

“Simple.” Dad grinned at
me, the smile surprisingly predator-like. “I want you to dump her.”

“No sale.” I shook my head.
Why did he always have to kill my buzz? “I’m happier than I’ve been in a long
time. Why would I dump her? Because you think it’s a good idea? Not gonna
happen.”

Dad groaned, massaging his
temples. “Luke, you’re hardly equipped to be in a relationship at this time.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks
for the input, Dr. Phil.”

“Really,” dad pressed.
“You should be focusing on your illness right now, instead of pouring all of
your energy into building a new relationship.”

Letting out a bark of
incredulous laughter, I stared at dad. Say what now? “You want me to be all the
time thinking about the aneurysm? Really? That’s your excuse, why you want me
to dump CiCi? So that I can sit in a puddle of self-pity and cry about how my
life sucks coz I have an as yet inoperable growth growing in my head? No
thanks.” I shot dad a pitying look. He didn’t get it. “The reason I’m with CiCi
is coz she makes me forget. Even if it’s just for a little while. And God knows
I need that.” I stood up again, staring down at dad. “Now, if you’ll excuse
me...”

“I’ll excuse you on the
grounds that you think of it,” dad said, almost pleading with me.

Turning to face him, my
hand on the door knob, I said truthfully, “I probably won’t.”

Next day, Astor
penthouse.

When school was out the
next day, CiCi came over for the afternoon and, together with Faith’s help
(she’s pretty creative with frosting) we managed to bake a batch of eatable
cupcakes. Unfortunately, we also managed to eat all the cupcakes ourselves.
That gave Faith an enviable sugar high, which didn’t make her nanny very happy.
When we finally managed to corner Faith in the parlour after an extensive game
of ‘Hide and Seek’, she was whisked away for a nap and CiCi went home.

And guess who the hell
materialized from the shadows?

Yup, Mr. Nosy himself.
Dad.

Okay, he didn’t exactly
materialize from the shadows, he’s not a vampire. But you get what I mean. He
had obviously been skulking around, watching me and CiCi as we chased after
Faith.

“Luke, I have to
apologise,” he announced formally, loosening his tie.

I stared wordlessly at
him, sure that between us, we were going crazy. What the hell? Scratching my
head, I said, “Apologise for what?”