tricks of time ― grayson hawthorne [the inheritance games]

006. ENEMY ONE

The car ride home was a silent one. The tension was too thick, too much, and I couldn't do this. For the first time in several years, I was ready to admit defeat.

"You were right," I spit out sourly.

He turned to me, jaw clenched. "What?"

"You were right," I repeated. "I'll probably be gone within the week."

I felt like he wanted to say something more, but he wasn't.

"Where is his prison?" I stared back at him. I'd never been this close to him.

"Why do you care?" I snapped at him.

He loosened his tie, unbuttoning a couple of the top buttons.

"Don't argue with me, Leah," he said, his voice tired. "I'm so tired. I'm so tired of all of this." He rubbed his eyes, then his jaw.

My gaze was glued on his features. And I couldn't stop staring at him. In a manner I'd never ventured before, I studied him.  Golden hair, flawless complexion, and eyes that are much too brilliant for their faded grey tone. His face is too exquisitely handsome. It's the type of face that, in a sense, scares you. It's almost irritating in its perfection, with its lines, angles, and simple symmetry. That is a face that no one should have. It's been done to death. It's too much, too lovely.

"I'll never understand why my grandfather disinherited his children." Grayson didn't sound quite like himself. He sounded too warm, too gentle, too disheveled. "Why he gave it to you."

There was an awkward pause.

"I never knew my father," he added. "Skye...she sought my father out. He slept with her out of spite. God knows why Skye did it, but I was the result. Of course the old guy was embarrassed. Embarrassed of his daughter, embarrassed of me."

I felt my tone go soft. "You don't know that."

He chuckled bitterly. "No, Leah, I do. He never showed up to the hospital, the day I arrived. He never taught me those puzzle sequences he always constructed years ago. He didn't show up to any of my graduations. You know, he hadn't told me he loved me a single time in my damn life."

"The old man disinherited the entire family around the time I was conceived." Grayson steeled himself against that truth even as he said it. "Was I really the straw that broke the camel's back?"

This was Grayson Hawthorne, showing weakness. I wanted to tell him, you don't always have to bear the weight of the world— or your family— on your shoulders. But of course I didn't say that.

"I'm sure...I'm sure the old man loved you," I said instead. Based on what he'd told me, I wasn't sure about much when it came to billionaire Tobias Hawthorne. "You and your brothers."

He shook his head at me. "I was the heir apparent. I was supposed to get all of it. I was his chance to do something right." Grayson's voice was taut. "And look how disappointed he was in the end— in me. So much so he disinherited his whole family. And it was all my fault." His voice slowed as he went on talking.

"That's not true," I said, aching for them. For him. I felt clammy. Trapped, in my own skin.

"How do you know?" He asked me in a whisper, finally meeting my eyes. "You have everything now." His voice became more put together, more cold again.

I'd inherited his fortune. I was living in his house. His grandfather had chosen me. He must've sensed my apology coming.

"Don't say that you are sorry." Grayson stared at the window a moment longer, then turned to face me. "Don't be sorry, Leah. Be worthy of it."