sinking ships - succession

chapter twenty-three

It was now the end of October and today was the birthday of her father. He was turning eighty-two. At the party, Logan kept asking Kerry if Rose was coming.

        "Is she still coming? Where the fuck is she?"

         So Kerry texted and called Rose to find out. Rose only sent a small text back that Kerry relayed back.

         "She says she's been delayed," Kerry informed.

        Logan grumbled and told everyone to leave him the fuck alone. After witnessing the whole debacle, Tom sent a text to Rose: your dad is about to lose it if you don't arrive soon

          Rose texted him back a string of angry texts.

         jesus
         can everyone leave me the fuck alone?
       I'll be there

         The reason Rose was so late was because she'd had morning sickness. She wasn't feeling particularly good. It was also why for the first time ever she wore a simple cardigan and some jeans.

          But despite being sick, she was still very blissful. She also planned to tell her father about her pregnancy. So when she showed up, she had a small smile on her face.

           When Tom saw her, he had stopped in his tracks and completely halted his conversation with Greg. His eyes had widened and he lost the ability to breathe as his heart rate skyrocketed.

           Rose went back to her natural hair color. It was the surprise she'd been planning for Lukas. There was still some blonde on the ends but her hair was mostly that natural color. Tom had only seen it that very first time he had met her and the next time he saw her, she had dyed that beautiful shade to blonde.

          Her hair was a bit more red than Shiv. It was a light red like it was cherry-kissed and it matched the natural hue of her lips.

           And despite wearing casual clothes, Rose was simply glowing with happiness. It made him a bit jealous because he knew who was responsible for it. But mostly Tom was just in awe of how stunning she looked.

"Earth to Tom," Greg waved his hand in front of his face.

"Shut up, Greg," Tom said before he quickly made his way over to Rose.

"Wow, look at you," Tom complimented. "Trying to steal all the attention from your dad."

She giggled a bit as Tom pulled her in for a short hug before she said as she threaded her fingers through the strands of her hair, "I know. I...I finally went back."

Rose said it like it was a big deal for her. Like the blonde color she dyed her hair had been a safety net and now she was letting her safety go. It was a big step for her because she had only dyed her hair because of the incident. For her to move past it was a huge step.

But in the coming days she would learn she wasn't so entirely free from it. It would always be a ghost that lingered and haunted her mind.

Then she said quietly, "I hope Lukas likes it."

"He'd be an absolute idiot not to, Rose," Tom said assuringly.

She smiled before her father called out, "Rosebud!"

"Hi, Dad," she moved past Tom to go and hug her father who also felt his eyes widen as he saw the red of her hair again. "Happy birthday."

           "Rosebud," he patted her back. "You look so well."

           "I am," she smiled as she thought of the baby. "But I don't necessary feel well today..."

          "What do you mean? Are you fucking sick?"

            "Not exactly," she said. "But Dad we need to talk privately."

            "Why?" he questioned before his voice got a bit hostile as his eyes looked discretely at the second to last finger of both hands. "Did that prick Matsson do something?"

            "No, Dad," she chuckled. "But let's just talk, okay?"

        They headed upstairs to talk in his office. She gave him his gift that would spell out what she wanted to tell him. An announcement gift. It was a watch that had an inscription and said Happy birthday to a special grandfather.

Logan gained a little smile.

"So the prick did do something," he said. "But something right. You're finally giving me a grandkid?"

She chuckled, "Yes, Dad."

"I'm happy for you, Rosebud," he stated with a smile. "Very happy."

Then he asked, "How far along?"

"Early. I only just found out," she informed. "And I've just been feeling sick. I think I'm probably going to leave early because of it. Is that okay?"

"Of course, Rosebud," he said before he smiled. "I feel obligated to give Matsson a good scare. Jerk him around a bit. I should tell him I'm backing out of the deal, no?"

"Dad!"

"It'll just be a little joke, Rosebud."

"Dad, no...."

_____

Her father did not call Lukas. She was ever so relieved. She wondered how she ever even survived dating with her father in her life in the first place.

Rose did end up leaving early because she started to feel sick again. She did stay and greet Connor. Then she talked with Tom again who made her laugh because he told Greg there were cameras everywhere and he had to come clean to Logan about how he did the nasty with a girl in an upstairs room. She couldn't stop her giggles as she watched Greg from a distance tell her father what he had done.

And that was when she started to feel sick and she left. She missed the whole event of her father competing with her siblings to buy PGN. She didn't particularly care about it anyway and her siblings trying to buy PGN just to get one over on their father after months of having another business plan was so childish.

She was glad she didn't stick around for that. At home, she was sick again briefly. But then she laid in bed and fell asleep talking to Lukas on the phone.

AN: so I was able to get one update out today because I didn't have a lot going on in this episode and I skipped class today to wait for our clinical instructions so enjoy

Also I planned out all the chapters and this story will have 34 chapters including the epilogue