Chapter 1 - DAD
Ryan Mercer swung the wooden cane across Franklin’s upper back.
Franklin folded forward with a sharp gasp.
Before he could straighten, Ryan struck him again across the shoulder.
The sixty-four-year-old dropped onto one knee outside the glowing entrance of Bell & Ash, one of Chicago’s most expensive restaurants.
Luxury sedans lined the curb.
Valets stood frozen.
Guests behind velvet ropes stopped talking.
Ryan laughed.
“Filthy old beggar.”
Franklin’s dirty gray coat hung loose around him.
The battered knit cap covered most of his white hair.
His beard had been allowed to grow wild for weeks.
He looked exactly like what Ryan believed he was.
Disposable.
Franklin pushed against the pavement.
Ryan stepped closer and struck him once more across the upper side.
Franklin collapsed back down.
“Broke. Dirty. Pathetic.”
Brooke Palmer laughed behind Ryan.
Franklin looked at her.
Elegant black dress.
Diamonds.
A woman enjoying cruelty because the cruel man beside her was rich enough to make cruelty look socially safe.
Ryan tossed the cane aside.
Then removed a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet.
He waved it in Franklin’s face.
“This what you want?”
Franklin said nothing.
Ryan crumpled the bill and threw it onto his chest.
“Take the money.”
The bill slid onto the pavement.
“And shut your mouth, old man.”
Franklin stopped trembling.
Not because the pain disappeared.
Because something inside him had become final.
He stood slowly.
Straightened his torn coat.
Ryan frowned.
“What are you looking at?”
Franklin removed the knit cap.
Then pushed back the white hair he had let grow across his forehead.
Ryan’s expression disappeared.
Not softened.
Vanished.
His face drained white.
He stumbled backward.
“Dad…?”
Brooke stopped smiling.
The bodyguards froze.
Guests went silent.
Franklin looked directly into his son’s face.
He had imagined this moment for three weeks.
In none of those imagined versions had Ryan been holding a cane.
Franklin bent slowly, picked up the crumpled hundred-dollar bill, and unfolded it.
Then he placed it in Ryan’s breast pocket.
“You’re going to need it.”
Ryan’s lips parted.
“For what?”
Franklin looked toward the restaurant doors.
Inside, a private dining room was waiting for Ryan’s announcement that night.
The announcement that he would become chief executive of Mercer Urban Holdings.
Franklin said:
May you like
“For the cab ride home.”
And then the chairman of Mercer Urban Holdings walked past his son into the restaurant.
