Lyndon Bloom
WESTLEY
CLOSING MY eyes, I took a deep breath the moment I climbed out of the cab.
In front of me were the perimeter stone walls covered with creeping ivy. The expansive double iron-wrought gate swung open like someone was already expecting my arrival.
Jackson, the security guard from the station tipped his head as a courtesy.
The two-story French summer house from the distance came to view with outdoor living spaces for the guests. This was where everything happened.
The same layout of the well-manicured hedges and shrubs the last time I was here. I walked into the long and wide driveways until I reached the three black SUVs and a black Mercedes Benz parked in front of the house, showing me that my father was there. Two men in suits that I didn’t recognize guarding the front door. Of course, my father was always heavily guarded like an effing Fort Knox.
“Good morning, Miss Bloom!” A mid-thirties man in a black suit and sunglasses more than six feet tall pushed the door open.
Another breath I let go before I stepped inside. The rich smell of wood and expensive perfume filtered through the living room.
My father must have let someone renovate the entire area. The last time I remembered, the floor was made of granite, now it changed into slate stone flooring. The crown molding of the curve stairways looked classy compared to the previous modern designs my step-witch-mother had chosen.
“Your father is in his library, Miss Bloom,” informed the guard. I wasn’t aware he was following me until he spoke.
“Thank you.”
We made our way to the hallway which was under the stairways. The aroma of cinnamon spice made my stomach grumble-a reminder that I missed my breakfast.
After I wrote a note for Keene, I left him while he was still sleeping in his private room in the hospital. The diagnostic evaluations were successful, but what was unnerving was waiting for the results. Compared to his condition last week, he seemed to be feeling better.
I started chewing my inner cheek the moment my father said to come in. How could I forget that deep voice? The guard left as soon as he pushed the thick door open, leaving me alone to meet the monster from my past. I quickly lost all the long speech I prepared to say now I was about to face him.
My knees weakened and my heart flipped over the moment our gazes locked.
Lyndon Bloom was in a three-piece suit that was tailored to fit his always physically fit body for a mid-fifties like him. He slowly rose from his seat with slightly wide eyes and a half-opened mouth as if he was shocked to see me walking in toward him in the flesh.
Well, I wasn’t expecting this.
I should be feeling happy at one point in my life that I was finally here with him because I never thought I’d live to say this day, but I didn’t feel that way. Anyhow, it was bound to happen.
Trace stood up and genuinely smiled. “I’ll leave you two alone.” I didn’t even realize he was with my father until he spoke.
My father merely nodded as he kept his gaze pinned on me.
“Thanks for doing this. I owe you one,” Trace whispered and kissed my cheek before he walked out of the door.
Something deep inside me twisted the moment Dad stepped forward, closing our distance-it was guilt or something that I wasn’t expecting to feel now he was at arm’s reach.
He took a deep breath and pulled me into a hug. “I missed you so much, my little girl.” Dad was squeezing me, and I was just there freezing in my place, and I could not say back how much I missed him.
The entire situation was like a dream. It couldn’t be real because the last time I was in front of him, I was begging, and all I could see was the disappointment and disgust showing on his face, anger flaring his eyes. Right now, it seemed surreal. Maybe people were not always who they appeared to be.
Maybe in some twisted fate, he still cared for me.
“I couldn’t believe I would be able to hold you in my arms again, Harry.” He pulled himself away, cupped my face, and took a look at me. His icy-blue eyes glittered with unsaid thoughts. He kissed my forehead. “You looked different, my little girl.”
The last time I heard him calling me like this was when I first rode a horse without falling. He was so proud of me, and I was his most priceless gem until Harlow came into our lives. In a blink of an eye, my life fell apart.
“Good to see you, too, Dad.” I stepped toward his desk-the same desk where I asked him to believe me that I did not sleep with Trace, but he never bent his twisted belief to give me a shot even I begged him with my life.
Walking into this place again hurt me so terribly-everything that night came reminiscing back like a skin disease-the more you scratch, the more it itched. All the hurtful words and the disgusted look they threw at me was just like yesterday.
And here I thought Harlow was on my side-I was utterly wrong. She did those things to get rid of me. How could I be so blinded by my judgment? How did I miss those clues? I was completely blindsided. If I slept with her fiancé, then why she didn’t even hate me?
I wandered around. The paintings were the same-they were Mom’s favorite. The only things missing were those picture-perfect family photographs that those bitches were in. Dad seemed to believe now that they were all after his power and wealth.
“How are you, Harry?” he spoke again. I could feel the hesitation in his voice-I guessed his guilt was eating him up. Good to know he had still emotions left in him.
I couldn’t believe I heard the name again that I loathed. I had been Audene Westley for three years, and now I was back to Harriet Audene Westley Bloom again.
“I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”
“How’s Keene? I heard he’s in the city for treatment.” Of course, now he heard everything about me. He wasn’t blind and deaf anymore.
I tried hard not to roll my eyes because everything he said seemed absurd.
“He’ll be fine.”
“Let me help him.” He did this for a living. People believed in him, trusted him, and respected him. To the public eye, my father was portrayed as a perfect man, a perfect husband, and a perfect father, but what they were not aware of, was that daddy dear had his imperfections to the core. He couldn’t even solve and face his own family problems, but being a public figure, he hired someone good enough to hide his family’s little dirty secrets to make his name clean as a whistle.
“I don’t need your help.” I could be so lucky right now, but I couldn’t feel the luck-it was a curse. I knew he wouldn’t just hand it to me without a catch.
The face of a shocked and hurt Clyve came flashing right to my sight. Despite what happened between me and him, he had a word of honor, and that was what I admired in him the most.
Still, it was a slap that in a freaking heartbeat, Clyve left.
I felt the searing pain-the pain that I thought I would never go through that again. It hurts so much, knowing that no one will ever stay with me when things get tough.
I faced my father. “I didn’t come here to reconcile or to have a little get-together with you-to catch up for those years we missed, or to feel sorry for being a Bloom’s little spoiled brat, and for ruining your reputation, father.”
His face contorted with pain. I did not notice his graying hair was cut shorter than he usually preferred. He must have changed his hairstylist too.
“I came here to taunt you. To blame you. To let you realize what huge mistakes you’ve done over the years,” I added.
“I know I wasn’t the best father you wished you have-” Ridiculous!
“I did not wish for the best father. All I wanted was, to have a little attention from you since I didn’t get it from Mom. Anyway, it’s too late for that. You can still find a new wife and a new stepdaughter to shoot a perfect family photo and a perfectly functional family you wished you had.”