“You need to chill out, baby brother,” Nathan replied, a tinge of amusement in his voice. “I haven’t even done anything wrong and you are already attacking me. You know, sometimes I think that you purposely find issues in the things I say and do just so you can act all out like you are some righteous man while I am the sinner. Maybe it works most of the time, but it is getting old. Drop the act.”
Zayn scoffed. “Isn’t it funny how you only have the nerve to talk to me in front of our parents? You should try this when we are alone.”
“The both of you should stop this right now!” Mr. Graham snapped a little more volume in his pitch. “Zayn, could you please stop threatening your brother and Nathan, why the hell can’t you be courteous in your life? We have a guest here, a guest who is going to get married into our family. What do you suggest would be imprinted on her mind seeing you like this?”
“I don’t think there would be any difference seeing as she isn’t coming from much herself. Rina, do you want to tell them? I think it would be hypocritical of you to judge me for my words and actions when more than half the country used to think you were a shameless slut. Don’t think I buy the story about all of that being a rumor. I am smarter than that, and if Zayn wasn’t so…”
“Are you really serious or you are just plain stupid?” Zayn cut in before Rina could. “You claim to be smarter than that but you can’t see falsehood even though it is dropped right in front of your face.”
Mago sighed dramatically. “I can’t say I missed this, but I thought the both of you would have grown out of it already. Nathan, just shut up, and let’s enjoy our meal like a drama-free family.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Mago.” Nathan whipped his head around to face her. “And you should better mind who you talk to at this table because where this conversation is concerned, you are a total stranger. I am talking to my brother, and no halves are allowed in this.”
“Nathan!” Mrs. Graham banged the table hard and got on her feet. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Do you really want to know what is wrong with me?” Nathan muttered. “You are trying to give away the company that you and Dad worked hard for all your life to fucking Zayn Graham, your second son, while I have been here from the very beginning, with outstretched arms, hoping it would land in my palm. But years later, you both are still contemplating giving him for something really insignificant in return. I am his fucking older brother!”
“Okay,” his father started, eliciting a shadow of fear in him. “First of all, no curse words in my house. You know the rules, Nathaniel Graham. You want to curse, get out of my home before you unleash the rot in your tongue because I am not going to condone it. And secondly, I already told you before and I am going to repeat myself because you never seem to get it. Mago has as much right as you to do to everything and anything around us. The next time you speak to her in that manner will be the last time you see your name in my will, and a battle for the company will be most unnecessary at that moment. Third, you need to get your ass down before I say this.”
Nathan swallowed, and sat down, albeit with a grumble.
“Good. I have given you more than enough chances to prove yourself to me, but you have successfully managed to fail me each one of those times. I did not want to have to say this in front of Ms. Power here, but why not? She’s going to be family anyway and is going to find out about this sooner or later. You have been in and out of jail more times than I can count, and even the last time you came out, I had to pay a private investigator to check up on your whereabouts when you suddenly fell off the grid. That is what you have turned your father into-a person always worrying about his first child like he is some baby.”
“Dad, maybe we shouldn’t…”
“We should, Nathan! We should. You always make me circle back to this. We give you a million trials to go into ventures, but you always disappoint. I invest in you, and so does Zayn. Still, we have nothing to show for it. Yet, you want me to hand over a whole company to you and trust that you will not run it into the ground? I am not going to be that stupid.”
Rina kept mute, watching the exchange with an averting gaze. It felt like she was interfering with something private, but getting up at that moment would only worsen things.
“But Dad,” Nathan’s voice softened considerably, his eyes almost pleading. “I am undergoing certain training that would make me a better businessman. I promise. And you can’t tell Zayn that the only way he would get the company is to be married before you hand it over. He could practically have anyone out there in the world. It is not a leveled field.”
“If you had worked hard while Zayn was doing that too, rather than spend your time smoking and hanging out with the wrong crowd, you would have had that ultimatum as well. But I gave you something different, and you have never honored it.
“I stayed out of prison!”
“After going there like it is your second home. Nathan, no one is going to spoon-feed you. Now, can we get to know your sister-in-law in peace without having to condone your childish outbursts? None of us here cares about what you know or heard and I’m certain Zayn doesn’t care either.”