“No.”
“How long have you known?”
“Long enough.” He rolled the glass slowly between his hands. “Lorne told me himself.” His mouth pressed into a line. “It hit harder, the truth of it, when Grant never lifted a finger when things started falling apart for me—just wrote it off as weakness.”
I remembered those months too clearly. Dad had treated Drew’s spiral as an embarrassment instead of a crisis. But that was Dad; he hated weakness, especially in his sons. Claire had been the one pulling him back together.
“And Lorne?” I asked quietly.
Drew’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly. “He always knew but wasn’t going to use it until the right moment.”
When Drew inherits the company. A final move Grant would never see coming.
“Lorne made sure I understood what would happen if I ever said anything.”
“What does that mean?”
Drew’s gaze lifted to mine, steady. “It means if I open my mouth… you don’t walk away clean.”
I knew exactly what he meant. And what it’d cost him.
“And he never?—”
“Claimed me.” The calm way Drew said it carried more damage than anger would have. “Didn’t need to.” Drew exhaled once. “He got what he wanted anyway.”
Another form of abandonment. I exhaled slowly. “That’s when everything went to shit.”
“Yeah.” The answer came without hesitation. “When you spend your entire life trying to earn a place in a family with Grant’s impossible expectations,” Drew continued, “and then the man pulling strings behind the scenes says you were never part of it to begin with… it does strange things to your sense of direction.”
I didn’t argue with that.
Drew’s gaze lowered briefly. “You and Claire dragged me out of it.”
That much I already knew. But it was mostly Claire. She was the one who had the most impact.
“If she hadn’t…” He didn’t finish the thought. But the meaning sat heavy between us. “She’s the only reason I’m still standing,” he added quietly. “And the only reason the company might become something worth keeping.”
“You’re rebuilding it.”
“Yes.” For the first time, a hint of real conviction entered his voice. “Cleaning out the rot. Restructuring the leadership. Putting people in place who actually believe in the work.”
“And Dad?”
Drew shrugged slightly. “Grant and I will figure out how to coexist.”
The phrasing was deliberate. Not father and son. Business partners.
“We’ll keep the company stable,” he continued. “Claire and I are working through most of the changes together.” His gaze steadied again. “She’s the light in all of this.”
I believed him. Mila was mine.
The silence stretched before Drew spoke again. “You know Lorne didn’t fall because of the financial records alone.”
I couldn’t let go of what Drew knew—and how.
“The investigation needed a body attached to the crime,” he continued evenly. “Someone the system could point to.”
“You were there,” I said slowly.