Would they even care that the doctor had given him the grim diagnosis of only three years to live? At this point, he doubted they would. It saddened him to no end how much he had failed them - and he was certain that his failures as a parent had caused the distance among them all.
"Fine, you heard us complaining. We're sorry, Dad, but we haven't all been together in one room in years, so what's the big emergency?" Richard watched as his youngest child, Brielle, walked to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a scotch. She was only twenty-four years old, but she had so much bitterness inside her.
Why shouldn't she? Their mother had walked out on all of them, but Brielle was the only one who couldn't remember her - she'd only been three at the time. It made her feel as if she'd really missed out the most. Lance had vague memories, as he had been five, but Tanner, Ashton and Crew remembered the most. The kids were all two years apart, his ex-wife having produced them almost on a strict schedule.
Soon after Brielle was born, Suzanne was done being a mother and left them without ever turning back around. Richard had been too busy for years to date another woman, and when he'd tried, it had always been disastrous, since he'd been too exhausted to put forth any real effort. Eventually, he'd just given up.
He'd been wealthy and worked long hours to become even richer, leaving the children with nannies during the day. Yet he'd felt guilty enough to stay home in the evenings and on the weekends so he could spend as much time as possible with his offspring.
It was only when they'd gotten older that he'd started working even longer hours, and that's when they'd begun to drift away from him. He just hoped it wasn't too late to reverse the damage.
Now, here he stood in a room with grown children ranging in ages from twenty-four to thirty-two, and he didn't like them. He loved them, as he always would, but they'd become selfish and spoiled, and even worse - entitled.
"You've all been cut out of my will and I'm freezing your trust funds."
Richard watched as, slowly, each of his children turned toward him with varying expressions of disbelief. Of course it was Crew who finally cleared all expression from his face as he stood taller and faced his father.
"Do you care to elaborate?"
"My parents were hard workers their entire lives. They built not only one medical practice, but two. They scrimped and saved, and gave me a good education. When they passed, I was devastated, but I took my inheritance and I created something both of them would be proud of. Unfortunately, I've pampered and indulged the five of you, making you think that life is nothing more than one big party, and that you deserve to be handed everything on a silver platter. Well, that stops today. As I've just said, you've been cut out of my will. Your trust funds are frozen, and your credit cards canceled -"
"You can't do that!" Ashton shouted.
"I can and I have. You can leave the room now and be on your way, or you can hear me out."
None of them budged, and Richard made sure to look each child in the eye. He refused to back down this time, no matter how many tears Brielle shed, or how convincing the group charmer, Tanner, tried to be. He would lose his children forever if he didn't stand firm and show them that life was about so much more than what they'd made it.
"You haven't really given us a choice other than to listen to you, have you? Is this your way of saying you need some attention? You could have just scheduled a lunch date," Lance said, trying to make a joke, but the anxiety in the room allowed no break in the tension.
"You always have a choice, Lance. It's your decision whether to make the right one or not. I'm really sorry you feel that way, though. It honestly breaks my heart. We were once a tight-knit family, laughing together, speaking often, living our lives. I don't know where I went wrong, but somewhere along the way, you got lost, and now I'm allowing you to find yourselves again. I hope you do."
"OK, OK," Brielle said with a roll to her eyes. "What is this journey you want us to take?"
"I'm glad you asked, Peaches," he replied, reverting to the nickname he'd given her at birth because of the sun-kissed color of her hair, which was as stunning as the beginning rays of a sunset. Her deep-blue eyes widened at the use of the name he and her brothers had always called her. Somehow along the way they had stopped.
Brielle pulled herself together and looked back at her father with rage evident in her now-narrowed eyes. "I haven't been Peaches in fifteen years, Dad, but if you want to reminisce about the 'good' old days, then I'll go ahead and play your game."
The sarcasm and scorn pierced Richard to the heart.
"I've sold the family business. I've decided it's time for a fresh start, and I've chosen to do it on the West Coast. There is nothing in Maine to hold me any longer, and I'm tired of the tourist season. I've just finalized the paperwork on a failing computer tech firm, and I plan to turn it around. Doing that gave me an idea for the five of you."