“Okay.” She squeezed my hand tight and in the next moment she was asleep. And that was when I knew for sure that I’d die for this woman. I’d do anything, anything to make sure she was okay. Without even making the decision, I grabbed my AirPods knowing I didn’t want this conversation on speaker and pushed the button on the console to dial the number.

“Are you on your way here?” my father asked me without even saying hello.

“I’m not coming, Dad.” The silence that followed felt like the calm before a storm, so I spoke before the avalanche of recriminations rolled in my direction. “I’m not flying to New York today.”

“Don’t toy with me, Theodoro Anibal, you have a duty to this family, to this business, and I’ve let you play this game long enough. Don’t think I don’t know you’re down there chasing after that girl that worked for you.”

There were so many things I could’ve said in that moment. Recriminations, rehashed old resentments, but what I wanted, what I really wanted was to be free of my father’s business. Of the machine that owned my life before I was even born.

In the last week, talking with Gio and Ivan about their plans had been more rewarding than a decade working with my father. I didn’t care about Ganas, not like someone tasked with running it should. I wasn’t its future and it wasn’t mine. Not anymore. I looked over to the woman next to me, her tired, proud face, prepared for battle even in her sleep, and I could see the rest of my life clearly.

“Dad, do the right thing and let Cecilia take over. She deserves it. She’s better than me or you. She’s the future of Ganas Corp.” I laughed, thinking about my little sister with her head for business. “Maybe even Zoe, if she wants it. I want a different direction for my life.”

“You’re doing this over some piece of ass in Texas?” my father roared, but his fury didn’t touch me. My father had lived his life his way, taken his own path, and now I would do the same. “Is this what I worked so hard for, so that you’d throw away the kingdom I built for you?”