White Space Season 1

leaving her to clean.”
    “Okay, killer, I get it, you’re mad.” Warren chuckled and took another step back. “Let’s talk about this. I’m sorry for being a dick. Of course you have questions.”
    Jon smiled. He’d have to do the smoldering volcano bit with Warren again. This shit was working. Maybe next time he’d even bring Houser. He continued to whisper through his rage.
    “Why would you do something like that, Warren? Why are you so intent on making my life miserable? Why wouldn’t you want me to be happy?”
    “You got it wrong, little brother,” Warren shook his head, then leaned his palms behind him on the top of his desk. “Sometimes you don’t really have a clue what’s gonna make you happy. When that happens, it’s my job to step in and fiddle the dials. And believe me, some trailer park chippie living over on the far side of Seabreeze isn’t gonna cut it. I stepped in because you were born for bigger and better things. And fine, you weren’t going to work the family biz, but you’d finally done something with yourself. You made it in Hollywood! And as much as I may make fun of you for it, you know what you’ve done this last decade is amazing. Sarah was holding you back. And she refused to get an abortion. So, as fate would have it, the stars aligned, and you fucked some model and pissed her off. Tell me that Hollywood pussy isn’t so much better than the homegrown variety, brother.”
    Jon said nothing, glaring at his brother.
    “I know you, Jon. You were all ready to come back here to grovel and apologize to Sarah. You would’ve thrown your whole career away, and for what? For her? For some brat? Please. I fucking saved you from a life of utter boredom and misery.”
    Jon swallowed. “Who are you to say what I would or wouldn’t have done with Sarah? Or where we would have, or could have, taken our lives together? You think I didn’t deserve to know I was a father?” Jon clenched his fist tighter. “How would you feel if someone did this to you?”
    “To me?” Warren lifted his hand from the desk so he could point at his chest. “To me?” He shook his head. “No, Jon, that would never happen. I draw the plans of my life with straight lines, and use pencil in case I have to erase. You don’t. And never have. You refuse to use rulers because you wrongly believe that everything can be eyeballed, and you prefer using pen because you think you’re above making mistakes.”
    Like an asshole, Warren pushed himself from his desk, then ambled to the bar and poured himself a drink, knowing Jon would stand, heaving, while waiting for his next crumb.
    Warren replaced the lid on the decanter, then lifted the tumbler to his lips and said, “Sorry, Jon. I’d offer you something but I think you’re best cut off.” He took a sip.
    Jon said, “You had no right to interfere with my life. My mistakes are mine to make. I’ve done amazing things on my own. Is it so hard for you to believe I could have done them all, maybe even more, without your interference?”
    Warren laughed. “Oh, kid, you’ve never done anything on your own. Not once. Business is business and us Conways are our best assets. Your life must be managed like anything else in the portfolio. You think you got ‘discovered’ in Hollywood? That you made it on your talents, alone? Please, brother. Dad made calls and got you in the right doors. Hell, I made calls to clean up your many little messes each time you pissed someone off over the years. The Conways are the only thing that stood between you and your self-destruction, so don’t come in here all high and mighty like you’ve been wronged. We made you. We saved you from yourself.”
    Jon was seconds from unleashing a bottomless fury on his brother.
    Warren would be lucky if Jon didn’t leave the Gardens with Warren bleeding out from a shard of shattered decanter. He felt himself shaking so violently, and from places he’d never shaken before. Warren’s next words would determine whether he ended the evening with breath in his lungs.
    Jon growled, “Dad would never stand for this.”
    Warren looked surprised. He blinked, then took a step back. “Stand for what?”
    “Any of this. What you pulled with Cassidy and Sarah, treating me like a pawn on a chessboard. None of it.”
    Warren had the nerve to start laughing, first soft and quickly loud.
    His broken cackle might have been enough to end his life all on its own, but then he caught his breath and