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“Good thing neither of you need to be here anyway, so go away” He grabbed the bottle of whiskeysince the contents of his stomach echoed the slosh of the amber liquid in the bottle

Hudson swiped it out of his hands and set it down on the bright red bar cart “You’ve had enough”

Sawyer couldn’t look away from the cart He and Clover had refinished it out on the balcony and staring at it was like dragging barbwire across his skin So he kept staring at it as a punish and a reot up and stuh”

“No, you’ll listen,” hishim in his tracks

The change in ile sense of balance could take He flung his ar with a chair and sliding down into it

Holding on to his anger since his dignity had disappeared, he glared at his mom and brother “You obviously want to say whatever it is that you’ve got on your mind, so say it and leave”

“You’re a moron,” Hudson said

“Maybe,” Sawyer said, sounding every bit like an asshole but unable to stop himself “But I’m still smarter than you”

Helene walked in between theot started, and halted in front of Sawyer’s chair Arri hi to she’d obviously come here for

“For the past year, I have been so afraid that you’d go through life without having what your father and I had—love,” she said “You’re so busy with Carlyle Enterprises and your blasted big-picture vision that you s that make life ireat After what happened with your father, I couldn’t let you make the same mistakes he did And I couldn’t fail you the way I failed hi a way to -picture plan So I began pushing wife candidate after wife candidate at you and you barely even noticed”

“Oh I noticed,” he grumbled

“Not until Clover came around,” she shot back

Having herher name was unbearable “If you’re here to talk about her, you can just leave now because she’s gone”

“We’re all aware of that,” Hudson said “Irving is a fountain of information”

To everyone but him it seemed