Chapter 5 One Job

• The dreaded phone call turned into one of their ugliest fights when Levi informed his parents he had nothing new to report.
• "What do you mean you didn't find her? What the hell were you doing for the last three months? No doubt fucking random whores in shady hotels. You were always irresponsible. You only had one job, Levi—to find your sister!" Charles Leviticus Van Holt Senior went berserk on him, accusing him of all sorts of crazy things, including being the most incompetent son in the world.
• Levi couldn't say he was surprised. Colleen was always the favourite child. A true daddy's little girl who could do no wrong in their father's eyes.
• She was the impulsive and reckless one of the two of them. But for some inexplicable reason, her disappearances always fell squarely on Levi's shoulders.
• Cynthia Strauss, his mom, tried to defend him, but Leviticus quickly shot her down, not giving her a chance to get a word in edgewise. Nobody could talk any sense into him when he was in one of his unreasonable moods.
• Seething at his father's harsh tone, Levi sat down and held the phone away from him.
• Sure, he was not the most responsible person he knew, and he certainly wouldn't be nominated for the 'Best Son In The World' award if it ever became a thing at the Oscars. But for his father to accuse him of neglecting his brotherly duties when all he'd done for six months was pour his time and energy into finding his twin was uncalled for.
• "Father, I think we should talk some other time." Levi gritted his teeth, a sheet of red-hot anger flashing behind his eyelids. "I can't have an adult conversation with you when you keep talking to me like I'm a two-year-old. If you can't be respectful, I'm hanging up."
• Arrogant to a maddening degree and as stubborn as a bull, his father saw nothing wrong with his actions. He almost popped a vein at Levi's audacity for calling him out on his disrespectful attitude.
• So for the longest fifteen minutes of his life, Levi sat there and listened to him rant and rave about how he would personally search for his only daughter and do a bloody good job of bringing her home. But as the CEO of one of the largest hospitality groups in the country, he couldn't take time off, and that was his reason for assembling a highly specialised team to find Colleen.
• Levi was tempted to remind him that his highly specialised team had done shit for six months except steal millions from him. But he swallowed his caustic response with a quick swoosh of whiskey down his throat. The animosity between them was bad enough. It didn't need any accelerant to keep that fire raging.
• The coffee table lined with months-old tech magazines swirled in front of him as a dull pang throbbed between his eyes. He had clearly reached his limit. But he was never a quitter, so he placed his parents on speaker and finished his drink.
• "—And you call yourself her older brother?"
• That one minute of seniority was a tremendous responsibility Levi was never allowed to forget.
• "How could you not figure out she's in trouble?" his father asked as they once again found themselves at the all too familiar place, where accusations, blame, and guilt collided into an endless spiral of resentment.
• Levi had lost track of the number of times they'd found themselves at this juncture over the past several weeks.
• His father didn't understand how his 'twin radar' was so far off the mark.
• And Levi, while he pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly massaged away the mild beginnings of a tension headache, struggled to explain to him that his bond with Colleen wasn't some telepathic ability he could turn on and off.
• But as he prepared to pour himself his third shot, he was starting to believe everyone was right. He should've sensed his twin was in bad shape.
• There were tell-tale signs, things he hadn't shared with his parents.
• Levi had asked—No— He'd demanded the bastard's name. But, his twin had refused to open up, insisting the bruises and marks all over her arms and face were from her boxing class.
• He'd been through his fair share of bar brawls and knew a beating when he saw one, so he never believed a word she said.
• Someone had roughed her up.
• It could have been a boyfriend.
• Or a client, now that he knew of her connection to Dreams.
• No—Levi shook his head. It wasn't confirmed yet his twin was an escort, and his lack of proper intel on her entanglement with the escort agency was the only reason he'd decided to keep this latest development from his parents.
• "I'm sorry," Levi apologised like he'd done countless times in the past at this point in the call.
• "For what exactly this time?" His father demanded on his side, his breathing hard and heavy.
• A lot, Levi thought, but he didn't voice his regrets. He doubted his father would even care.
• He was sorry for a lot of things, though, like how he should have tried harder to reach Colleen, more so in the months leading up to her disappearance. But he was so consumed with the new game that keeping up with his twin and friends, in general, became less of a priority.
• His father broke through his million regrets and voiced his disappointment like he'd always done. "You've failed your sister and let me down like you always do!"
• And it didn't take long for him to bring up Levi's past screw-ups, starting with how he flunked his first year of business school.
• His father had big dreams for him, but Levi had smashed his heart to pieces when he pursued a career in programming and built his startup instead of taking over Van Holt Industries.
• His resentment had run so deep that he never came to support him when he launched Chassis Studios with Mark at the impressive age of twenty-three.
• "I'm sorry we can't all be perfect like you!" Levi said, but his sarcasm was lost on his father.
• "I don't need your apology! Find your sister, I don't care what you do, but you need to find her fast! Quit your job and put that stupid company of yours on the market if you have to! But I want your twin found!"
• Absolutely not, Levi bristled. He'd die first before even dreaming of giving up on Chassis. He'd poured his blood, sweat and tears into making it the fastest-growing game development studio in Rock Union.
• "I won't quit my job or sell my company!" he informed him, his voice as cold as his hatred for the man.
• "But I'll keep searching for Leeny," he added quickly before his father could lose his crap again.
• Taking any more time off was out of the question, though. As CEO, he had to lead by example. He'd neglected his duties long enough. Besides, three months was the longest he was allowed to take, and he'd already exhausted all his time off with his fruitless 'sabbatical'.
• "Good! See that you do!"
• With that, Senior excused himself from the call. He still had an even bigger fire to put out. One of the group's freight trucks had jackknifed on the M1 earlier in the day and lost its load, causing a ten-car pile-up. It was the worst road accident in the history of the company.
• The last time Levi checked the news during his flight home from following up on yet another sighting of his sister—this time in Berlin—loss of life had stood at twenty-five.
• "Honey—"
• Levi relaxed at the sound of his mom's voice. He sprawled out on the couch and rested his head on the armrest. Lying down seemed to be just the cure for his headache. He felt so much better already.
• "He didn't mean any of it. He's dealing with a lot at the moment. The shareholders have been giving him a hard time. They think the company is not evolving and innovating fast enough. They want new blood."
• Levi understood what she meant by 'new blood', so he ignored her. He'd made it clear to all concerned that he wanted no part of the family fortune, and it wasn't only because of the rift with his father. He had no interest in the hospitality industry; it would be unfair and a great disservice to lead the group when his heart wasn't in it.
• "And now this terrible accident," his mom carried on with her futile attempt to smooth things over. "Give him time. He's under a lot of stress."
• Levi smiled, a little sad to see that even though he'd been gone for three months, a lot hadn't changed, especially his mom's knack for making excuses for his father.
• "Mom, he's an asshole!"
• "Levi, you can't say that. He's worried about your sister. But he can't do much to help with the search since he's fighting to keep his position as CEO."
• "It says a lot about his priorities as a father, don't you think?"
• His mom brushed off his comment, blew her nose, and wailed. "Do you think Leeny's still alive? Why haven't we heard from her? Where is she?"
• "She'll be back. You know her. She's probably swimming with the whales somewhere," Levi lied. His twin radar may be malfunctioning, but nothing would stop his little sister from reaching out to him if she was fine.
• "What if she's not? What if something terrible happened to her? I'm telling you something bad has happened to her. I can't sense her anywhere. Call it a mother's intuition."
• "Mom, don't think like that, okay?" Levi said gently and coached her through her anxiety which could easily spiral into a full-blown panic attack if he didn't rein it in quickly. "Now, take deep, slow breaths. Hold for five seconds. And release. Nice and slow."
• All Levi heard for a little while was the sound of his mom's shaky breathing as she followed his instructions and let his voice guide her out of her distress.
• When she spoke again, she almost sounded like her usual composed self. "How are you doing, honey? Still seeing that girl, Chloe-What's-Her-Name?"
• No, Chloe Lennard left him the first chance she got. She wouldn't stick around for his bullshit.
• As the hottest new thing to hit the world of lingerie modelling, she had millions of fans ready and willing to make her their number one priority. She was way too gorgeous to compete with Chassis Studios for his time.
• The last time Levi checked, she was fucking Julian, Liam Anderson's cousin and one of the heirs to the Anderson Logistics fortune.
• Barely able to keep his eyes open and his speech more than a little slurred now, he informed his mom, "we broke up."
• "I'm sorry, honey. The right woman will come along."
• "Sure," he mumbled, but he wasn't holding his breath. Not with his track record of shitty relationships. Besides, his life was already complicated enough with trying to find Colleen.
• He hung up after promising his mom he'd check in daily.
• He'd talk with her ten times a day, any day. His father, on the other hand, was a different story. The less they spoke, the better.