Joe forced himself to calm down as he knocked on the office door.
"Come in."
He took a deep breath and opened the door, greeted with a smile by his grandfather and his dad. Unfortunately he was unable to smile in return.
"Son! How nice to see you!" Nelson said. "Have a seat! We were just discussing where to have lunch."
Suppressing his anger, Joe walked into the office and sat down.
"It's nice to be able to get some work done at the office for a change. Since we opened the store, the last few months have been nothing but chaos." Nelson said.
Schuler laughed. "You can say that again, son. I'd almost forgotten what this office looked like!"
But Joe wasn't laughing.
"Is something wrong, Son?" Nelson asked. "You seem awfully quiet."
Joe clenched the newspaper in his hand. "Have you seen this morning's paper, Dad?"
"Have I seen it?" Nelson asked. "Absolutely! In fact, I-."
"How could you, Dad? How could you do this?" Joe angrily held up the newspaper and pointed to the editorial.
Nelson laughed. "Oh yeah. That was pretty good, wasn't it? Sure got a lot of people talking at the store."
"I can't believe you, Dad! I thought you loved me."
Nelson looked at him; stunned at the statement. "Of course I love you, Son! What is this about?"
"THIS!" Joe yelled, startled by the sound of his own voice. "How could you write this... these lies and sign my name to it?"
"Well, Son. You're the real owner of Fox Books, so I thought they should hear the truth from the person who knows Kathleen Kelly best."
"Dad, this is an outrage! Don't you realize what you've done?"
"I was doing it for you, son!" Nelson said.
"What, by accusing Kathleen Kelly of all these horrible things? Selling the store? Hating children? I had a pack of wolves on me this morning at the store, all asking me about some article I had no idea had been printed!"
"See? You're famous, Joe." Schuler said.
"I don't want to be famous, Grandfather! I want Kathleen! She won't return my calls or my emails... I don't even think she wants to see me again!"
"You'll be better off without her." Nelson said.
"Better off?" Joe asked, unable to believe what he was hearing. "Better off? I LOVE her, Dad! Can't you understand that? I'm nothing without her!"
Nelson laughed. "Nothing? How can you say that? Since we opened the Upper West Side branch, we'll soon be richer than we ever dreamed!"
"I don't care about that." Joe said, startling his father and grandfather into silence.
"I am in love with Kathleen Kelly. I've loved her since the first moment I walked into her store, and I'll love her until the day I die. If loving her means giving up Fox books, then so be it."
"You're making a big mistake, Son." Nelson said.
"No, Dad. My mistake was not seeing this editorial before Kathleen did. Now I don't know if I'll ever be able to get her back."
"Kathleen Kelly is bad news, Joe." Nelson said. "You deserve better."
"I deserve to be happy." Joe said. "And the only one that makes me happy is Kathleen Kelly."
Nelson sighed as Joe opened the door to leave. "You may not realize it now, but you'll thank me for this one day."
Joe wordlessly stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him, wondering if he ever really knew his father at all.