Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
“I was angry with you at one point because I thought you told him, but when I calmed down, I knew this wasn’t your doing. I can’t believe she agreed to be his mistress. I…your mother…”
“Don’t worry about my mother. She left him years ago for a reason and is happily remarried to a billionaire banker and living in Texas.”
“Maybe because of my mother.”
“If that’s what it took, that’s a good thing. She should have left years before that. I’m sorry, Alana, but your mother needs to do the same with your father. Do I even want to know how this led to leaving law school?”
“I went to your father. What else could I do?”
“He didn’t—”
“No. I never gave him the chance to make the same offer to me. And I would have never, ever have slept with him. Right out of the gate, I told him no one was sleeping with him anymore. I told him I’d go public with his blackmail. He said I wouldn’t, but I was desperate. I would have. What did I have to lose?”
“Your future. You agreed to pay him back,” he assumes rightly.
“I did, and with ridiculous interest. And then I joined the company, sold real estate like crazy, determined to go back to school.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Every other time I closed a big deal, my father gambled it away.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t find me, and don’t tell me you tried. You didn’t try hard enough. You know I would never let this shit happen to you.”
“I was young and stupid, and unfortunately signed a contract. Either way, I don’t know if all of this could burn you if the press got hold of it, and I’m not talking about just Mary. I’m talking about the board. Your father could try to paint me as a problem.”
“You won’t burn me, but I will burn him. Listen to me, Alana.” His hands come down on my shoulders. “I was already going to talk to you about the loan. And please don’t fight me on this, but I’m going to pay off the interest you owe on the loan.”
“No. No. No.” I push away from him and point. “I am not letting you do this.”
“You can’t stop me. I’m doing it. It needs to be off the company books, or my father can turn on you and take your company. That’s a scandal you can’t endure, and it would kill your show. You won’t have a company to base it around.”
“Then surely, he won’t do it. You’re invested in the studio.”
“He won’t give two fucks if he decides it’s what he wants. If he decides he just wants to hurt you.”
“Because I’m with you and helping you with the merger?”
“Among other things.”
“What things?” I ask.
He catches my hips and walks me to him. “We don’t have much time. I’m paying the debt that should never have existed. I already planned on doing this. I was going to tell you after the fact and take the heat of your wrath again. And, yes, I was going to stay and face the heat this time. Like you, I was young and stupid back then.”
I hate that he is doing this, but the idea of this burden being off my family is hard to walk away from. “I’ll have the money soon,” I say. “I can pay you.”
“Baby, I don’t want your money.”
“I can’t let you—”
“You can. And ultimately it will all come back to me tenfold with the company. But I do have a price.”
I blink. “A price? What price?”
“Stop bailing your father out. Promise me you’ll stop.”
My fingers curl on his chest. “I can’t promise that. He’s my father, and—”
“And he doesn’t treat you the way a daughter deserves to be treated. You give up everything for him and he takes everything from you. You have to stop. You’re enabling him just as much as your mother.” He glances at the clock. “You need to go shower, and I need to go home and do the same. But there are other things we need to talk about.”
“Like what?”
“Your father. My father. All of this. We’ll talk about it all later, after the dinner, but if you tell him this debt is paid off, he could just go gamble to celebrate. I need you to not tell your parents until we talk and plan this out.”
I nod. “I know you’re not wrong. I do enable him and then I blame my mother for doing the same.”
He strokes my hair behind my ear, his touch tender, and goosebumps lift on my skin. “I need to go and so do you.”
“What are you going to do about your father?”
“Protect you, Alana, and throw him off his damn throne and into a cell if I have my way. End his reign.”