Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I was supposed to be a living doll, pretty and silent.
I was born and bred to look good on the right man’s arm, raise his children, and further my family’s reach.
This was too much. Reid made me want too much.
I had to get rid of him before he destroyed everything.
CHAPTER 9
CHARLOTTE
“Father? Do you have a minute?”
His intense gaze flicked to mine in the mirror before returning to his task. “I’m late for this damn fundraiser to save the pigeons or some such nonsense.”
His jaw tightened as he yanked on the end of his incorrectly tied bowtie. “I hate these damn things.”
I stepped forward and slipped between him and the mirror. “Let me.”
We stood in silence for several moments as I adjusted one end to be a bit longer than the other and flipped it over the other end.
He tilted his head back as I brought it up through the loop.
I studied his face.
Usually, I was so focused on the stern, businessman side of him, or the distant and cold father, that I forgot he was actually a very handsome man.
More than one girlfriend from school had repeatedly referred to him as a “daddy”. Although even contemplating that was super creepy, I could see their point.
He was an older, more distinguished version of my brother with his sharp features and imposing height. Despite only being in his mid-forties, his thick hair had hints of silver, giving him a handsome, yet formidable appearance.
No wonder people cowered whenever he entered a boardroom.
He was like a Bond villain without the British accent, especially dressed in a Saville Row bespoke tuxedo.
As I folded the black silk to create a bow shape on the right end, he remarked softly. “Your mother used to do this for me.”
A lump formed in my throat. My vision blurred briefly as I focused on my task.
There it was… my mother. The invisible haunting force that would always be between us. Although an arranged society marriage, it had been a love match. They married very young when my mother was barely out of finishing school and when my father was still at university in London.
My brother was a honeymoon baby. Then they had Olivia straight after that. They were a very happy young family.
Until I came along.
I knew it was stupid to blame myself. I was just a baby. It was a hemorrhage during labor. Her excessive bleeding decreased my oxygen. The doctors had to make a choice.
My mother told them to save me.
My father told them to save her.
Barely in his twenties, he had become a widower with two young children and a baby to care for. Except he didn’t. He foisted us all off on a succession of nannies and retreated behind an icy wall.
A wall that never thawed.
“Where did you learn to do this?”
I shrugged. “Youtube.” The real answer was one of the faceless nannies he had hired over the years.
Unlike in the movies, there had been no gentle bonding with a kind-hearted, matronly woman who treated us like her own.
A nanny position in the illustrious Manwarring family was treated like a dating game. There was one young woman after another who would pretend to be caring for us while outrageously flirting with my father, hoping to be the next Mrs. Manwarring.
The nanny when I was twelve had even gone so far as to sneak into my father’s bed naked. Another crashed a party at our house after drugging us with Benadryl instead of watching us and told all the guests she was my father’s future fiancé.
He’d ignored them all.
After pinching both folded ends and pulling to change the size of the bow, I stepped back.
My father studied his reflection as he adjusted the bow. “Very impressive, Charlotte.”
“Thank you, Father.” I took a deep breath as I twisted my fingers in front of me. “Father, about the bodyguard you hired.”
He shrugged into his tuxedo jacket. “Reid? Fine man. A former non-commissioned officer in the Marine Corps. Highly skilled.”
My cheeks burned. I knew he was referring to Reid’s security skills, but I was thinking of his other skill. “Yes. Of course. I was wondering if maybe you could assign someone else?”
He turned sharply as his dark brown eyes that so closely matched my own scanned my face. “Has something happened? Was he inappropriate with you?”
I wasn’t stupid enough to think this was fatherly concern for a cherished daughter. It was more like examining an expensive car for a scratch in the finish.
I gripped my fingers harder. “Nothing like that. I just think it would be more appropriate to have a woman guarding me, given the intimacy of it.”
His gaze narrowed. “I hadn’t considered that.”
Warming up to my argument, I leaned in. “You know how the press likes to make up stories. I would hate for there to be any salacious gossip or some trumped up scandal because someone captured a photo of Reid and me together and made nasty assumptions.”