Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“You’ll not be on vacation,” my father growled.
No. Aside from my honeymoon, when had I ever gone on vacation? “Of course not.”
“This Ireland deal is finally falling into place. You will need to be available at all times for meetings and conference calls. Have your phone with you and your iPad.”
“Already planned to,” I agreed. “I want this as much as you do.”
I didn’t know how many fucking ways I could prove that to him. Nothing I did mattered. I’d graduated top of my class at Harvard, top of my class for my Harvard MBA, and worked relentlessly for the company. I actually loved the work despite the crazy hours. I was damn good at it, too.
My father looked inscrutable in the soft light. “If we lose it, it will be because of your ineptitude.”
I clenched my jaw. “We’re not going to lose the deal. We’ve been working on it all year. We’re going to put a Percy Tower in the heart of Dublin. I won’t miss a thing.”
“Well, we’ll see,” my father said, little faith in me. “They’re going to come into the city after the New Year.”
“I’ll be prepared for that, as always.”
My father just looked at me and shook his head. “You’d better be. We wouldn’t want Candice’s chump prodigy taking over.”
I ground my teeth together. “She got married without telling anyone and is claiming to be a sex therapist. I don’t think anyone has anything to worry about with Candice.”
“And why isn’t Katherine pregnant?” he demanded.
I had no answer to that. None that he’d want to hear.
“We’ve been trying,” I lied.
“Not hard enough apparently. You’re going to lose that girl, and all of it will be down the drain. She’s just like your mother,” he said harshly. “She never loved you either.”
He was trying to get a reaction out of me, but I was numb to that particular pain. My mother had left me. She’d left me with this monster… who had then made me into a monster. I didn’t need love from someone like that.
Nor Katherine’s love. She had given it away once. She would never give it to me. I’d never deserve it anyway.
I met my father’s anger with a flat stare. “I am not going to lose Katherine. Our marriage was not built on love. It’s a mutual understanding. You were the one who helped create this. Surely, you see that we have time. You’re just mad about Candice.”
My father just glared at me. I never knew why he hated me so much. I was his only son. The only son of the woman he had loved… the woman who had left. I didn’t know if he saw her in me somehow. But no matter how much of a perfect son I was, he would always look at me as less than.
“You’re not getting any younger.”
“I’m well aware.”
I didn’t need to hear this shit. I knew everything he was going to say. I’d heard it all before. This was how I’d been raised. To believe that love wasn’t a good enough reason to get married, that money was what was important, and to keep the family name and old money and virtues in one place. I still couldn’t believe he’d even approved of Katherine, considering her father had bankrupted them. But her name got her by.
I’d done my part. And it still wasn’t enough.
“If Candice can have a brat in a few months, you’d think that you could honor the agreement and secure the Percy line.”
I wanted to snap back at him. Anger burned through me. He ignited it like no one else. Not even Katherine with her brash behavior and smart mouth. My father lit me like a fuse dipped in lighter fuel.
My blood boiled, but still, I tried to rein it in. Knew he wanted it from me. “If I said that we were practicing quite frequently, would that satisfy you?”
“Just don’t fuck this up, too.”
Too.
The word made me tremble with barely suppressed rage. I’d never fucked up a goddamn thing.
“Fine,” I ground out. “I’ll go home and get started right now.”
I pushed past him and out of the claustrophobic construction zone. As soon as I was out, I felt like I could finally breathe again. If I wasn’t careful, I’d have a goddamn asthma attack. I hadn’t had one in fucking years. No way was I going to let it happen in front of my father.
I needed to get out of this house. Get away from my father. Get away from… everything.
Maybe then it would be far enough.
But knowing my father… probably not.
7
Katherine
Candice droned on and on and on about her sex therapy work. My ears were going to start bleeding. Elizabeth had excused herself from the conversation, but somehow, Harmony and I had been roped into staying and listening to her.