The little boy began to speak in incoherent babbles while waving his hand animatedly. I only caught every fifth word, but Chase and Dayna hung on to every single thing he said. Like they knew the shape of all of his words, even when they weren’t exactly intelligible.

  “Okay. Okay. Go back upstairs,” Dayna said. “You can spend time with Chase later.”

  “Have to?” he asked with a pout.

  “Yes, up you go.”

  She gently patted his butt, and he hurried back up the stairs, waving at us as he went.

  “Sorry again.”

  “It’s good to see him,” Chase said.

  “He’s the joy of my life,” Dayna said. “It’s good that you spend time with him. He needs it.” She smiled sadly again and then forced those emotions away. “Let’s open this up.”

  She hoisted the wine up and herded us toward the dining room. We had just crossed out of the living room when Arnold Sinclair stepped out of what I imagined was the master bedroom.

  He was an imposing man. Thick around the middle with thinning hair and a sour expression. I’d never understand why women threw themselves at him, but money made fools of so many. Plus, he had to be charming. Even if he was currently looking at all of us as if he’d just sucked a particularly tart lemon.

  “What the fuck is a Wright doing in my house?” he snapped.

  14

  Chase

  Here we go.

  “Dad, I want to introduce you to my girlfriend, Harley.”

  He looked between me and Harley and back, as if he couldn’t quite believe the words that had just come out of my mouth.

  I’d told him at work that I was seeing someone.

  That it was serious.

  That I was in love.

  And that I wanted him to meet her.

  He’d joked with me. Delighted that I was finally settling down. He’d been so happy at the prospect. Like I was becoming the man he wanted me to be. Even if that was an absurd idea. I didn’t want to be my dad. Not when I saw what he was like with everyone else. Me, my mom, Ashleigh, Dayna, Silas. We were all just collateral damage. I had no doubt that he’d ditch Dayna and his son as soon as he found someone younger.

  “No,” was my dad’s only reply.

  “Arnold, they brought us wine,” Dayna said, holding up the bottle.

  “Trash it,” he snarled.

  Her eyes rounded. “It’s a red, just like you like it.”

  But he wasn’t even looking at her. This girlfriend that was playing trophy wife. She was nothing to him in that moment.

  Fuck.

  Maybe I’d underestimated my father. I’d thought he would keep it together long enough to have dinner. That he wouldn’t be happy, but he’d lay it out on me after we left. He did not look like he was going to do that now. He was a volcano on the verge of erupting and burning everything in his path.

  “We don’t have to do this,” I said quickly. If I could mitigate the fall out, I’d do it.

  “You bring her here, to my house, and tell me we don’t have to do it.”

  “We don’t.”

  My father shot me an are you an idiot look. “What did you think was going to happen?”

  “I thought you were going to meet my girlfriend,” I snapped.

  His eyes swiveled to Harley, who stood defiantly at my side. Her chin was lifted. I knew that look on her face. Fuck around and find out. She’d used it with her own father. She wasn’t about to back down from mine.

  “Your girlfriend.” He repeated the words like they were disgusting.

  “That’s me,” Harley said.

  Dayna cleared her throat. “Maybe we should just open the wine, Arnold.”

  He ignored her again as he strode across the room to stand before Harley. Every instinct told me to get between them. My danger signs were firing rapidly. It took everything in me not to put her behind me or just walk out of that room. Maybe it would have been smarter to do that, knowing my father.

  “So, you’re the new one,” he said flippantly.

  “That’s me,” she repeated.

  “I hope you realize this is just a rebellion.”

  Harley looked dubious. “He’s in his thirties. Isn’t that what teenagers do?”

  “I suppose you’d know,” he muttered.

  She arched an eyebrow. “We’re really not here to be insulted. So, if that’s the best that you have, then can we move on and eat some dinner?”

  “Yes, let’s listen to Harley,” I said confidently, sliding my arm across her shoulders. “Dinner, Dad?”

  He was going to give. I could see it in the set of his shoulders. He wanted to be happy for me. He wanted to have dinner with me. Especially with how distant we’d been after the divorce. I had known he wanted to reconcile and used that to my advantage.

  Then, the tension returned, and my hope dissolved.

  “No Wright is sitting at my table.”

  “Arnold,” Dayna said.

  “Shut the fuck up, Dayna,” he snarled. “This has nothing to do with you.”

  She curved in on herself, pulling the wine into her body. “Oh,” she whispered. “I’ll just…”

  Then, she sniffled and disappeared into the kitchen.

  Harley took a step toward her as if she could fix the fragile thing that my dad had broken. “Don’t speak to her that way.”

  “I will speak to her however I see fit.” He lifted himself to his height. “Who the fuck are you to be critical of me in my own house?”

  “Dad,” I warned.

  Why hadn’t I realized that putting oil and water in the room wasn’t going to work out? Harley never backed down from a fight, and she had a problem with male authority figures. With good reason, to be fair, but she wasn’t going to let this go. Not after he yelled at Dayna.

  She glanced up at me. I could see the fire in her eyes. She wanted to slowly dress him down until he paid for all the shit that he’d done to all of those in his path over the years. She could do it. But it would also burn a bridge that there’d be no coming back from.

  She ground her teeth together. A moment of growth, watching her not give in to my father’s bullshit. “I should check on Dayna.”

  “She’s fine,” he snapped.

  Harley looked up at me with concern in her eyes. She did not want Dayna to be alone right now. Not after the way my dad was. But he was blocking her path. I shook my head slightly. Even though I hated it.

  “You can drop the act,” my dad said.

  We both looked up at him again. I had no idea if there was a way to salvage this, but I needed to try.

  “Dad, we did this in good faith. We’re together. There’s no act.”

  He chuckled, a disbelieving sound. “No, you’ve never been a good actor,” he said to me. “It’s here.” He pointed a meaty finger at Harley. “She’s twisted your mind.”

  Harley’s eyes rounded. “What?”

  “Don’t think I don’t know who your father is.”

  Harley’s back went ramrod straight. She clamped her mouth shut to keep from speaking venom against her old man.

  “Her dad has nothing to do with this. Can we just have a civil conversation?”

  But he wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t even looking at me.

  “Owen Wright is a manipulative, conniving snake,” he spat. “He’s the kind of man who will do anything to get what he wants, to ruin his enemies. And what are we? Sinclairs and Wrights have always been enemies. This is some kind of bullshit, twisted game that you’re playing.” His eyes narrowed. “And you’re just fucking like him.”

  Harley took a step back at the vitriol. I couldn’t think of a worse insult that he could have uttered in her presence. Owen Wright was her greatest fear. The last thing she wanted in the entire world was to be like him. Fuck.

  I physically put myself between my dad and Harley.

  “That is enough,” I growled. “You will not speak to her like that. I don’t care whose house this is. None of what you said is true. This was a mistake.”

  My dad opened his mouth, but I’d already turned, putting my back to my old man.

  I took Harley’s hand in my own and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Are you okay?”

  She was shaking with anger. She opened and closed her mouth, as if the very thought of speech might cause her to explode.

  “Why don’t you give us a minute? You can wait in the car.”

  She nodded. “That’s probably for the best.”

  I offered her the keys. “Turn Bowie on and decompress.”

  A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “You know me so well.”

  She took the keys and disappeared through the door. I waited until the door clicked shut behind her before I turned to face my father.

  A tic in my jaw was the only indication that I could barely hold myself back from decking him. I’d been punched by Wrights twice, and I’d never been as offended as the way my father—a grown-ass man—had just treated my girlfriend. I’d known it wasn’t going to be perfect. I hadn’t imagined whatever the fuck this was.

  “You’re going to side with a Wright over me,” my dad said.

  I laughed. I honestly couldn’t help it. Even knowing it was going to set him off. “Do you hear yourself? You ruined our family so long ago. You cheated on Mom time and time again. You got another girl pregnant while you were married. The board pushed you out of the public eye to hide what you’d done. I don’t understand how you think you have a single leg to stand on here. I brought Harley to you out of good faith. I wanted you to meet her, and instead, you insulted her.” I shook my head. “I don’t know why I even bothered.”

  “None of that has anything to do with what you’re doing.”

  “If you believe that, then you’re delusional.”

  My dad crossed his arms. “So, we’re going to ignore the fact that she looks like a teenager. You’re coming after me, and yet like father, like son.”

  I had no words for that. How I’d spent so long without the girl of my dreams to not be like my dad. And he was still throwing it in my face.

  “I’m not here to argue about Harley. You wouldn’t be throwing that at me if you thought the fact that you’re dating women half your age was okay,” I snapped back at him.

  His nostrils flared. “You’re going to judge me? With that girl in your bed?”

  “That girl is a woman in her twenties. I wasn’t married,” I yelled back. “I didn’t have kids. I didn’t have a life with someone else. Don’t you dare compare Harley to what you did.”

  “You can’t be with her,” he said instead.

  I blinked. “You have no control over that.”

  “I’ll disinherit you,” he threatened. “I’ll give it all to Silas.”

  I saw red at the suggestion. I didn’t fucking care about the money, but the very idea that he could strong-arm me with money was absurd.

  “Fine,” I snarled. “Do it! For all I fucking care, Dad. I’m done with this conversation.”

  I turned and headed toward the door, but he followed on my heels.

  “Don’t you dare turn your back on me!”

  “Why not?” I called over my shoulder. “You turned your back on all of us long ago.”

  “You can’t be with a Wright,” he yelled at me, spittle leaving his mouth as he came fully to his fury. “If you don’t care about the money, then maybe you’ll care about your job.”

  “Is that a threat?” I clenched my hands into fists.

  “You can’t work at Sinclair while you’re with a Wright.”

  “Watch me.”

  “I’ll fire you myself.”

  “No need,” I shot back. Wrenching the door open, I threw over my shoulder, “I quit!”

  15

  Harley

  Chase dropped into the driver’s seat. His cheeks were blotchy, and I could see fire behind his eyes. Whatever had happened when I left hadn’t made anything better. If anything, it had made it all worse.

  Well, so much for hoping this would go better than my family.

  His father was unstable. His anger over the feud between our families had physically altered his brain. I still couldn’t believe that he’d fucking accused me of being like Owen. The fucking audacity.

  It had only been by sheer force of will that I didn’t unleash on him. If I’d thought that it would be any good, then I would have done so. I could have shown him exactly how like Owen I could be when pushed. He’d been the one to teach me how to argue after all. I could debate with the best of them.

  But the lesson here had been when to back down. What good would any of it have done? He wasn’t going to change his mind about me or my family. And he certainly hadn’t changed my mind about him.

  Chase silently stewed as he pulled out of the gated house through the gated community and back to his house. Bowie was still playing at full volume when he parked in the garage.

  When he killed the engine, the sudden silence was unbearable.

  “What a fucking asshole,” I exploded.

  Chase nodded. “Yep.”

  He opened the door, and I followed him into the house. I tossed my purse on the table. I just wanted to rage. The whole thing had been bullshit.

  We should have seen it coming. Maybe we’d known it would be bad. But I certainly hadn’t expected this.

  “Maybe we should have just let Ashleigh tell him,” I said as I went to the record player and chose an AC/DC album at random.

  “I should have just told him at the office.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom to let Bowie out. The dog bounded out after us and then through the new doggie door. At least someone was happy.

  “Probably, but then you would have had this happen at work. That wouldn’t have been ideal.”

  “No,” he agreed.

  He leaned back against the back of the couch and crossed his arms. I didn’t know how he was so calm. But of course, he wasn’t the one who had been told he was like the person he hated most in the world. At least as far as I knew.

  “I’m sorry about what he said to you.”

  “Yeah, fuck him.”

  “Perfectly reasonable response,” Chase said softly.

  “I mean, I know he’s your father, but I can’t believe you still talk to him after all this shit. You saw how he treats Dayna. He’s never going to raise Silas. I don’t even know what he cares about.”

  “Status,” he said.

  “And you have to work with him.”

  Chase cleared his throat. “About that.”

  I turned around in confusion and realized that I hadn’t been reading him right at all. I’d thought he was furious like I was. But apparently, I had been projecting my anger onto him.

  No, he was mad. But he was also…somber. Maybe a little freaked out.

  He was slumped forward, his hands laced together over one knee. His eyes locked on his hands.

  What the fuck was going on?

  “About what?”

  “I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He coughed and then met my gaze. “I quit.”

  “Excuse me?” I gasped.

  “I quit my job.”

  I stared at him, slack-jawed. Those could not have been the words that came out of his mouth. I must have misheard him. But he’d repeated them. He had said them twice. And still, it didn’t compute.

  “You can’t quit your job.”

  “Yeah. Well, turns out, I can.”

  “Chase,” I said slowly, as if I were approaching someone who was a flight risk, “you can’t quit your job.”

  He crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you expected me to do. He was being irrational. He insulted you. He threatened to disinherit me.”

  “He did what?”

  “He thought he could win any argument, and I refused to play his game.”

  “That’s fine, but that doesn’t mean you quit your job,” I reiterated.

  “It’s already done, Harley. I don’t think you’re hearing me. It’s over.”

  I took a step back. “Chase, are you hearing yourself? You love your job. You’ve been putting up with your dad for literal years because you’ve always wanted to run the company.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess that’s over.”

  “What? Why? Because he was a dick?” I gasped, completely flabbergasted by this answer.

  He jumped to his feet and gestured to me. “He doesn’t get to dictate this relationship. He doesn’t get to insult you and get away with it.”

  “Wait,” I said horrified, holding up a hand. “Are you saying that you quit because of me?”

  “I mean, partially,” he admitted. “He said that I couldn’t have my inheritance if I was with a Wright. That I couldn’t work at the company if I was dating a Wright.”

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach. “So, you quit.”

  “Yes.”

  I shook my head and took another step backward.

  Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I couldn’t handle this. This could not be happening.

  “You can’t quit because of me.”

  “Fine. I quit because of him,” he said with a shrug. “Who fucking cares why I did it? It’s over. I’ll go back to the law firm or whatever. It’s fucking fine.” He stomped across the room, running his hand back through his hair and making it perfectly clear that it was not fucking fine.

  “No,” I said.

  He whipped around. “What do you mean, no?”

  “I mean, no, Chase. No, you’re not quitting because of me. If that’s what you want, fine, but I know it’s not.”

  “Well, it happened,” he snarled.

  I reared back at the anger in his voice. “Watch your tone. I am not the bad guy here.”

  He closed his eyes and walked away from me. “You don’t understand my father.”

  “I thought I was one of the few people who could perfectly understand the fucked up situation you’re in with your dad.”

  “You went no contact years ago,” he argued, throwing a hand in my direction. “You gave up. You don’t have to deal with Owen. You haven’t been pandering to him for years. You said fuck it, and it was done.”

  “Is that what you think? I made a deal with Owen for law school for you. Look at how well that worked out. Shouldn’t that be everything you need to know about making the same deal with your dad?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18