Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
"Your mother needs routine and rest. She needs to be home with me."
"With you?" I scoff. "This is a joke, right? You act like you give a fuck about her, but you just disappeared off the face of the earth fucking whatever flavor of the week you were on. Glad you dropped Jackie, by the way. She deserves a shallow grave."
He rolls his eyes. "You're being dramatic, as usual, Son."
I flinch and push off the bed, refusing to let him see my reaction. I can’t give him even an inkling that I know more than he thinks. After a moment, I spin back around to face him. "She should be at the hospital. It's dangerous for her to be home. She can’t receive the complete care that she needs to get better here.”
His eyes drop down to the paper now recrushed in my grip. "Where did you get that?"
I look down and remember the reason that I came here to begin with. I throw it at him and watch it flutter to the bed near Mom's feet.
He doesn't move but levels me with his stare. "Why do you have the Arturo invitation?"
I wave at the paper. "Maybe because Sebastian dragged me out of bed this morning to confront me about it? Three days for the annual meeting is all the notice you're giving this time?"
He narrows his eyes and slips his hands into his suit pockets. "The timeframe is always short on these things. We do this to minimize the chance of an attack."
"And you decide to do this now when tensions are already running high between us and the Arturos?"
He sits up a little straighter, his pensive gaze swinging around the room. "Can everyone please give us the room? We have a couple of personal things to discuss."
Great. Here comes the beating for so much as expressing my opinion.
His eyes are hard and angry, and I meet them head-on. I'm done fucking cowering in front of this man...this goddamn stranger to me. It makes sense now. I always felt there was no way a man as hateful as him could be my father.
Once the medical staff finishes what they are doing and flee the room, two of my father's goons step inside and close the door, locking us inside.
I don't give the man the satisfaction of backing down this time. "Things are tense because you decided to use and discard the Arturo princess. That's on you."
I clench my jaw and glare at him. This fucking asshole. "Pretty sure you helped with that. I could have had her leashed quickly, secured mind and body, if you hadn't decided she wasn't good enough the second you saw her."
He shrugs. "Well, then she was nothing more than a server. Good enough to fuck, sure, but not be included in the family. You’ll learn, Son, women are only useful when you need them to be. Otherwise, they are nothing to us.”
I shake my head at the hypocrisy. "And now that she's the darling princess heir, she's suddenly good enough to be included in business?"
He snorts. "No, of course not. I'm playing Sebastian. If he thinks I care, if he thinks I'm including her, he'll be content. It's the disrespect he's pissed about. Once I fix that, things will go back to normal."
I scan his face. He's fucking serious. He actually believes himself.
A laugh slips out of me, and I shake my head in disbelief. "If you think that inviting Bel to a fucking party is enough to placate Sebastian, you don’t know shit about him. He won't stop until you're eviscerated on his table and he's winding your entrails around his fork. If he accepts the invitation and shows up, it will be only long enough to tell you to go fuck yourself while he secures the rest of your allies at his side. He's ruthless, cunning, and once slighted, he doesn't forgive. Ever."
My father pushes from his seat and skirts the bed casually. I feel his guards closing in on my back. Ah, I must have said something that hit a nerve. Normal if you ask me. Such a fragile ego he has. I can’t wait to destroy him.
One of the guards' meaty paws wraps around my upper arm, and I jerk free. "Don't fucking touch me. I'm done being a punching bag for any of you."
The other guard moves to grab me, but I duck out of his hold. And right into my father's fist. It comes at my face, and I barely have time to shift so his knuckles glance off my jaw. Pain zings along my lips and neck, up into my temple. Fuck this guy.
I stand up straight and glare right back at him, meeting his eyes. Then I do something I haven’t tried since I was a scrawny kid thinking I was a man. I lash out, and my fist hits him right under the chin.