Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
He doesn’t seem terribly fond of his father, but I can’t help feeling sympathetic toward the little boy who must have felt so unloved by his mother. Before I can think what to say, he goes on.
“As a result of living with his mother, my father learned to hate women. He doesn’t know he hates women. If you asked him, I’m certain he would insist he doesn’t, but he does. He loathes them, wants to punish them and make them suffer just for being what he hates. He ‘loves’ my mother for being low-maintenance and gullible. He can do horrible things to vent this hatred he won’t acknowledge, cheat on her with her own friends—and he gets away with it. There’s no price to pay for his behavior. She’s not angry or even hurt because she wholeheartedly believes him when he tells her that they’re just being jealous bitches if they say something to cause trouble, trying to get between them because they’d like him to be available so they could pounce on him themselves. And for all that my father claims to love my mother, for all the years they’ve spent together, if she ever stopped being his doormat and stood up for herself, he would abandon her in a hot fucking second and have her replaced within days. Women are completely disposable, replaceable things to him, even ones he claims to love.”
I feel my face twisted in lines of disgust. I felt sympathy for the damaged boy his father was, but it sounds like he grew up to be a rather repugnant man.
Giving up his relaxed position, Calvin leans forward and meets my gaze. “I despise my father the same way he despised his mother. He has spent a lifetime mistreating the kindest woman he ever met, and she has always deserved better. She’ll never get it, though. Not while he’s alive. Even once he’s dead, she won’t know how to let someone actually love her because she’s used to him. She’s his prisoner—has been for most of her adult life, and she doesn’t even know it.” Irritation flickers in his gaze. He grabs his wine glass and takes a sip. By the time he puts it back down, he is composed again. “So, when I turned 18 and had the easy path already paved and waiting for me to coast down it, do you know what I did?”
I shake my head no.
“I rejected it. Didn’t take the money for college because fuck my father. Took a sales job, got a roommate, paid my own way through school. At the end of the day, I didn’t want my father to be able to take any credit for where I ended up. I should also mention I’m their only child.” He points at me. “That’s relevant.”
“Got it.”
“My father, he was a scientist—is a scientist,” he amends. “He’s still alive, just not to me. Anyway, he started a tech company a long time ago, got in on the ground floor. The company became enormously successful. He expected me to take it over once I finished college and spent enough time working there and learning the ropes. Legacy is important to him, and he wanted to build something for his only son.”
I have an idea where this might be going.
“I am the CEO of a massively profitable tech company, Hallie, but do you think it’s the one my father built for me?”
Pressing my lips together in a grim line, I shake my head.
“No,” he agrees. “It’s not. Because what I wanted more than wealth was to wound my father, so I put myself through school and then went to work for his biggest competitor. Once I learned the ropes there, I got promoted, and I kept getting promoted until I was right there at the top. When the CEO decided to retire, trade in the long nights for a board seat, I’m the one he chose to take over the running of his company. It’s my company now, and I crushed my father’s years ago.” Sitting back in his seat, he gazes at me, “So you see, Hallie, I’m not afraid to put in a fuck ton of effort to get what I want, even if there’s a much easier option available. We only get one life, and I’m going to spend mine having exactly what I desire.”
Our gazes are locked, mine guarded like an animal in the presence of a predator, his calm because in his mind this is just a dance. Losing is an impossibility to him, and I guess I can see why. With enough money and power, there’s not much you can’t make happen, and he is clearly strong-willed if he’s not even tempted by what’s easy and chases what he wants with such single-minded determination. This is not a man easily deterred once he sets his mind to something, and if his sights are set on me… I’m not sure how I can change that.