Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
And then her father resurfaces to the detriment of all parties involved. But mostly Daisy’s.
“You’re sure?” she asks, not shouts. Her reaction is unexpected. “I mean, I had to roll with it. Play along at the dinner table. And you got to avoid telling me in a quiet room where you expected me to, what? Go off my nut?”
“It was unintentional,” I repeat harder. Yet my pulse quickens; I actually feel it hammering viciously in my throat. What is that? Worry that I’ve upset her? I push the thought away. “I should’ve told you earlier.”
“Before we made a deal.”
A deal. Is that how she’s selling it to herself? Maybe it’s better that way. She gets to keep her power. But it was blackmail. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat, which doesn’t explain how I’m feeling right now.
“No,” I admit. “I wouldn’t have told you before. It would’ve given you leverage.”
Her expression reflects her surprise. “You think I would use a child? Someone innocent in this?”
“It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. She’s not your responsibility. She’s mine. And I will do what I need to protect her.”
“Including marrying someone you barely know, apparently.”
“I know enough.” I know more now than I did. That’s not to say Lavender hasn’t been a surprise in many ways. And one of those ways is her reaction right now.
“Remember when I asked you if this was about an inheritance?” She turns in her seat to face me, her knee bent, her shoulder against the seat.
“I remember I said no, but in a way, it is. I’m trying to protect Daisy’s future.”
“Okay, I get that. But then I asked if your reasons were for something criminal. You said no again, but that’s not true, is it?”
“I’m not asking you to break the law.”
“Just lie to the courts.”
“Looks like I was wrong on both counts.” I slide her an unrepentant glance. “She should be with me, but as it stands, the system favors the father.”
“That’s the way it should be, though. He’s her blood.”
“He’s a waste of fucking space,” I grate out. “He has no interest in Daisy beyond getting his hands on her trust fund. But it’s not about the money. It’s what’s right for her.”
I never imagined it would come to this. I am not the kind of man to put someone’s needs above my own. But in this instance, how can I not? My father neither loved nor hated me. He saw my birth as my mother’s attempt to better her life, and he was right. But she didn’t get to hang on to him, on to the dream. Being a single mother in the heart of a conservative society made her life much worse.
But he didn’t give a fuck about that. Or me. And we spent very little time together over the course of our lives. Visits to England once or twice a year until I was old enough to make college studies my excuse. He never did anything outwardly to hurt me, but his ambivalence felt somehow much more cruel.
I won’t let Daisy suffer the same. She’s kind and gentle, a worrier, very like her mother. A life with her father wouldn’t be a hardship, but she would suffer.
“How can that be right? Or even legal, surely?”
“‘For the benefit of the child’ is a legal phrase that gives an executor a vast range of discretion when it comes to spending.” And Adrienne’s executors seem the type open to bribes. “Provisions for living costs, a house, transportation, and school fees are all legitimate, but at risk of being vastly inflated. Like buying Daisy a McLaren to get to school.”
“No way.”
“She currently has her own driver and a Range Rover. Her father could argue that, when living with him, she shouldn’t be deprived of the same. Which is all well and good, but it’s a slippery slope. Especially when I happen to know the asshole has already been window shopping the kinds of shit he can’t afford.”
“What a nightmare.”
“Bad enough to think she might be left with an empty trust by the time she’s grown, but it’s not about the money. It’s the fact that he’s shown the bare minimum of interest in his own daughter. He was never concerned about exerting his parental rights until he realized that custody could mean an easy street for him. Meanwhile, Daisy never asks about him when he’s not around. And when she spends time with him, she comes home quiet and withdrawn.”
“I see.”
“I don’t think you do. I wasn’t destined for parenthood, but she has no one else, and I will not let her down. So here we are. I could say I’m sorry for putting you in this position, but I’m not. I’d do it all again—I’d do worse—and I have, to protect her innocence.”