He set the cruise control on the Gladiator in order to shift and loosen the tense muscles in his leg. “Do you like working for your father?”
Had his parents lived, he’d have worked for his father at some point at the gas station. He’d always wondered what that would’ve been like. And hated that he hadn’t had his turn like his older brothers. Like a rite of passage and bonding combined. Though that assumed a lot since he’d been sick so much of the time while they were alive. Would he have been allowed to work there? Or seen as a liability? His parents had done their best to keep him well, but nothing had worked back then.
“I’m… That’s a good question,” she murmured. “I’mstillnot the son he wanted, and he makesthatclear on a pretty regular basis. Maybe I should ask if you or one of your brothers want to be adopted. I seriously doubt my inheritance now, so the company is probably up for grabs.”
She said it with a derisive tone that couldn’t hide the hurt from her voice. “If that’s the case, why not open up one of your own? Do your own thing?”
“Ah, ever the entrepreneur,” she drawled in a low voice.
She inhaled, her chest expanding with the breath. Not that he noticed. Much.
“I’ve thought about it. A lot, actually. Dad and I don’t often see eye to eye on anything, and I get tired of having to fight a thousand times harder to be heard because I’m not a man. The happiest my father has ever been with me was when I met Rhys at an event and the day we got engaged. My father wassopleased.”
He heard it in her voice. Her tone. The pain she couldn’t disguise for a father withholding his love and affection not only because of her gender but as a believer in the boys’-club way of doing things where a daughter was little more than a pawn to be used to empower familial connections. And she’d almost done it. Almost married to please him.
Was that why it seemed so easy for her to leave her intended? Had she ever actually loved the guy, or were her feelings based on that twisted relationship she had with her father, in wanting to please him? Gain his approval?
“I’m not sure I could do it, though. Open my own agency. I don’t want to be seen as competition,” Quinley continued, “so I haven’t let myself even think about my own agency too much. But I guess I need to make that the priority of this little escape plan. Figure out what I want to do now. Decide whether to stay in advertising or…maybe try something new. Especially since I’ve blown up my life to such epic proportions that I doubt I’ll evenhavea job at my father’s agency after this.”
Elias frowned at her words. “I understand that your father might be upset with your decision, but are you saying he’dfireyou and disinherit you for doing something you felt was better for your life?”
She leaned her head against the seat and blinked over at him. His stomach tightened at her beauty, lit by the lights of the dash. She looked fragile. And resigned once more.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. I mean, I’ve embarrassed him. And this isn’t something assmallas dressing like a boy. I’ve embarrassed myself and Rhys and his family. My father will never forgive me for today. The Lachlans are powerful, influential people, and even iftheydon’t say a single, negative word about what happened, my father will say plenty. And even though I was driven by panic and choosing what was right for me— No, he’ll never forgive me. I’d bet my life on it.”
He heard the truth and sadness in her words and hated knowing that the people who should support her wouldn’t. “Once things calm down and something else takes the news by storm, this will all blow over. Maybe with time, he will.”
She murmured something that sounded likewishful thinking,but he wasn’t sure. “Start brainstorming ideas. Come on, it’s what you do, right? Let me hear them.”
She glanced at him, surprise etched on her beautiful face. “You don’t think not dumping me by the side of the road isn’t helping me enough already?”
It wasn’t, not when she looked like a sad, kicked puppy about to be put down.
He didn’t consider himself to be an overly emotional guy. He’d learned a long time ago to control his emotions because when they got the best of him, he suffered for it. But he wasn’t heartless. “Best case scenario is that it blows over and all works out well, maybe you even get more work because of how things shake out because choosing to break it off before the wedding made you seem more…human.”
“You are really grasping for the silver lining there.”
“Fine,” he said, ignoring her words. “It goes south like you believe, and you have to regroup and start over. What are your options?”
“You’re assuming I have some.”
“You do. You’re a beautiful, well-educated woman with connections, so think about how you can use them.”
“Connections that may no longer be friendly,” she corrected, “or willing and receptive to associating with me.”
“Pretend they are. What will you do next?”
Silence followed his query before she sighed. “I’m not sure. It’s not a cop-out. I’m…not. The questions require a lot of thought on something I don’t really have the brainpower to ponder right now.”
He supposed he was pushing her at a time when she probably did want to curl up and bury her head in the sand. “Fine, you get twenty-four hours to hide under the covers, but tuck those questions into the back of your mind for when you’re settled in at your parents’ house.”
Silence stretched after that, and he glanced over again to see she’d lifted one foot atop her other leg and distractedly rubbed.
Given the ridiculously high heels she’d been wearing, no wonder her feet hurt. “You can sleep if you want. We’ve got hours to go.”
She inhaled deeply and sighed.
“I’m not sleepy. I suppose I should be, but my mind is spinning. It’s flashing between Rhys and my parents and the press and— I keep thinking of Ana, wondering if she’ll ever forgive me.”
