Now it’s his turn to blink a few times. Apparently, he’s not used to being told no. But within a split second, he’s got himself back under control. He leans back a little and exhales audibly.
“Fine. Then we will have to take a different approach.” The next moment, he leans down and pulls a briefcase up onto the desk. He pushes it toward me, its clasps at the front, and clicks it open.
As he lifts the lid, I grind my teeth so hard I can hear them squeak.
The Queen’s face looks up at me a hundred times over.
My shirt collar suddenly feels unbearably tight, and I have to fight the urge to loosen it. I slowly lift my gaze and stare into Mr. Beaufort’s emotionless face.
“You may see this as compensation for the inconvenience,” he continues, unfazed.
My pulse is racing, and I’m trying in vain to breathe deeply. “I don’t want your money, Mr. Beaufort.”
He raises an eyebrow. “This is a more-than-generous sum.”
“That’s beside the point!”
Shit, I’m raising my voice. I didn’t intend to, but this man is leaving me with no choice. “Don’t you understand what your behavior is doing to your daughter?”
Now it’s his turn to grit his teeth. “Don’t you dare speak to me like that,” he growls, his voice deadly quiet.
I just shake my head. “You were Lydia’shero. She would have done anything for you to take her seriously, to involve her in Beaufort’s, but you had that one, fixed idea in your head, and your daughter didn’t fit into it. You never took any interest in her. You didn’t give a damn what happened to her so long as your company didn’t suffer. You were blind to Lydia’s pain. And now you’re trying to interfere in her life like this, which just proves, yet again, that you don’t know a thing about your daughter.”
Mr. Beaufort stands up so abruptly that his chair slams into the plate glass behind him. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I get to my feet, too, so that I can stay eye to eye with him. “You know nothing about what she’s been through.”
“I would do anything for my children, whether or not that fits into your plans. In the end, the choices I make for them are for their own protection. If you were a father, you would understand that.”
The door opens behind me, but I don’t care who hears our argument, or if I’m about to be escorted out by security. I don’t intend ever to set foot here again.
“When I’m a father, I will listen to my children,” I growl. “I’llcare for them and support them in whatever they want to do. And I will never,neverget in the way of their goals.”
Mr. Beaufort presses his lips together. He’s no longer looking at me, but staring at the doorway to his office. Confused, I turn around.
The person standing there is James. He looks between me and his father; then his eyes come to rest on the briefcase that’s still open on the desk in front of me.
James
I feel all the color drain from my face.
It’s so quiet in Dad’s office that every one of my ragged breaths sounds earsplitting. I can’t describe my feelings in this moment—I only know that it’s something that’s been growing inside me for years and is at the point of bursting out.
“You can’t be serious, Dad!” I exclaim, taking a step into the room.
Dad keeps looking at me, not an eyelid flickering.
I nod toward the briefcase. “Isn’t it enough that you’ve sent Lydia away to Ophelia’s? Would you actually do this to her as well?”
My cheeks are burning. Heat spreads to my stomach. My veins. Everywhere. I feel like everything around me is spinning—everything except my father. As I clench my fists, I can feel that my hands are shaking. I can feel the trembling deep in my bones. There is so much pent-up rage flowing through my body that I can hardly stand upright.
“Do you really think you can lob a load of banknotes on thetable and cut him out of Lydia’s life forever? Do you really think that kind of stuff still works in this day and age?”
“Kindly cut out the melodrama and shut the door behind you.” Dad doesn’t take his eyes off me as he slams the briefcase shut. Then he turns back to Sutton.
“Think it over carefully.”
“There’s nothing to think about. If you invited me over here to bribe or bully me, you picked the wrong man.” Sutton nods to my dad. “Goodbye.”
