“So?” I ask.
The corners of his lips twitch ever so slightly. “I’m starting to wonder when you’re going to understand that you can never sell your shares in Beaufort’s.”
My hackles rise. “My only contractual obligation is to find a suitable partner and introduce them to the board.”
“Do you really think you’ll get a majority vote in favor of selling to Fiona Green?”
My heart sinks. I feel my mouth suddenly dry out as my father seems to look right through me, a knowing expression in his eyes.
However he’s done it, Dad knows I’ve been talking to Fiona. He knows my exact plans. He knows that Fiona’s ideas for the company match up with Mum’s—and at this moment, I feel a terrible premonition.
I gulp hard. “Meaning what?”
“I think you know what I mean.”
I stare at him in disbelief. His words make my hopes of soon freeing myself entirely from Beaufort’s, and of knowing that Mum’s legacy is in safe hands, dissolve into thin air. I can only laugh bitterly. “I should have known.”
“You should have recognized what you were getting yourself into.”
I shake my head and look Dad straight in the eyes. “You really are unbelievable.”
His jaw tightens. “I’m trying to salvage our family inheritance while you’re doing everything you can to destroy it.”
“It’s notourfamily inheritance, it’s Mum’s family inheritance. And Ophelia’s,” I manage. “And I’m not destroying anything. I just can’t deal with the company. Why can’t you understand that?”
“You haven’t even tried.” He gives a humorless laugh. “On the contrary, the moment things got serious, you ran away.”
“You almost destroyed my girlfriend’s future. You tried to bribe the man Lydia loves into walking out of her life. If you really think I can bear to set eyes on you after all that without feeling sick, then…” I shake my head. “I don’t know what else I can say to you.”
Dad looks at me in silence, his face unmoving.
One second, two, three—then I can’t stand the silence any longer.
“Why are you here?” I ask again.
“To tell you that I expect to see you at the board meeting on Monday at three.” He adjusts his cuff button.
“Did you hear a single word of what I just told you?”
“Yes.”
“What if I don’t come? Are you planning to force me into working for Beaufort’s?”
It’s a rhetorical question, but Dad’s face doesn’t change.
I stare at him. “You cannot be serious.”
“I would like to end this feud between us, son,” he begins. “I’dlike us to pull together again. Together. The way Cordelia and I were planning it since you were born.”
Hearing Mum’s name on his lips makes my stomach churn unpleasantly. “I can’t believe you really think that things between us can ever be OK again.”
“James,” my father says, but I just shake my head.
“I’m never coming back to Beaufort’s, Dad. Never.”
For a moment, the room is as silent as the grave as we just stare at each other, Dad’s expression dark and mine determined.
Then Dad reaches into his inside jacket pocket and pulls out his phone. “You’re leaving me with no choice.”
