Page 30 of Sold to Her Enemy

“This is very civil. I’m going to continue. Where was your mother when the police interviewed her?”

“At her friends’ house—I can’t remember which one—Dianna Anderson’s house, I think? She called me in tears after you stormed into the office. They were trying to find my father.”

“And your father didn’t call you?”

“No,” I shake my head. “He didn’t.”

“Interesting. You’re the apple of his eye. He loves you, and yet he didn’t call you when he made his escape?”

“No.” I swallow over the bitterness in my voice, my throat dry. “He hasn’t called me. He probably doesn’t know what to say to me. He has pride, too.”

“Maybe he should have thought of that before he met with the mob.”

“There was no proof of any criminal wrongdoing, you know this!”

Adrian shrugs a shoulder. “Just because they can’t find the proof doesn’t mean it’s not there. He was seen in that restaurant. Talking.”

“My father talked to a lot of people.” And I don’t want to have this conversation. “They didn’t keep him for long, though, because he left the country the next day.”

“Mckenna, even you don’t believe your father is innocent.” Adrian massages little circles on my legs.

“I do. So does my mother.”

Not that she’s said anything. I’m the one who took the calls from the investigators, informing me they were not going to go forward with criminal charges. But my mother had to be sedated because her life was blowing up around her too much.

“Did he leave the country so quickly to sell formulas to the highest bidder?”

“He wouldn’t do that, Adrian! You know how much he loved your father. My dad didn’t destroy their business. You chose to pull the trigger.”

“I had to before all our assets were tied up being investigated. You wouldn’t want to go through that,” he flings the words out sarcastically.

Anger flashes along my skin, making my pulse race.

Adrian grabs my hair and wraps it around his fist. “Do you know anything, Mckenna? Do you know where he is?”

“Fuck you, Adrian. I don’t!”

He pulls my hair so hard I feel tears in my eyes. My nipples are hard pebbles and I squirm, trying to get some relief.

Adrian presses his thumb against my clit. “I don’t understand why your father didn’t rush back to you and your mother. He must have an offer from someone else. I keep trying to get the authorities to pursue it.”

“Why?” The cry is strangled from my lips.

“Because I believe that video.”

Liquid rage rolls through my veins. I’m so angry I can’t think. “Why do you want to believe my father is this awful person? You know him! You know he’s not like that. Isn’t it enough that he lost everything?”

My mother and I were out on the streets. We came to Detroit because she had a college friend who helped her for a bit. My mind whizzes, and I can’t focus.

“Do you know any of his calculations?”

“I’m not a scientist,” I try to keep my voice as steady as I can, but there are a few formulas I know by heart that my father made sure I knew and that I have hidden in an email.

“But we are the son and daughter of the men who revolutionized the biotech industry. I have all the numbers from the business in my head. What’s in yours, Mckenna?” Adrian works his thumb against my clit, until I am rocking forward, wanting more of his tongue, hating myself for wanting it. But the rage mixes with the pleasure and the heat from both of those emotions collide, making me so needy and desperate for Adrian to keep his touch on my pussy.

“Dread and fear. I can’t believe your father turned his back on him.”

His parents were like family to me. That they just discarded my mother, and I like old shoes, hurts me.

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