Page 23 of To Curse A Knight

Before I could respond, Marcie jumped in.

“This isn’t the way I would have wanted you to find out, but your father and I have been seeing each other for a few months now, and I was hoping you’d consider spending Christmas with me and my son this year.”

An incredulous snort erupted before I could stifle it.

“I’m sorry… excuse me?”

Her sunny smile faltered as the pure hatred for my father bled through my normally controlled mask of indifference.

Narcissists truly thought the world revolved around them and every person in their orbit was to bend to their will. Daddy’s audacity to think that he could control my actions through Marcie via some ‘family dinner’ gimmick would have been hilarious—if it wasn’t so revolting.

In all my thirty-one years, Daddy had never spoken of Helen Lane. Every shred of information I had about her was from my own research—the desperation of a little girl looking to connect with another woman. He only ever mentioned my mother when he wanted to control me.

When ‘my mother’ would have been disappointed by my actions. When ‘my mother’ would have wanted me to take on a particular client or business deal. He used my mother’s memory—the memory of a woman I didn’t have—as a weapon wielded whenever he wanted me to do something I wasn’t willing to do, instead of telling me she would have been proud, that she had wanted me.

I hadn’t recognized the tactic until I was well into my twenties, and now that I refused to bend to the thinly veiled pretense of disappointing her, he was using another woman to bend my will.

Pathetic.

His days of veiled control behind closed curtains were ending; he would soon bow atmyfeet and bend tomywill, before my gravity crushed him like the meaningless pest he was.

I heard Marty leave quietly through the open study door; I would be close behind.

“Marcie, if you’re seeing my father, you should know that there is no love here.” I waved in the empty space that felt so unbearably heavy between us. “I won’t be spending Christmas Day with him, let alone a woman I really don’t know and her offspring. I’d say it’s not you, it’s me, but it’s definitely you.” I glowered at my father. “And him.”

“Hillary, control yourself,” Daddy growled through gritted teeth. “You’re embarrassing me.”

“Your whole life is an embarrassment,” I snapped, gesturing at the surrounding room. “You’re on house arrest in a home your daughter had to buy for you because you lost everything betting on the wrong horse. I’ve done more than enough, and I’m done.”

Turning on my heel, I stalked down the hallway of this house of horrors, and stomped through the snow to the waiting SUV. Marty already sat buckled up, staring out the window.

I fumed in silence on the ride back into Carlisle.

Fuck that insipid little man. After all these years to dare to pretend he had been a father, rather than a gold-sucking cockroach. He would trade me in for my empire in a second if given the chance, then slit my throat for the reward without a thought. I came by my ruthlessness honestly.

I sent off a message to Sammy, encouraging him to capture our next little lesson as soon as possible. I needed an outlet, and Sandra Owenswas the perfect victim.

“Is the blindfold necessary,Mi Reina? Should I not know where I am being taken?”

I tugged in amusement at the silk scarf Hillary had tied around my face as her driver drove us to her secret apartment. She’d picked me up from the lowest level of my office tower’s parking garage. The dull gray concrete walls were my last view before I welcomed the darkness of the eye covering.

How appropriate I would enter my new life as a blinded man. Perhaps I would be granted the gift of new sight—a revised lens to regard my empire from atop my crumbled throne.

“It’s just a precaution, Aaron.” Her tone was blunt, laced with exasperation. “We need to keep this location contained.”

I didn’t point out the fallacy of this plan, when Kellan and inevitably our Irish tagalong would likely end up within the confines of the building as well. The two men were magnets to my beautiful companion; wherever she was, they would follow.

As I followed now.

Nodding absently and entertaining the mediocre attempts at subterfuge, my thoughts turned to the many plans we’d already put into play.

Our paperwork was signed and sealed. I’d relinquished full control of the assets in my name and the decision-making power of my companies to Lane Enterprises, specifically Hillary Lane, thanks to her lawyer’s expedient delivery.

I had packed nothing but the few pieces of casual clothing I owned, some trinkets of value, and a selection of books that had long lived on my nightstand with the best of intentions. There was nothing more I wanted.

Kellan was to bring me an untraceable replacement phone and laptop, but it wouldn’t be today. The annoying Irishman was also helping my cause, securing a new identity and passport from a series of his contacts.

I was about to wipe my existence from this earth, and the only three people who knew my heart still beat were the woman who made it so, the man who had been supposed to halt it from pumping, and the meddling irritant somehow providing the illegal documents to keep me hidden.

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