Page 64 of Sweetest Revenge

I pressed my lips into a thin line and gripped my own mug. It was filled with a green tea I’d found in one of Warren’s vast shelves, but it had long since gone cold.

I hadn’t expected Warren to accept my request to talk to Maxwell, even though he was the one to suggest it in the first place. I felt like there were things that we just shouldn’t talk about. This being one of them.

But I had been so taken aback by his admission of what my father was truly doing at those charity events that I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed answers.

I was supposed to be here to avenge him, but it seemed like I was opening the door to something I wasn’t sure I wanted to know instead.

“I thought you said my dad smelled bullshit?” I said, turning back to him.

“He did, but that didn’t stop my dad. He heard your father talking about marrying you off, so he offered me up.”

I gritted my teeth, unsure what to say.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, Addi,” he said. “There was so much around your father, his reputation, his company. It wasn’t fair that it all fell on you. You didn’t deserve all this.”

My eyes stung with unshed tears.

“You talk like you know me.” I couldn’t keep the venom out of my voice.

He finally turned to me, giving me a sad smile.

“Don’t I?” he questioned, raising a brow. “I am you, Addi. We grew up pretty much the same way. The only difference is that I caught my dad before Warren did.”

Wait, what?

“Your dad?” I tried to search my brain for any info on his father, but I came up blank.

He nodded and pursed his lips, my guess deciding on how much he wanted to tell me.

“He tried to cut costs… dangerously. Scammed people out of their money. Took some bribes, offered some. Almost all at the expense of his own company.”

“Sterling Enterprises has a pristine reputation,” I said. That much I knew. A conglomerate that was involved in everything from automotive to computer chips. They were a safe bet in the stock market and had never once been in a scandal—that I knew of.

Maxwell gave me a large smile that had a sliver of fear running up my spine. “Because I took out the trash.”

He said it so coolly I had to take a moment and sip my tea to compose myself.

Just like Warren, Maxwell seemed to have become even more bloodthirsty with age.

“I’m guessing your relationship with your father isn’t that great,” I offered.

“Not everyone can turn a blind eye to what their parents are doing.”

I placed my cup a bit too harshly down on the table between us.

“My father was a good man.” Anger threaded my voice.

“Was he, really? Or was he just good to you?” he spat. “Don’t forget you just found out eight years after his death that he was trying to sell you to marry someone for corporate gain.”

I clamped my mouth shut, my nails digging into the glass.

It stung, but he was right.

“What else can you tell me about my father, then? Since you know so much?”

I meant to hurt him, but all I managed to do was make him smirk.

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