Page 43 of King of Cruelty

“But, Talia!”

She brushed past him, head held high.

“Talia, please, listen to me,” Damien cried, shooting to her side. “I promise you, she’s a liar. A crazy, obsessive lunatic who mistook my kindness for a crush. When I rejected her, she used her fatherless accident to try to ruin my reputation and career!” He grasped her shoulders as Sienna grasped mine—preventing me from leaping across and ripping his face off for speaking about my daughter that way. “She didn’t get away with it the first time, don’t let her get away with it now. She—”

“I know, Damien.” Talia peeled him off her. “I’ve always known. About the cheating. About the women. About Vivica Rostov—the dancing whore currently living in an apartment paid for with my money.”

Damien opened his mouth but nothing came out.

“But what I didn’t know,” Talia continued, “is that you’re a fraud and thief as well, but, if I’m honest, it doesn’t surprise me.” She pointed to a door off the kitchen. “Right now, the only calls I plan to make are to fix a horrible mistake you forced me to commit. But unless you want me to also make a call to the police and a divorce attorney, you will sit down, cooperate fully with Mackenzie, and you’ll do it without any more of your insults. Do I make myself clear?”

“I—I—” Damien’s jaw worked, sweat dripping down his brow. “I... Yes, dear,” he rasped. “Whatever you need.”

River, Sienna, and I threw astonished, and pleased, looks at each other. It was so easy to see how Talia rose to the top of the Caddell food chain in only six years. The woman was a force to be reckoned with.

Turning on her heels, Talia stormed off to her office.

“Talia,” Damien called. “Please, just know that I love y—”

She slammed the door shut.

Damien stood there for a long beat—not knowing what to do or say.

It was me who made the first move. “River, Sienna, would you guys mind keeping an eye on the babies while Damien and I speak in the dining room?” I bent down and smooched Laurel’s cheek. “I love you, baby girl. Mommy will be right back.”

She screeched some babble back to me in return—the picture of carefree and happy in the midst of a man’s total and complete breakdown.

River caught my hand as I moved away. “If he doesn’t listen and gets mouthy”—his gaze sharpened on Damien—“go for the eyes.”

I laughed.

River didn’t.

My chuckles dried up.Goodness, is it a Redgrave trait that makes them deliver violent threats of maiming and death with such a perfect straight face?

Putting that aside, I crossed to the dining table and claimed a seat across from Damien, flashing him a bland smile that he didn’t return.

“Let me guess,” he hissed before I opened my mouth. “You’re here for child support. You think you can blackmail me into paying for a kid that’s not mine? Let me set you straight right now, Mackenzie. That’s never—”

I flapped a hand, waving his nonsense away. “Enough, Damien. I don’t want child support from you. I don’t want anything from you. Laurel already has a safe, loving family and more fathers than she’ll know what to do with by the time she’s a teenager.” I looked him dead in the eyes. “The only example ofmen she’ll have in her life is of honest men with integrity who never take the easy way out, so, of course, that excludes you.”

Nostrils flaring, he bared his teeth. “Don’t you dare judge me,” he barked. “Whatever I am, it’s still ten times more than you’re worth.”

Wealth and privilege had been good to Damien. Naturally, he always dressed well, but going from a five-figure salary to a seven-figure lifestyle meant his leather coats, black slacks, and polished shoes cost the same amount as his former salary.

On top of the new wardrobe, he filled out around the middle, sported a new swooshy haircut, and his skin looked amazing. Damien was absolutely thriving as one of the New York elite—

—and yet, he never looked more hideous to me.

Sitting there turning his nose up at me like I was the scum, when he was a cheating, lying, child-abandoning thief, and my only crime was loving the wrong man.

Amazing the lies people tell themselves so they can remain the hero of the story.

I rolled my eyes. “If that’s what you need to tell yourself, Damien, have at it. But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get off your delusions and return to the point.” Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the folder of documents and slapped it on the table. “You embezzled from Caddell House.”

“What?! How dare—!”

“Save the outrage.” I slid the folder over to him. “It’s all there—including the PO box in Batavia. You bullied suppliers into inflating their invoices so that you could pocket the difference, and you did it all using the Merchants’ name.”

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