Page 42 of Crossed By the Stars
I hated relying on him. Hated that I’d been handed over without a say, but my stomach lurched again at the thought of Joel, Ashton, and the rest of our team being put in danger because of this. Because of me and my battle with my father. So, I gritted my teeth and said, “Thank you.”
I was still unsure of my own volume and had no idea if I was screaming or whispering. The way my voice bounced back at me inside my head was almost as annoying as the pain digging through me.
We didn’t say anything else while Dax cooked. I closed my eyes and may even have dozed off for a minute or two before he was at my side again. He held two plates piled with eggs and toast.
“It isn’t much,” he said with a look that was almost shy for Dax. I’d only seen him that way a handful of times in our life, moments that were embedded in our teenage years, like the time he’d given me my very first stargazer lily. His face had been full of the same bashful hesitancy that filled it now.
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to even handle this…but thank you,” I said. I tried to sit up and winced.
“Stay,” he said, a gentle hand pushing me back into the slanted position I’d been in so that my ribs didn’t make me pass out. He brought a throw pillow over, set it in my lap, and then set the plate on top of it.
“Thank you again,” I said quietly, holding back the sudden wave of tears at his tenderness. Charming and sarcastic Dax I could handle, but this dedicated attention to my care was too much. How many times could my heart take him swelling it with soft looks and sweet words only to leave me again without a call or a text?
He didn’t reply but sat near my feet with his own plate.
If you’d asked me a week ago if Dax Armaud could cook, I would have told you he’d likely burn the toast and leave the eggs runny. Instead, it was all done perfectly. We ate in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable but was still heavy with my unanswered question lingering between us.
“Stop figuring out how to shield me from the truth and just spit it out,” I finally said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. I knew my father had done some pretty awful things. He ruled his kingdom with an iron fist where pinkies weren’t the only things lost if you failed.
“I told you our fathers and my aunt were together at Oxford?”
I nodded.
“They were friends. Élodie and your father were…” He trailed off as if unsure.
“Having sex?” I said, finding a moment of humor in Dax’s discomfort.
His lips twitched. “More than that. They were in love—or at least my aunt was in love with him.”
I already knew the story wouldn’t end well, not only because I was unsure my father could feel anything close to love for anyone but also because he would never have married a French woman. He’d wanted a Japanese wife who’d been raised her whole life to believe she was subservient, that it was her duty to quietly walk two steps behind her husband.
“Papaand Aunt Élodie made plans to take the tiny custom design shop of their father’s and turn it into a fashion retail icon. Your dad had plans to take your grandfather’s small investment firm and turn it into a worldwide enterprise.”
Neither of these things was news to me. Anyone who wanted to could read about how the Armauds and Moris had taken the minuscule wealth of their parents and turned them into billion-dollar companies.
“What has any of this got to do with my father and your aunt’s relationship?” I asked.
He fiddled with his fork before putting everything down on the coffee table.
“We’ve kept this a secret for decades…it isn’t something my family is proud of,” he said. “It could ruin us if it got out.”
My breath caught. This is exactly what I hadn’t wanted to know. I wanted the Armauds’ world to be a shining beacon and not the dark criminal one of my father’s.
Dax inhaled sharply and then continued, “Your grandfather provided the capital for my family to createÉclair S.A.”
My eyes grew wide. They were tied to the Moris through money. They were part of my father’s industries. My heart pounded, and the eggs in my stomach twisted, threatening to come out.
“Oh my God…he owns you all,” I breathed out.
Dax shook his head vigorously. “No. They paid back Mori-san’s initial investment within five years.”
My gut twisted. “But it would still look bad if anyone knew your company was built usingKyodainafunds.”
“Your grandfather had nothing to do with theKyodaina. The investment came from his law-abiding company that existed long before your father twisted it to his use,” Dax said. “But it would be difficult for the world to see that now, to understand that it had once been legitimate when the Mori name is now synonymous with theKyodaina.”
My heart pounded because I knew that this wasn’t all, that what he had to tell me was going to get worse. “We’re still a long way away from anything that would end up with your father hating mine.”
“WhilePapaand Aunt Élodie were building their fashion empire and your father was building his criminal one, my aunt and your father were still dating. During one of your father’s visits to her in France, my aunt made the mistake of telling him about a new product they were developing. It was going to take Kevlar and other bulletproof materials up a notch.”
