Page 39 of Vows in Name Only
“I don’t give a damn what he wants,” he barked, jabbing a finger into the desk. “I need this, Devon. It’s not like he doesn’t have other projects. This is any other deal for him, while it means everything to me. To us. To my business.”
“Dad,” she whispered, dread and foreboding squirming in her stomach. “What are you talking about? What’s going on?”
He looked away from her, jaw clenched tight. Several seconds later, he returned his narrowed regard to her, and the anger and—Oh God—flicker of fear in his green eyes deepened her unease. “I’ve made several...unwise investments over the last couple of years, and they’ve had devastating effects on the firm. Our financial situation is dire. I need a new, reliable project guaranteed to bring in profit for my clients and the company. If I don’t...”
Ruin. Bankruptcy. Scandal.
Panic and worry for her father churned inside her. “Oh Dad. I’m so sorry. I had no idea...”
“Now you do,” he said, voice clipped. Then he sighed, and for a moment, he looked so tired, so beaten down, that she took a step toward him, needing to hug him, offer some comfort. But his face hardened, and he hiked up his chin, his stare pinning her in place. “You understand now why I need you to persuade him to let me in on this deal. And if you can’t convince him, then find some way to obtain the bidding information so I can submit a proposal with a winning bid.”
Disgust and horror expelled any sympathy for her father. “You can’t mean that, Dad,” she rasped. “You can’t possibly mean that.”
“Devon, you will do this. I’m your father and your first priority. Your loyalty doesn’t belong to a man you’ve known for weeks, and who would toss you aside in a hot second if not for me forcing him to stay with you. Everything you have right now is because of me. Including that man. Like I told you before, you owe me. Your allegiance. Your duty. Yourlife. All of it, you owe to me.”
“And what if the cost is too high?” she demanded, his words splinters that burrowed deep. She didn’t need to be reminded of Cain’s disdain, his desire to be free of her. Last night had demonstrated that quite clearly. “This isn’t about loyalty. This is about your need for more, more, more. More wealth. More status. More connections. More recognition. You’ve already sunk so low as to use a man’s mother to blackmail him into bending to your will. Now you want me to deceive him, spy on him,stealfrom him. What about my integrity? My soul? Because they would be the price I paid if I went through with your plan. And let’s be clear. I’m. Not.”
“Stop being so dramatic,” he sneered and yanked open a drawer, withdrawing a sheet of paper and sliding it across the desk toward her. “Pick it up, read it.”
Hesitant, she complied. A list of about twenty names partially covered the sheet. She recognized a few of them as prominent businessmen, but that was it.
“What is this?” she asked, lifting her attention from the paper and meeting her father’s gaze.
A smugness curved his lips. That expression could mean nothing good for her.
“That is only a partial list of the donors for your community center, but they are the ones who have donated the most money. It will only take one call from me and a word about how their funds are being mismanaged. All it will require is one person to start withdrawing their money before the others fall like dominoes. And Devon, that person will be me. The center won’t continue without the financial support of its benefactors.” He nodded toward the paper she now clutched in her hands like a lifeline.
The names on that list comprised the life support for the place she loved. The place that was the heartbeat of its neighborhood.
“It’s your choice,” her father continued, arrogance and a sickening self-satisfaction reeking from him like a pungent cologne. “Either do this small favor for me and save your family’s company and future. Or stand by and watch me dismantle the center dollar by dollar.”
She’d asked herself before who her father had become? Now she had the answer.
He was no longer her mother’s husband.
He was a cruel stranger who had passed down his DNA.
Without another word to him, she pivoted and exited the study. Escaped him.
But there was no avoiding the sordid choice he’d left her with.
Either she destroyed lives by eliminating employment, classes, services and a haven for children and seniors.
Or she betrayed a man who despised her family and didn’t trust her in the first place.
A breath shuddered out of her, and a vise constricted her chest, her ribs and lungs.
By the time this was over, Cain would hate her even more.
Fourteen
“We have the updated plans and numbers on the North Station project. I’ve emailed them to you. For those dinosaurs who insist on paper copies, I have those, too.”
Laughter filled the room as Karina Douglas, Farrell International’s chief financial officer, stood at the head of the conference room table and waved toward the pile of manila folders. “I’ve also forwarded the latest proposals and bids and a projection for the next three years required to finish the construction and leasing.”
Cain tapped his inbox on his tablet and located the email. He opened the attachment and in seconds, numbers filled the screen. This project would mean a very healthy profit for not just Farrell but its investors and stockholders. But the information might as well have been written in hieroglyphics. Nothing made sense or snagged his attention for very long.
Not exactly the truth.
