Page 12 of The Monster I Loved
“What do you think I am? A puppet? Next thing you’ll tell me is that you have the woman already picked out.”
There was a flicker in his eyes, and the shadow of a grin appeared at the corner of his mouth. Of course he already had somebody picked out. He’d always liked the idea of picking my bride. He joined me on my feet.
“You acted without thinking and got yourself locked in there, and now I’m telling you what that means. You want someone who isn’t a Fitzgerald to run this company?”
“I don’t care who?—”
My father’s glare deepened. “Thaddeus, your mother and I worked hard; you won’t throw it away.”
The sly use of my mother quieted me. When I was a boy, she’d always boasted,“One day it will all be yours.”Nothing made her happier than seeing that I was set up for a full future. ‘Full’ in the rich parents’ sense, because I was never into cars, money, and, well, anything material. All I’d ever wanted was a happy life.
Look how that turned out.
Damn it. I sighed. “Fine.”
Carrying a smug smile, my father returned to his chair and leaned back. Something nagged at me. “Why didn’t you just knock up and marry the lady you’re passing the time with?”
He rifled through the papers on his desk. Without looking up, he said, “I’m too old to make another child.”
I shrugged. I’d always expected a man like my father to stayvirile. The word made me cringe. I couldn’t resist asking my next question. “You getting married anytime soon?”
He chuckled coldly. “Hell no. That would make her entitled to half of my assets. You’ll get married and have a child ASAP.”
I sat. “Fine.”
“Also, one more thing. You need some good PR.”
My eyes bulged. “Me? I just got out of prison for murder. No amount of PR will make people have a favorable impression of me.”
He finally looked up. “You will win over everyone at this company and the public. Fitzgerald Inc. will be run by my own flesh and blood.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Sounds like you have a plan. What is it?”
“Summer Cohen.”
My jaw tightened, and a sharp breath slipped out as I stood. “You’re out of your fucking mind. If you think I’ll marry and have a child with that woman, you’ve lost it.”
“Calm down. I don’t want my grandbabies mixed in with the blood that killed their grandmother.”
My shoulders relaxed by a millimeter. Then what the hell did he want? I wanted nothing to do with that bitch. She’d betrayed me in the worst way. We couldneverbe anything again.
My father pointed for me to sit. “All I’m saying is she’s the key to the public forgiving you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care about their fucking forgiveness.”
My father raised a brow and drummed his fingers on the desk, annoyed. “We just talked about why you have to do this. You have to win people over so no one challenges you running the company for your child. If people think Summer forgave you for what you did, nobody else will have any grounds to disagree with that.”
Just the image of her made my blood boil.
While I barely kept my rage under the surface, my father went on about some building that would collapse and kill all the occupants soon. What I didn’t expect was for him to say that Summer and her coworkers must want to see them dead, since they insisted on leaving the people there to wait until the structure crumbled to the ground. A meeting was scheduled to get together and come up with an amicable plan.
“What building is it?” I asked, hearing the note of resignation in my own voice.
“The Starlight building.”
“Oh,” I said.
His eyes flashed. “Will that be a problem for you? I know the building has its...memories for you and your mother, but business is business.”
