Page 61 of Restored By You

My jaw is tight. “It’s not like that, Dad. He took that contract before I even got here. The dates prove it. He earned that job.”

“Perhaps.” My father shrugs, a useless motion compared to his cutting words. “It hardly matters now.”

Ice slides down my spine. “What do you mean, it hardly matters?”

“I’ve instructed Jenn to place the Montgomery contract under review,” he says, mild. Bored, even. “Standard practice when a conflict of interest comes to light. The resort has a reputation of its own to protect. We can’t have it whispered that contracts are being awarded on the basis of…personal favors.”

The floor drops out from under me. “You pulled his contract?”

“I put it under review.”

“That’s their livelihood, Dad, their reputation, that’s Levi’s—” I can hear myself climbing, and I can’t stop it. “They did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. You can’t just—”

“I can do whatever I like.” His harsh gaze meets mine. “It’s my resort, my name. You’d do well to remember whose you carry.”

And there it is. The whole of my father in one sentence.

Because that’s all this has ever been for him. Not the resorts, not me. It’s about control. The pleasure he finds in holding every string and watching everyone dance. He didn’t come here worried about my judgment or my safety. He came here because for six weeks I existed somewhere he couldn’t reach, doing something he didn’t sanction, wanting someone he didn’t approve—and Daniel Winton cannot abide one thing he doesn’t control.

I’m shaking. I set my hands flat on the table so no one can see.

“That’s really who you are, isn’t it? You’d wreck two good men’s livelihoods just to remind me you can.”

He scoffs. “Don’t be dramatic.”

“Dramatic.” A laugh scrapes out of me, ugly and disbelieving. “Rhett Montgomery is the best man I have ever known. He’s been amazing to Tyler and me. Helpful and kind. Tyler has learned more from him in the last few weeks than he could ever learn in those shitty online classes you have him doing. And he’ll learn even more before the month is out.”

“Oh, well, Tyler won’t be staying.” Michelle chooses this exact catastrophic moment to reach over to pat my hand with a bright, oblivious smile. “And his schooling won’t be an issue for much longer anyway, will it? Daniel’s gotten Tyler a spot at Kingsley Prep for the spring semester. It’s where Shea went, honey! Isn’t that wonderful?”

“No.” The word comes out of me like a gunshot. The whole table stops and Tyler’s head snaps upright for the first time all night.

“Excuse me?” my father growls, sitting up straight with a hard glare.

“I said no.” I meet his glare and hold it, my heart slamming against my ribs, but my voice is steady. “Tyler is not going to Kingsley.”

“Tyler,” my father says coldly, “will do as he’s told. As will you.”

“He’s fifteen, Dad. He’s not an employee you get to reassign.” I keep it civil for one more breath. “He’s finally happy. He’s got friends, a girl he likes, a whole family that’s taken him in. He’s thriving. And you want to ship him off to that place?”

“That place,” my father cuts in, “made something of you.”

“That place nearly broke me,” I shout, vibrating with anger now. How dare he?

Michelle’s smile falters. “Shea…”

“No, you should hear it.” I turn to Michelle, shaking now, not with fear but with something that’s been building for over a decade. “That school wasn’t a gift. It was a place he sent me so he wouldn’t have to look at me. I was thirteen. I cried myself to sleep for a year. And every time I called home asking to come back, do you know what he said? He said, Wintons don’t quit, and then he’d hang up and go back to whatever wife he had that month.”

My father’s chair scrapes the polished hardwoods as he stands. “Goddammit, Shea! That’s enough!”

“It’s not enough!” The last thread of my control snaps clean in two. My voice rises and I don’t care who hears it. I don’t care that the whole restaurant has gone silent. I don’t care about a single thing except the boy sitting frozen across from me. “You had a daughter, and you handed her to nannies until she was old enough to hand to a boarding school, and now you’ve got a stepson you’ve known for two months and you’re doing the exact same thing because it’s easier than being a father to him!”

“I am giving that boy an opportunity.”

“You’re giving him away!” I’m on my feet now, but I don’t remember standing. “That’s all you know how to do! You collect people, Dad. Wives, kids, resorts—you collect us and you put us somewhere convenient for you. You call it love because you paid for it. Well, I’m not thirteen anymore, and Tyler is not going anywhere. If you want to punish us for having the audacity to be happy without you, then you can punish me. Not him. Not Rhett. Not Levi and their company. Me.”

My father’s face has gone a mottled, furious red even under his dark complexion. He stabs a finger at the table hard enough to rattle the glasses. “Do you have any idea what I have given you? Everything you have, everything you are, came from me, and this is the thanks I get?” He’s loud now, spit flying. “Ungrateful, the lot of you. You know what you are—you’re done!”

“No. We are,” I say calmly, and somehow, that stops him more than any scream would. I turn to my stepbrother. “Get up. We’re leaving.”