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“Good thing I caught you. You won’t be needing that job.”
I turned and glared at him. “Why is that?”
“Because you’re getting married.”
Bubbles would have flown out of my mouth if I was underwater as I fumbled to replay his sentence in my head. “What did you say?”
“I should have said I hope for your sake you’re still pure. I’ve made promises.”
Apparently, he didn’t know everything about my life as I was far from driven snow as the saying went. Just in the last weeks with Liam, I’d proven that.
Yet I was certain my eyes popped out my head, like we’d been in some crazy accident and I was hallucinating.
“I can’t get married,” I said when I regained speech.
“Ah, but you can. Otherwise, your mother will find herself homeless. And no hospital in this country will hire you.”
“What the fuck!?” I bellowed.
“Language. It’s unbecoming of a woman who will marry one of the richest men in the world. Or he will be when his father passes on.”
“I-I-I’m not marrying anyone. You can’t do this.”
If he could have sprouted devils’ horns and turned red, he would have, given the glare he sent my way.
“No, you don’t understand me. You will marry who I say you’ll marry. You’re damn lucky I found a man I’m sure will please you in every way.”
“I won’t. You could have married off your son if you hadn’t gotten him killed.”
Okay, the last look was deadly. The one he gave me now was as if he wanted to peel the skin off me one layer at a time.
“This is your last warning. I came here to be civil and have a conversation with my daughter who begged me to save her mother’s life at any price. I find a suitable match, a man of means and if the headlines are true, a catch. Yet you mock me. I could always give you to an undesirable man as there are plenty with the means to suit my purposes.”
I swallowed. Though my brain told me to jump out to the limo no matter the speed it was going, he would find me. How had he found me at Ms. Allen’s? He all but confirmed my suspicions he’d been pulling the strings of my life the day we moved from Chicago.
“And if I don’t?”
“I believe I explained that to you. Besides your mother’s homelessness, which you won’t be able to save her from. Poor Ms. Allen will die horribly at the hands of her renter.”
Fear was a tangible thing. I felt it all the way in the palms of my hands as I fisted them. I was certain he could pull it off. Even if I could manage to convince a jury of my innocence, in the meantime, my mother would be alone and would likely die as my reputation would be ripped to shreds.
“Are you going to tell me who I’m marrying?” I spluttered.
“I will after we leave New York.”
In other words, once I’d capitulated and put myself under his control. “When do we leave?” Though I was speaking the words, I wanted to know how much time I had left to figure out alternative plans.
“Tonight,” he said with no room for argument.
That didn’t mean I’d rolled over. “I can’t leave tonight. I have a shift. The hospital is short-staffed as it is. I have two days off after today and it will give them time to find a replacement or someone to cover me until they do.”
“Don’t say I never did anything for you. I’ll agree. After your shift, I will meet you here. Be packed and ready to go. You will not be returning.”
Because I was in the back of the limo, I hadn’t really known where we were going. Yet somehow before the silence could get awkward or him giving me another do what I say speech, we came to a stop. The driver was there opening the door.
A cold hand caught my forearm as I exited the car. “Let me remind you, Daughter, don’t cross me. It will only make things worse for you and anyone you care about. And tell the good doctor you have to cancel your date this weekend.”
I snapped my arm away my father and escaped, finding it hard to breath. How could he possibly know so much? Was my phone or room bugged? Did he pay someone like Nurse Christy for information?
Christy. It was a funny time to think about her. She, however, was only a stone step to the real object of my thoughts. Liam.
Why had I thought about him? I didn’t know. The truth was where I’d fallen. I wasn’t exactly in love, but I fallen into his piercing eyes with no looking back.
Any fantasy I had about him and me one day had ended in that life ending conversation with the man that had given me life and now decided to take it. Or sell it as I wasn’t sure what he meant when he’d said has the means to suit my purpose.
