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Her mother had endured it. Angelica endured anything for a crumb of her father’s attention. Her father rarely spared Spin a glance.
It had gone on that way her entire life. Until her mother had died just before Spin had turned eighteen. To her shock, her father had sent for her. Instead of heeding his summons, Spin had run.
And now he’d found her. She had no desire to be caught in his web, to be pulled out and then discarded when he grew bored. She didn’t need anything from him, wouldn’t accept any of the crumbs he’d lay at her feet.
Mr. Schiessl eyed her with cool disregard. “Your father is dead.”
Spin blinked. Had she heard him right? Dead?
She sat back in her chair, pressing her hand to her chest. She felt her mother’s necklace laying across her heart. It was the first gift Trent had given to Angelica and the last thing that Angelica had given to Spin. The only reason Spin had kept the sordid gift was because of how close it had lain to her mother’s heart.
Spin waited to feel some sort of emotion. Anything. All she
got was numbness.
“He passed away nearly a year ago. I’ve been searching for you since that time.”
A year? Last year was the first time she’d held still for longer than a few months. After all that, she’d been found on accident. Wrong place and the right time.
“He’s dead?” Spin said the words. She didn’t know if she needed confirmation or consolation. She just knew she had to say the words to make them real.
“I’m … sorry?” Mr. Schiessl looked entirely uncomfortable with the condolences. “I was given to believe you two didn’t have any relationship. With you being …”
“A dirty little secret,” she finished for him.
Mr. Schiessl inhaled. “Be that as it may, Eleanor—”
“My name is Spin.”
“Lord Trent provided for you in his will.”
“He what?” Now Spin sat forward. Her fingers grabbing the sides of the chair in a death grip.
Spin knew that her father had offered her mother money to get rid of her before she was born. She knew that he’d offered to put her away in a boarding school, out of his sight so that he could have all of Angelica’s attention. It was the only thing her mother had fought him on. Angelica wouldn’t be parted with her daughter.
For all her faults, Spin’s mother wanted no part of the man’s money, only his affection. She’d strove to prove that to him time and time again. Though Spin didn’t think her father ever believed her.
Whatever money he gave, her mother gave most to charity, after she took care of whatever she and Spin needed for themselves. Spin hadn’t grown up poor. But she grew up with a healthy distaste for money after her father had used it against her mother her entire life.
He’d come to her after her mother had died. Not to the funeral. Of course, he couldn’t be seen mourning his longtime mistress. But he had come to Spin and offered her a check to disappear, to keep her mouth shut about who and what she was. He had to keep up appearances.
Spin had yanked the check from his hold, ripped up the slip of paper, and tossed the shreds in his face. Then she’d taken a bag and disappeared.
And now he was dead and still trying to buy her off. Whatever amount it was this time, she would do the same. She’d tear up the check and toss it in Mr. Schiessl’s face.
“Your father has left you a sizable sum.”
Schiessl produced a slip of paper. Spin snatched the check. She was in the process of tearing it to shreds when she caught a glimpse of another set of documents on Schiessl’s desk. She couldn’t see the particulars, but she saw the name Mondego in angry red letters.
Her thumbs released from the brittle paper. She handed the check back to Mr. Schiessl.
“I don’t need this.”
The man’s mouth opened to protest. Before he could get any words out, Spin continued.
“Someone else does.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
