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er his feet and he was struggling to get his bearings. After all, his whole life had just been declared null and void by his own father, a man who was obviously incapable of even an ounce of sympathy or compassion. Surely he had never felt so abandoned and alone before in his entire life.
“You’re going to regret doing this, Dad!” Ace promised.
Ace stormed out of the room, leaving his disoriented siblings to try to comprehend what all this meant for the company as well as for them.
Marlowe was also wondering why their father had allowed himself to be manipulated to agree with Selina, a woman none of them even remotely liked.
Was she behind this somehow? Marlowe couldn’t help wondering.
Meanwhile she was also experiencing regrets again. She regretted having told Bowie about the email and that Ace being related to the rest of them had consequently been in doubt, so a DNA test had been initiated. The bottom line was that the results had caused Ace to be ousted by their father. She could just imagine that this would have the Robertsons beside themselves with joy, although she doubted that Bowie would feel that way. She was beginning to feel that he wasn’t such a bad guy, all things considered.
She should have just kept her mouth shut, Marlowe upbraided herself. Desperate to have something to blame, she zeroed in on her condition. If it wasn’t for this stupid pregnancy, causing her to be soft as well as weak, she wouldn’t have said anything to Bowie about Ace.
Well, no more, Marlowe promised herself. From now on, she was going to be as closed off and as tough as she used to be, she vowed.
Marlowe looked at her father, disappointed beyond words at the way he had handled all of this. Disappointed, too, that the man she had looked up to, despite everything, had given in to Selina, of all people, rather than override the witch.
Not for the first time Marlowe wondered if the hateful woman was holding something over her father’s head. Something that would make Payne jump through hoops and turn his back on the rest of his family.
There was no other explanation for her father’s actions.
It had to be something really big, she decided. Otherwise she was certain that Payne Colton would have sent that woman packing, her tail between her legs, a long time ago—immediately after their divorce, Marlowe thought. Instead, she’d watched her father, never a patient man, keep treating the wretched woman like she was some sort of trusted confidante instead of the hateful, poisonous viper that she was.
Only the look in his eyes, when he occasionally let his guard down, told Marlowe otherwise.
What is it, Dad? What does Selina have on you that keeps you in line like this?
“Okay, everybody, settle down,” her father ordered, raising his voice. It wasn’t a request, it was a flat-out demand, and they all knew better than not to obey. “With Ace gone, someone is going to have to take over as the company’s CEO.”
Marlowe stiffened, praying that her father was not about to appoint her to this post. There was just too much going on in her life right now for her to maintain a clear enough head, let alone the entire Colton Oil company. She liked to think that she was up to any challenge, but this would have been just too much for her.
“So, for the time being,” her father was saying, “I’ll take over the position. It’s my old job, anyway,” he said with a resigned shrug, as if part of him had always known it would come down to this eventually. “So, unless there are any objections—” his tone indicated that he didn’t assume that there would be as he looked around the table again “—meeting’s adjourned. Go do your work, people,” Payne ordered.
The others filed out of the room, but Marlowe hung back. She and Ace were not as close as they used to be, although they did work together on the board. But she really felt for him because of what he was going through now. That made her feel that she needed to say something to her father about the explosion that had just happened between the two men.
Payne pulled a few papers together, then raised his eyes when he saw that Marlowe hadn’t left yet.
“You got something to say, girl?” Payne addressed her gruffly.
He must have assumed that she was going to ask for his forgiveness for the mess she had gotten herself into with the Robertson kid.
“Yes, I do,” she told her father. “Ace didn’t mean it, Dad.”
Payne’s forehead furrowed into a mass of wrinkles.
“What?” he demanded.
Her father had a gold medal in intimidation, but Marlowe refused to back down. Instead, she forced herself to push on.
“Ace was just upset,” she told Payne. “His whole world has just come crashing down all around him, and he wound up turning all his anger on you. But you have to know that he didn’t mean what he just said.”
Payne grew angrier.
“What goes on between Ace and me is none of your damn business, missy, so back off, you hear me?” he shouted at her. “And you’re in no position to give me any kind of advice!”
Marlowe struggled to hang on to her own temper. She supposed that her father was upset by the news himself and this was his way of dealing with it. But she wasn’t in the mood to make excuses for her father or put up with his bad temper or his even worse personality.
“Sorry,” she said sarcastically. “I guess I forgot my place.”
