AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His surprise was evident.
‘I know that must sound mercenary,’ she said with a grimace. ‘But it’s very important to me. I need this fee, Thirio, and the acclaim the wedding will bring to me.’
‘You speak like someone who intends to go out on her own. Are you opening your own company?’
‘No,’ she denied quickly. ‘Not exactly.’
‘Then what?’
She had hoped to avoid getting into too many details, but again, sitting opposite Thirio, the truth seemed to bubble out of her, almost without her awareness. ‘My father died a year after they were married. He loved my stepmother very much and I think—I hope—she loved him. But I know now that before going through with the wedding, she insisted on a prenuptial agreement. It’s ironclad. And my father paid very little attention to the terms. After all, he had no intention of divorcing her. She was very specific though about how his will should be updated.’ Lucinda’s voice cracked a little. ‘So they married, and he got his affairs in order as required, with no thought that it would ever come to matter.’
‘What were the terms of the will?’
‘That everything would pass to her.’ Lucinda’s voice was blanked of emotion, but she felt it heavy in her heart. ‘Our family home, my father’s business—that I had spent all my spare time at growing up, because there was no one to look after me—and all his savings. I have nothing, Thirio. Everything became hers. I depended on her “generosity” after his death. I have ever since.’
Silence cloaked them as he digested this. ‘And so this fee will enable you to start your own life,’ he said, the words strangely thick.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want my own life. I want the life I should have had. That business should be mine. My stepmother is only interested in using the database to find rich husbands for Sofia and Carina. She likes the income, and the cachet, but I believe she’d sell it to me—for the right price.’
‘This fee surely wouldn’t be enough.’
‘No,’ she agreed with a small nod. ‘But it’s a deposit. I’ve spoken to a couple of banks and I believe I’ll be able to secure a loan.’ There was doubt there, but she couldn’t allow it to infiltrate her mind. She was living on hopes, and she had to hold onto them, or she might fall apart. ‘It’s all I’ve wanted, Thirio. For years. I decided so long ago that I would make this right. And then every time she—’
‘Go on,’ he urged, voice gravelled, when she stopped, mid-sentence.
Lucinda hesitated, running a finger around the rim of her water glass. ‘Every time she was unkind to me, or mismanaged the company, or said something unfavourable about my father, I’d just hold onto the idea that, soon, I would fix it. That I would erase her from his business and my life.’ She scrunched up her face. ‘I know that must make me seem like a terrible person. She’s my stepmother, after all.’
Thirio’s stare was so intense it was almost unnerving. ‘In what ways has she been unkind to you?’ he asked, after several long seconds had stretched between them.
Lucinda’s stomach looped.
So. Many. Ways.
She zipped her lips closed before the telling response could emerge, dropping her eyes to the table.
‘What happened to honesty?’ Thirio prompted. And though the words were soft, they had the cut-through of a sharp metal blade. She flinched a little, her eyes flittering to his before she could stop them.
‘I—’ She darted her tongue out, licking her lower lip. His eyes traced the gesture and her heart stammered. He had a point. An hour ago, she’d been wanting to sleep with Thirio, and yet she balked at revealing this information to him? It wasn’t a secret. Her stepmother had eviscerated her publicly and openly, shouting at Lucinda in shopping malls and in front of staff at the office. ‘I suppose you could say she never liked me very much,’ Lucinda whispered. ‘She hadn’t really known my father all that long, then he died, and she was saddled with an extra child.’
He frowned. ‘Were you difficult?’
‘I was fifteen and in grief, so possibly.’
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘Somehow, I doubt that.’
She flicked her glance back to the tabletop, running her finger over a knot in the timber surface. ‘Me too.’ She bit into her lip. ‘I don’t know why she hates me.’ Lucinda shook her head, then squared her shoulders. ‘But she does, and I’ve finally learned to stop trying to fix that. She’ll never like me.’
‘So why not walk away? Why does the business matter so much to you?’
‘Because it was his,’ she said immediately. ‘I basically grew up there. As a little girl, I used to send faxes and open the mail. As I got older, I began to type letters and schedule bookings. By the time he passed away, I was already known to most of his clients and venues. The company’s in my blood, and seeing the way she’s running it into the ground makes me want to... I don’t know...throw something at a wall!’ She finished with an exasperated growl, then tried to bring herself back under control. ‘I’m really good at this, Thirio.’
‘I can see that.’ He thumbed through the plan absent-mindedly. ‘Your proposal is comprehensive and creative. I was very impressed when I read it.’
And despite having, only moments earlier, proclaimed her skill as an events manager, hearing him praise her felt like being dipped in delicious warm honey. Pleasure spread through Lucinda, almost ameliorating the sting of his earlier rejection.
‘That’s very kind of you.’
‘Kindness is irrelevant. It’s the truth. And your stepmother is a fool to waste an asset like you.’
