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“You can quit the games, Sienna,” he drawled. “I know where you’re going.”
“Good,” she said with a calm she didn’t feel. “Then maybe you can clarify for me why you told him I’d changed my mind and didn’t feel that Smithfield and Vine was the right firm for me. Which then prompted Mr. Smithfield to cancel my interview.”
Her father didn’t break out in a sweat. He was the coolest cucumber in the salad. He finished another forkful of salmon, this time topped with rice pilaf, only then saying, “You know the best place for you is Walker and Walker, where you have me to guide you. I let you go off on your own to a huge corporation. But even when you realized your mistake, you went to Smithfield.” His face pinched like a spinster detecting a bad smell. “It was my duty to help you see that Walker and Walker is far superior. And where you belong.”
So that was it. He couldn’t have his daughter going to his biggest competitor. “And you screwed me over because you knew what was best for me?”
“I don’t like your tone or your language, Sienna.” His voice dipped to a growl.
Softly, without all the animosity rising in her, she said, “I don’t care what you like, Father.” She said it the way she used to say Mother when her mom made her so angry she could scream. “There’s no way I’m ever going to work for you. Even if I have to leave the city and move to L.A. Or Chicago or New York. And I’m only a member of your wedding party because I like Bron. She’s a friend. Which is why I call her Bron, because that’s what she likes, not Brianna.”
She ate more of the delicious lobster. She wouldn’t walk out on this fabulous meal. Especially since lobster had been the most expensive thing on the menu.
He sighed wearily, as if she were an annoying thirteen-year-old who no longer showed respect for her parents. “You’re young, Sienna. You don’t know what’s good for you. One day, you and Matthew could run my firm.”
She wanted to snort. “I don’t think so. You’ll make Matthew the senior partner, expecting him to lord it over me. You want me under your thumb to keep me from rising up the ladder. Why? Because I’m a woman?” Her words were heartfelt, her thoughts tearing a hole inside her.
“You make it sound as if I hate you, Sienna. If I did, I’d never make you an offer at all. Instead, I’m giving you the biggest opportunity of your life.” A blaze sparked in the depths of his gaze. “Just like I offered your mother when I married her. But she didn’t know what was good for her either.” The fire in his eyes chilled her.
“I know you two didn’t have a great marriage. But I shouldn’t have to pay for that.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she rushed on, “I just wanted you to know that Mr. Smithfield offered me another opportunity. And this time, I don’t need you to call him.”
“You’re going to regret it, I promise you. It’s the biggest mistake of your life, and it’s going to bite you in the ass.” He smiled, an ugly, wolfish grin, and for the first time ever, she believed she was seeing the real man.
He lowered his voice to a harsh note. “And tell your mother it’ll bite her in the ass too.”
Then slowly, methodically, his meal only half finished, he folded his napkin and laid it on the table. Sliding out of the booth gracefully, he rose to his feet, signaling the waiter with a snap of his fingers. “Put this on my tab.”
Sienna smiled. “Thank you, Father. The lobster is delicious.” She looked at the waiter. “Do you have a doggy bag?” she asked, pointing to her father’s salmon. “I’d really hate for that to go to waste. And another champagne cocktail would be nice too.”
