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Carla cleared her throat. “Why would I be? I’ve done my best to get in between the two of you since I’ve gotten here, and you’d be surprised how easy it was. Rachel doesn’t have a lot of faith in herself, so it wasn’t hard to plant the seed of doubt.”
“Get out.” I snapped, my eyes narrowing into slits. “Leave right now before I change my mind and tell the police about what you were doing here today.”
Carla hesitated for a second before she bolted past me, shoes squeaking against the floor. I twisted to face her, saw her get on the elevator, and let out a growl. When I was sure she was far enough away, I knocked over everything on my desk, my vision turning red.
My father was going to answer for this.
I was going to make sure of it.
Chapter 24: Face-off
Bernard
“Bernard, I wasn’t expecting you—”
I pushed past him and stepped into the apartment. “Don’t. We both know why I’m here.”
My father lingered in the doorway, his drink in his hand. A moment later, he shrugged and shut the door. Then he finished off his drink and set it down on the table by the door. He turned, so he was facing me directly, and said nothing.
“How could you? Carla, really? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering what you’ve tried to do in the past.”
“Everything I’ve done has been in your best interest,” he replied without missing a beat. “I know you can’t see it now, but both my company and Carla are your future. Everything else doesn’t matter.”
I narrowed my eyes into slits. “That’s as far as you’re concerned. Why is it so hard for you to believe I can make a good life for myself? Why are you so desperate to have me come back to the company?”
He straightened his back. “Because it’s where you belong.”
“I don’t belong with you,” I hissed. “I don’t even want to be anywhere near you. It’s bad enough that you’ve never cared about me but trying to destroy my company from the inside? That’s a new low, even for you.”
My father bridged the distance between us, and his eyes flashed with emotion. “I don’t know what Carla told you—”
“She told me everything,” I interrupted, pausing to take a few steps back. “Do I even want to know why?”
“Because you’re my son, and I love you.”
“You don’t destroy the people you love. You did it to mom, and now you’re trying to do it to me, and I won’t let you.”
“I never destroyed your mother.”
I bristled, and red spots danced in my field of vision. “Yes, you did. I don’t care what you tell yourself to sleep at night, but you’re the reason she died. How can you even live with yourself?”
“I did not kill your mother,” he repeated with a lift of his chin. “Your mother was sick.”
I pointed a finger at him and shook. “You’re never going to own up to anything, are you? As far as you’re concerned, everyone else makes mistakes, but the great Michael Shaw never does.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I never said that.”
“You might as well have. She was never going to be good enough for you. And I’m never going to be good enough for you, am I? It doesn’t matter how many times I stop you or how well I do. It’s just never going to be enough.”
My father stood up straighter and blew out a breath. “You need to sit down.”
“No.”
He pointed at the brown leather living room across from him. “Sit down, now.”
I stared at him for a few moments before I stormed over to the couch. There, I perched on the edge and watched him through narrowed eyes. He took a seat on the armchair opposite me, holding his back erect.
“I know the two of us don’t see eye to eye,” he began in a clear voice. “And we have different ideas about what your life should look like, but you need to know the truth about your mother. I loved Eleanor, I still do, but your mother was sick.”
