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I’d broken all my rules for this woman. I didn’t chase. I didn’t do commitment. But I’d done it all for Emma Cousins. I’d visited every movie set in every butt-fuck-elbow location she was filming. When I’d found her toothbrush in my bathroom, I’d cleared out space for her in the cabinet. I’d even done a few scenes in her trashy reality show and let her plaster every photo of us together all over her social media. She must have been laughing at me the entire time. Two years of my life down the drain. I’d never cared about a woman the way I cared about her.
I let my gaze rove over her, and it was like looking at a stranger. Who was this woman that could do this?
“I’ll handle him.” My father smoothed a hand over his hair and flashed Emma a commanding glance.
Emma bit her lip, a pensive shimmer in her eyes.
“Go,” Dad barked.
Emma flinched then walked away stiffly in her skyscraper heels. My chest ached so much she may as well have taken one of those shoes off and stabbed me in the heart. She didn’t give me a second glance. Dad mopped his sweating brow with a handkerchief. A ludicrous red suit with a snowy fur trim wrapped around his powerful shoulders. Heavy gold chains dangled down his front. He looked like a pimp Santa.
“It wasn’t planned, but with this girl it’s … different.” He measured me with a cool, appraising look. “This is real for me. I love her.”
“Bullshit. You only love yourself.”
Laughter and music drifted up the spiraling marble staircase and made my teeth grit. Everyone would be laughing when word of this got out.
“This place is crawling with press. If you cause a scene, you’ll embarrass yourself. Come on, Gabs. Let your old man off the hook.” His tone was cajoling, as though I was a toddler and he’d found me crying with a scraped knee. “What can I do? How can I fix this?”
Anger swirled tight and hot in my chest, but I’d die before I let him see what this was doing to me. The words spilled out without any thought. “You can give me the club.”
His mouth quirked with humor, but I held my face level.It’s no joke. You screwed me over, so I’m going to screw you. “Give me the club or I’m going to tell everyone what kind of man Micky Rivers is: a cheat and a cold, double-crossing bastard who would betray his own son.”
The amusement died on his lips and his expression turned still and serious. “Don’t push me, Gabs. We’ve talked about this. You’re still too young.”
“I’m thirty in a couple of years. You made your first million by twenty.”
He studied my face before he took a long breath and blew it out. “This is a big year. I’ve got some ideas for new signings. Let’s talk about it next year.”
Every time. Next year. Next bloody year. What more did he want from me? I’d done everything he wanted. I’d won the respect of the team and the coaches, jumped through every hoop. He didn’t trust me. The club would always be a carrot he dangled to keep me in line.
“Fine. I’m telling the press what I walked in on.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’ll ruin Emma, too.”
My chest tightened. I had to calm down. A tabloid feeding frenzy wouldn’t be good for any of us. I had to get out of this bullshit mansion. Away from this bullshit party. I had to breathe. I dashed down the endless landing. Dad darted after me.
“Don’t do it, Gabs.” Dad’s voice was breathless from the exertion.
He caught up with me at the top of the staircase. Loud music pulsed up to us. Guests milled at the bottom of the steps, a couple of them glancing curiously in our direction. Dad’s fingers wrapped around my wrist.
I ripped my arm free. “Don’t touch me.”
A warning flickered in his eyes; his voice was a low whisper. “Keep it down. People are looking.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. He’d just been balls deep in my girlfriend and I was supposed to shut up and get over it. I had a girlfriend that lied and cheated and a father who would betray his own son. And that didn’t even hurt as much as the fact that he didn’t believe in me enough to hand over the reins to Calverdale United. Why the fuck not? What did I have to do to prove myself?
Dad gave an anxious cough and glanced down the steep white marble steps to the guests milling below. He smoothed his hair. “I’m going back to the party. I suggest you—”
Grimacing, he clutched his chest. His knees buckled and he stumbled, piling into me. My back hit the banister, but I steadied him on the edge of the steps. He gasped for breath. Shit. That had been close. A couple of inches nearer the edge and he would have been a goner. He hunched over, his hands resting on his thighs.
“Are you okay?”
He straightened, then slumped into me. I tried to prop him back on his feet and twist him away from the edge of the stairs. His fingers dug into my shirt and he let out a low, unnatural groan.
A knot of anxiety twisted in my gut. “Dad?”
Taking a deep, unsteady breath, he pushed away from me to grab hold of the banister. Time slowed into something strange and unreal. Dad’s legs buckled. This time I wasn’t in the right place to catch him. My fingers slipped over red velvet at his back. A scream drifted up from the onlookers at the bottom of the steps. My stomach dropped to my knees.
