I shook my head, standing up. “I don’t think this is going to work out,” I said. “Not unless Maddy gets a fair shake in all this. I mean, if I’m going to take on more responsibilities, I’m going to need a personal assistant. Why demote her and hire someone else when we could just transfer her position to the tower? You want to pay her less, fine. I can cover the difference out of my own salary. I’m not cutting her pay, and that’s not up for negotiation.”
My father waved his hand as he lit the end of his imported cigar. “We’re not having a negotiation. Perhaps you’ve forgotten which name is on the building? I already took care of everything. Maddy is out, and your personal assistant position has been filled.”
I blinked, unable to form a better response than two simple words that escaped my lips. “By who?”
He sucked in a long draw before he answered, blowing a smoke ring as he said the word I somehow knew would bring me yet another dose of pain.
“Jane.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. “Jane?” I echoed. “You’re trying to get rid of the best assistant I’ve ever had, and now you tell me you hired Jane on as my new PA after I personally fired her? What the hell, Dad?”
“She does good work,” he said with a shrug. “And she keeps you on track. You’ve softened up since you hired on Madison, and I know damn well Jane can fix that.”
“You’re insane,” I hissed, clenching my hands into fists at my sides. “Maddy was on my staff when I fixed that deal with Harold Verger. I haven’t gone soft at all.”
“Oh is that so? You’d blow that deal to smithereens in an instant, if it meant pleasing sweet precious Maddy. I saw the way you looked at her over dinner as the little bitch dressed me down in my own house,” my father said, his piercing gaze meeting mine. “Wouldn’t you, Preston? I’d bet you’re already considering it. I can see the wheels turning in that head of yours. You’re angry, aren’t you? That’s good. I want you angry. That’s the fire you need burning if you’re going to carry this company into the future, son.”
I stared. I wasn’t sure how to answer him, but he didn’t give me time.
“And besides, you can’t keep fucking your stepsister, Preston.”
I watched as his lips curled into a crooked smile, my breath catching as my heart skipped a beat. “Maybe she’s not family yet, but she will be, and then this little dalliance will have to stop. And when it does, it’ll all go bad, Preston. Believe me, I’ve seen what Madison’s mother is like. She’ll go after you and your money faster than you can pull out of her tight little cunt. Maybe she’ll say you raped her, or that you threatened her job if she didn’t go along with your twisted little fucking games. Now, maybe accusations like that don’t hold a hell of a lot of weight between men like us, but fucking your stepsister? Now that’s just plain unacceptable.”
He stood up, his bones creaking as he made his way to my side. He blew a puff of smoke in my face as he said, “You’ll be a pariah, Preston. And so will I. They’ll be wagging this story up and down the news stations and dragging our stock value through the mud. Is that what you want?”
My vision was tunneling. I could feel heat prickling my face. How the hell did he know about Maddy and me? How the hell could he know?
“You’re sick,” I said, a feeble attempt to refute his claims, however true they were. My words sounded weak even to my ears. “Jesus, Dad. That’s…”
“You’re going to get rid of her,” he said. “The sooner, the better. Because one day, you’re going to need an heir just like I did, and it’s damn sure not going to be something you can do with Maddy. You’re going to need someone cutthroat to help balance out whatever weakness your mother managed to impart in you. Jane should do quite nicely.”
I knew my father had always approved of Jane, but I’d never considered it had anything to do with breeding. I felt sick. I felt like my world was tilting, and I was doing my best to keep holding on as my thoughts careened through my head.
“No,” I said, my lips feeling numb. “I don’t take orders from you. Not from a man who cheated on my mom, and not from a man who…” I trailed off. What had he done, exactly—had he put cameras in my bedroom? I settled for, “…accuses me of sleeping with my own stepsister.”
“We all make sacrifices,” my father said. The heat of his stare was almost hotter than the blood pooling in my cheeks. “All of us, Preston. This will be yours. But the rewards are so much greater.”
“I don’t want to be like you,” I said, backing away from him and turning into the hall. “I don’t want to be anything like you!”
When I stormed into the parlor to get Maddy, she couldn’t have looked more relieved to see me. But that relief soon turned to confusion, and then to concern as I took her by the arm and pulled her from her seat.
“Come on,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
I held her hand on the way out the door, and there was no shame.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Preston said once we were back in the car.
Despite his anger, he was taking his time getting us back to the office. In fact, I didn’t recognize any of the roads were traveling down. Whatever he wanted to talk about, it was obviously going to be a lengthy conversation.
“Is this about the shelter?” I asked. “Because if it’s some rambling justification about survival of the fittest straight out of your father’s mouth, then I don’t want to hear it.”
“It’s not,” he answered. The moonlight made his sun-kissed face look ashen. “It’s about my father, and what’s next for us.”
I leaned back in my seat. Something about his tone put me on edge, and I felt my pulse begin to quicken and my mouth run dry. I had the feeling this wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.
“Okay,” I told him. “I’m listening.”
Preston took a deep breath before beginning. “When my parents divorced, I was still pretty young. I didn’t really understand what was going on. My mom tried to explain it to me, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. What kid can wrap his head around his parents splitting up?” He shook his head. “I know now that my father was cheating on her, and she couldn’t take it anymore. But back then, she didn’t explain that to me. I guess she didn’t want to tarnish my image of my father, even though for a long time, it tarnished my image of her.”
I listened quietly, hands in my lap as Preston continued. The corners of his eyes were pinched and his mouth had turned into a pained grimace. I felt a pang of sadness for him. Maybe I couldn’t relate—my mother had never felt the need to hold back when badmouthing my father—but the hurt it was causing him was plain on his face.
“That must have been hard for you,” I said. I knew those words were stupid and meaningless, but I felt like I ought to say something.
“It was,” he replied. “To make matters worse, she’d signed a pre-nup before she and my dad got married. So she wasn’t entitled to a dime of his money when they divorced, and my father used his considerable wealth to ensure that she’d walk away with absolutely nothing—including me.”
I had wondered why Preston stayed with his father. I had assumed that it was because a boy might want to stay with his dad, but I’d always heard that courts were more likely to award custody to children’s mothers.
I asked him, “How?”
He said, “My father sought full custody. My mom had never intended to take me away from him. She’d wanted to split my time between them so that we could
all still be some kind of family. But my dad was vindictive, and as I learned later in life, family courts only side with the mom when fathers don’t seek custody. When they do, either joint or sole, they get it over seventy percent of the time. It didn’t hurt that Dad paid off the judge, either. When you have the money to hire the very best lawyers around, not to mention provide an ‘excellent standard of care’ for your child, odds are that the other parent is going to get screwed.”
When he spoke again, his voice shuddered. “My mom walked out of that courtroom with nothing. She was penniless. She’d lost her only child. And not long after that, there was an accident.”
My lips parted. I felt my stomach plummet to my feet. A chill seized me, and I shook my head in utter disbelief. “Oh my God, Preston. I had no idea. I’m so sorry…”