“You’re jealous.” Realization dawned the moments the words came to her. “You h
ate that I’m finding success when you’ve had such trouble obtaining it for so long.”
“Crazy talk. You have no idea what I feel. I am a perfume master. I have taught the best, I have created the best. I am unheralded in the industry.”
“You are an old man who lives in the past. You haven’t created a successful perfume in years.” She spoke the blunt truth, had held her tongue for far too many years to count.
Well, no longer. He may have been a master, but he was a faded one at best.
“Ungrateful brat. I taught you everything you know,” he spat.
She hung up on him before he could get another angry word in. She was already upset enough, didn’t need to hear any more of his hateful words, discover more of his treachery.
“What happened with your father?” Rhett asked.
She jerked her head, glaring at him. “Why did you call him?”
He frowned. “I never called him.”
“Really? So you don’t have an appointment with him this week sometime? To discuss his coming back to Worth and taking over my position?”
He pressed his lips together, his expression resigned. “He called me, Gabriella. I swear it.”
“When?” She bit back a sob, pressed her fingers to her lips. She didn’t know who to believe.
Closing his eyes briefly, he thumped his head against the back of the seat. “A few days ago. I thought he wanted to discuss you, but all he did was go on about how he let the opportunity to work for us get away from him. Trust me, I didn’t say a word to encourage him. Then he asked to meet with me. Questioning if we could somehow come to an agreement and have him work for us, alongside you.”
“And what did you tell him?” She almost didn’t want to know the answer.
“He was so upset, I wasn’t about to deny him over the phone. So I…humored him. Told him we could meet when he returned to the States and talk it over.” This time he did lean toward her, reaching for her hands so he could clutch them in his. “I have no plans of replacing you. None of us do. Are you already forgetting what happened in that meeting? They love you.”
Supposedly, so did her father, yet he was undercutting her without a care to her position, her feelings. “I want to believe you.”
Rhett released his hold on her. “But you can’t. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying!” She threw her hands up in the air, completely overcome. “He is my father yet he wants to take my position without a care as to how I might feel. You should’ve heard the things he said, the way he spoke to me. And the things I said to him.” The sob came now. It felt good to let it out.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, she shook her head. “He has always put himself first, even when I was a child. I was just too blinded by love to see it. Or admit it.”
“Gabriella…” Rhett reached for her again and she jerked away.
“No. Don’t touch me. Take me back to my apartment.” She drew away from him as far as she could, her arms crossed in front of her, her chest tight.
“What? I thought you were coming home with me.”
“I need to be alone. I need to think this through.” She sent him an imploring look. “Please, Rhett. I can’t—I can’t deal with everything tonight. I need some time by myself.”
He looked ready to argue, his entire body taut, his lips parted. Finally, he leaned back against the seat with an exasperated sigh. “I can give you that. But know this—I would never lie to you. I would never go behind your back or double-cross you. I will always put you first, no matter what.”
Turning away from him, she stared out the window, at the busy city streets that passed. She desperately wanted to believe him. But if her own father couldn’t be trusted, then how could she trust Rhett, whom she’d really only just met?
It hurt too much to question.
Rhett sat behind his desk, quietly raging inside. The emotion was the only thing fueling him, prepping him for his confrontation with Michel Durand.
The man was an unmitigated bastard who didn’t have an ounce of caring toward his daughter. That he could be so callous, so dismissive of her feelings and accomplishments, rendered Rhett speechless.
It also made him madder than hell.