Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
He didn’t. “I was expecting you.” He sank back in the armchair and met my gaze head on.
My ankle rested on the opposite knee, my closed fist against my cheek. “She doesn’t know you’re here.”
“I figured as much.”
I rubbed my fingers across my jawline, seeing the darkness that had invaded his soul. There was no hardness to his stare, no arrogance to his stature. He seemed dead on the inside, defeated in the very war he’d started. “What do you want?”
He stared at the table between us, his fingertips rubbing against his temple. “To speak with my daughter…but I suspect that’s not going to happen. She’s ignored all my calls and texts.”
“I’m not keeping her from you—if that’s what you’re wondering.”
He looked at me once more. “I’m sure if she did want to see me, you would keep her away from me.”
“I don’t tell Scarlett what to do. She makes her own decisions. You should take a page from my book.”
A slight smirk moved on to his lips. “The first insult of the night.”
“I can ask her to come down, but I suspect she’ll say no.”
He gave a heavy sigh. “I need to speak to her. I have to make this right.”
“I don’t know if you can make this right, Dante. It’s too much shit for her to forgive. She looks at your relationship through an entirely new lens. Every word you’ve ever said, she’s picked apart with a comb.”
“Did you tell her, then?”
“Tell her what?”
He looked at me full on. “You know what.”
“I didn’t have to tell her, Dante.”
He stared for several seconds, his gaze hard as stone.
“You fucked yourself over when she heard what you said. Don’t blame me for that.”
He looked away.
“So?”
His eyes came back.
“Still going to pull the trigger?” If his answer was yes, I’d kill him right there. I had a gun strapped underneath my armchair. In light of everything that had happened, I knew Scarlett would understand.
“Not really much point, is there?” He looked at the fire and slouched in the chair, like he didn’t want to be there but had nowhere else to go.
I actually felt bad for him.
“She’ll never forgive me.” He spoke so quietly, his words were barely audible. “I don’t even know why I bothered coming down here.”
“Who was that meeting with?”
He turned back to me.
“The man who agreed to take out Theo and me.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He looked at the fire again. “I’ve called the whole thing off.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
“There may be a chance my daughter forgives me…someday. But she’ll never forgive me if you die and she knows I’m the one responsible. I’ve dissolved our partnership and told him we wouldn’t be moving forward.”
“I should kill you, you know that?”
“My daughter wouldn’t appreciate that. And if she really didn’t care…then I wish I were dead.” He spoke with a breathlessness, like he was too tired to carry on this conversation. It was a very different version of him than I’d ever met.
“That was a stupid move, Dante.”
He gave a sigh. “I just wanted my business back. Theo had great connections, but you’re a young hothead who lets his arrogance get in the way.”
“You’re one to talk.”
He didn’t rise to the insult, still not caring. “Doesn’t matter anymore.”
I let the silence settle in, pierced by the crackle of the flames every few seconds. There was nothing left to discuss, but he continued to linger, like his daughter would come around the corner at any moment. “Dante.”
After a breath, he looked at me.
“I only took your business because you took Scarlett. I never would have wanted it if you’d just let us be together.”
He gave an almost imperceptible nod. “I know. A mistake I’ll always regret.”
“So I’d like to give it back to you—as a sign of a truce.”
The defeat in his eyes started to fade as light returned to his stare. “A truce…”
“I know what it’s like not to have a relationship with my parents. I don’t want that for Scarlett. Despite the horrible things you’ve done, I know you love your daughter. You just have a really fucked-up way of showing it.”
In disbelief, he continued to stare.
“I can ask Theo to walk away too. He would do that for me.”
Dante seemed to be stunned into silence because he didn’t speak for a long while. “While I’m touched by your merciful offer, it doesn’t matter now. I lost the one thing that actually matters.”
“I’ll help you rebuild this broken relationship, Dante. As I said before, I think it would be a great disservice to her to lose her father. Your business will be separate from your personal relationship with Scarlett, whom you need to accept will never be associated with that world again. And you need to tell her the truth. The whole truth. Everything.”
He released a shaky breath.