“No, ma’am.”
“Little consolation,” I muttered, ducking the inevitable swat she sent my way.
She smoothed her silver-gray hair as if I’d messed it up terribly with my hug. Her brown eyes were warm as she shook her head at me. “They’re your family. You shouldn’t speak about them like that.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “I wouldn’t, but?—”
“Ah, Aurelia.”
I cut myself off when I heard my father’s voice, turning to find him standing at the foot of the grand staircase.
One of his hands rested on the banister like he was a benevolent monarch surveying his kingdom. I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since my resignation, but he looked at me as though no time had passed at all.
Like nothing had changed between us. Although, I supposed, I’d quit and none of them had cared. To him, nothinghadchanged. He certainly hadn’t. His silver hair was exactly the same, he wore a sharp suit that was perfectly tailored eventhough it wasn’t a workday and he probably wouldn’t even leave the house, and his spine was still ramrod straight.
“Hi, Daddy,” I said quietly, walking over to embrace him in a formal kind of hug that didn’t linger.
He patted my back and dutifully launched straight into a lecture when he released me, even clasping his hands behind his back. “It’s good to finally see you living the life you want, being available to your mother and focusing on your own pursuits. Mom has been ecstatic and you certainly look much lighter.”
I smiled, nodding in all the right places, but I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t like I could tell him that my so-calledown pursuitswere exactly what I’d been doing for him all along, because that was what made me happy, especially now that it wasn’t his name across the top of every document anymore.
He definitely didn’t want to know that I was pouring all my energy into myself—with a side dish of Westwood & Sons, his greatest competitors in the market.
No.It’s better to let him keep his illusions.
I did find myself bringing a hand to my chest, though. It’d become something of a habit, touching the ring over my clothes to remind myself that I had a plan. A future. Someone who had my back in a way my own family never had.
Because of this ring, I was about to upend the entire narrative my parents had written for me, marrying not to become the perfect wife and mother, but a powerful businesswoman in my own right. Still, there was a part of me that wanted to remind him of the work I’d done for him. A part that maybe was searching for just one sentence of acknowledgment that I’d meant something at Van Alen & Associates.
“What about the Kingsley portfolio?” I asked, doing my best to make it sound like I didn’t care what had happened. “I’ve been wondering if you got it in the end?”
“No, we didn’t.” His jaw tightened, the self-satisfied expression vanishing from his face. “W&S won it. Sterling Westwood personally oversaw the acquisition. They were faster, and unfortunately, he outbid us.”
Sterling Westwood, huh?I didn’t even know if Sterling knew about that acquisition yet. The poor guy had a lot on his plate at the moment, with the baby coming and all.
I lowered my gaze, hiding the little curve of triumph I felt ghosting across my lips. Van Alen & Associates had only ever stood a chance at that portfolio because of me. I was the one who had found out about the deal, nurtured a relationship with the attorneys, and brought Kingsley to the table. My father had let it slip through his fingers, and I wanted to howl at the moon in victory.
Even after all the time I spent at the firm, he still couldn’t tell me they’d lost it when I’d left.BecauseI’d left. No, it had to have been because of Sterling, because the way Dad saw it, there was no other reason the client wouldn’t have stuck with him.
Before I could say anything more, my mother swept into the foyer, bringing with her a cloud of perfume and silk. “There you are, baby girl. I need you. Which of these tie-backs should we use?”
Her diamond bracelets jingled as she lifted the swatches of silk between her fingers. She didn’t bother waiting for a response before she motioned me down the hall. She also didn’t even glance at my father.
Instead, she just kept talking, also not checking to make sure I was following. “The florist botched the garland for the banister. They brought hunter green instead. Can you believe it? Hunter green for Christmas. It’s ridiculous. The caterer somehow got it in their heads that pheasant is festive and I still haven’t finalized the seating chart. We have so much to do.”
I let myself be swept away from my dad to mom’s study, which was essentially her party and event planning headquarters. When I walked in though, I winced. It looked like a mashup between Santa’s workshop and the palace of Versailles. Swatches of ribbon lay on every overstuffed chair, sample menus were scattered across her imported desk, and a seating chart stood on an easel front and center.
My mother was in her element. I was out of my depth. Give me corporate strategies and complicated acquisitions any day over this. I did my best to keep up, learning about napkins and wine pairings on the fly.
It took us hours to go through it all, everything from centerpieces to the exact shade of candlelight she demanded, but I finally escaped. By the time I got home, I was ready for silence, a long, hot bath, and a massive glass of wine.
When I stepped into the lobby of my building, however, I stopped short, and suddenly, it seemed highly unlikely that any of that was going to happen. Harrison was here, but not as the polished billionaire in the bespoke suit. He was in dark blue jeans and a worn leather jacket, his hair pushed back like he’d been running his hands through it all day.
My mouth dried up instantly. He looked good. Too good. But before I could start getting all worked up about the kiss again, I noticed the weight in his eyes. The same eyes that could make me laugh with just a glance were shadowed and tired, the faintest of rings underneath them.
Two days. That was how long it had been since that kiss, and they’d been two days of silence. Two days of me pretending I wasn’t replaying it in my head every minute of every day.
I clutched my keys tighter in my hand as our gazes held, but he didn’t say a word. He was just standing there, leaning against the counter, looking like he was about to fall asleep right there on his feet.
