His bright blue eyes landed on mine. “What?”
“What?”
“You’re staring.”
My face threatened to heat, but I quickly thought of something else to stop it. “Oh, sorry, I was just thinking. Didn’t realize I was staring.”
A sudden knock on my office door saved the day. “Come in.”
Instead of it being Atlas, as we expected, it was my father. Fuck. Whenever he came to my office, it was never about anything good.
He walked in and sat on the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. “What are you two doing just sitting here?”
“We’re waiting on Atlas to bring us lunch. Did you just come here to complain?”
Dad’s brow raised, and Linden coughed back a laugh. It wasn’t like me to talk to my father like that, but it didn’t take a genius to recognize that I was changing. Into what? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was tired.
“You care to repeat that, son?”
I sagged like the fucking toddler I was around him. My bravery was clearly short-lived. “No. Sorry. It’s… just been a bad day.” It hadn’t, but I didn’t need to elaborate.
“Anyway, I came by to tell you that Tamara has been taken care of. We’ve reached a settlement.”
“Fucking bitch,” Linden said. “I wouldn’t have paid her the lint in my bellybutton.”
“Good thing you’re not in charge then,” Dad snapped.
“Sorry, sir. I only meant…”
“I know what you meant.” Dad’s hard eyes landed on me. “She has agreed not to disclose anything about you publicly.”
“How much did that set us back?”
Dad stood and brushed imaginary lint from his suit. “Let me worry about that.”
My blood started to boil, and my face heated as I stood. It was getting on my damn nerves. “You know, I’m not a fucking child! I’m a goddamn VP. You wanted me to work here, and I’ve done my part, starting out small and growing into this position exactly as you’ve wanted. You keep telling me you want to hand over the business to me one day, but all I see is condescension, disdain, and holding me back.”
“Holy fuck… Hugh,” Linden whispered, but I ignored him.
Of course, Dad was completely unfazed. Did anything fucking rattle him? Did he even have feelings at all?
“I’ll stop holding back as soon as I know I can trust you not to screw things up.”
“Screw things up?! I’ve brought this company millions!”
“And we just lost a lot of money because you can’t keep it—”
“Enough!” Linden snapped, shocking Dad and me into silence. “I love you and respect you, Uncle Hanley, but that’s enough. Hugh is an amazing son. He works so damn hard for this company… foryou. We both do.”
Dad stood there, looking at Linden, debating on telling him off, too, no doubt, but he said nothing and walked out.
I fell back into my chair and ran my hands through my hair. “Jesus…”
“I’m impressed.”
I looked up at Linden with new respect and appreciation. The last thing I expected from him was standing up for me. Not that he’d never stood up for me before, but usually, he never talked back to Dad. “Thank you for having my back.”
“Always, cuz. He was wrong.”
