“I suspect he would. Maybe he just needed someone to show him what he couldn’t see himself.”
She whirled back to face him. “Ishowed him! For years I have been showing him. Why couldn’t he see it? Why couldn’t he seeme?”
He walked toward her, non-threatening, but still carrying his typical confident power. He wore it like a mantle, and people obeyed him when they saw it. No wonder her father wanted him.
When he stopped in front of her, his eyes were wary with regret. Good.
“Lucy, you think your father didn’t see you, but I believe he was blinded by you and everything you’ve accomplished. Have you ever considered he wanted more for you?”
“Like what? A husband with enough money to take care of me so I could stay home and raise babies like my mother did?”
His cell phone started buzzing again, and again he ignored it as he shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe he didn’t want you to waste your life on a company that had consumed all of his life. Maybe he wanted you to be free of it.”
“What?” She shook her head. He was making zero sense, and she was tired of being made to feel like she was in the wrong for wanting to be the one who kept her legacy alive and in her family. “He was ready to give it to Nico. To you. He doesn’t want anyone to be free of it. He just doesn’t want me to have it!” Her voice rose again as a fresh wave of hurt bloomed.
This time, after his cell stopped buzzing, the phone on his desk started ringing immediately, filling the room with its shrill sound.
“You should get that, Mr. Morgan. It might be somethingimportant.” She couldn’t keep the ire out of her voice on the last word.
The phone went silent as Joel spun to face his desk, his eyes hard and dark.
He grabbed the contract and ripped it into pieces. “Does this make you feel better? There wasn’t a single fucking moment when I even considered saying yes. Not a single second where I thought our plan would end this way.”
“I wish you’dconsideredbeing honest with me. Why can’t you stop thinking that the only way to protect me is by keeping things from me?” Her brain hurt, like she was running in circles and coming up against a concrete wall each time she rounded another turn.
His desk phone started ringing again. Somebody needed him, but this time it wasn’t her.
“Answer it.”
Glaring at her, he grabbed the receiver and slammed it back down in its cradle, silencing the ring. “I might havefucked up again. I might be making a thousand mistakes when it comes to you,” he growled in a low, dangerous tone. “But understand this, nothing is more important to me than you, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure Barone & Sons is yours. Christ, Lucy, I was willing to fake marry you soyoucould have it!”
The logical side of her knew he didn’t mean to strike her where it hurt the most. Their emotions were high, scattered, but his words hit her heart like a kill shot.
She couldn’t stop her eyes from watering over, lower lip trembling as she said, “I’m sorry I made you fake anything with me. I’m sorry I ever asked.”
Joel opened his mouth to say something, but a soft knock on his office door interrupted him.
The door swished open and Joel’s assistant cautiously whispered, “Pardon the interruption, sir, but Cassidy from Luca’s Wings is on the phone, and she says it can’t wait.”
“It will have to,” Joel commanded. Something sorrowful passed through his eyes still locked on her.
Something she didn’t care to decipher because she was so over this conversation.
“Mr. Morgan can take his call now. I have somewhere else I need to be.” She hurried out of the door. Hurt had swallowed the bulk of her anger, and the weight had taken its toll. She was exhausted. Exhausted from fighting her father every step of the way, from constantly trying to be seen, of having the men she loved most in her life making decisions for her. Exhausted from everything.
It wasn’t until she was halfway down the elevator ride that his assistant’s words echoed in her head.Cassidy fromLuca’s Wingsis on the phone…
CHAPTER FORTY
Her mother answered the door.
“Luciana?” She leaned out to peer beyond Lucy’s shoulder. “Did you come alone? Where’s Joel?”
Lucy shouldered past her mother and into her childhood home. “Hello, Mother. So nice to see you too. I know, it really does feel good to be on home turf again.”
Maria closed the door behind her and planted her fists on her hips. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you talking like Vanessa?”
“If you mean condescending and rude, maybe it’s because I’m sick and tired of everyone thinking the sun rises and sets out of Joel Morgan's ass. Is it not enough that your daughter wanted to see you on her own?”
