“I’m being realistic.”
“You’re catastrophizing.” I caught her shoulders. “We’ll deal with Julian together. Whatever he throws at us, we’ll handle it.”
“There is no together.” She pulled away. “Not anymore.”
I moved between her and the exit. “Sit down. We’re talking about this like adults.”
“Adults?” Her laugh was harsh. “You’ve spent the last twenty minutes dismissing everything I’ve said. That’s not a conversation, Griffin. That’s you telling me I’m wrong.”
“Because you are wrong about this.”
“See?” She threw her hands up. “That. Right there. You won’t even consider that I might know my own father better than you do.”
“I’ve worked for him for six years.”
“And I’ve been his daughter for twenty-six.” She stepped around me. “There’s a difference.”
Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
VIOLET
“I’m leaving him.”
Cleo nearly dropped her coffee mug. Imani paused mid-bounce with Hazel on her lap, both of them staring at me like I’d announced I was joining the circus.
“Griffin?” Cleo set her mug down carefully. “Or your dad?”
“Both.” I paced to the window of their hotel room, wrapping my arms around myself. “I’m done. With all of it.”
“Okay,” Imani said slowly, her tone cautious. “What happened?”
I’d rehearsed this conversation in the lift, but now the words tangled in my throat. How did I explain that my father had just handed me everything I thought I wanted while simultaneously destroying it?
“My father knows about Griffin and me.”
“Shit.” Cleo sat forward. “How much trouble are you in?”
“None.” I turned back to face them. “He’s thrilled. Absolutely delighted that his plan worked.”
The girls winced.
Imani frowned. “What plan?”
“The one where he manipulates his daughter into falling for his most difficult driver so he can control them both.”
Cleo’s expression darkened. “That bastard.”
I filled them in on my morning revelations and paced from one end of their small room to the next.
“What does Griffin think?”
My throat closed. I’d spent weeks telling myself this was temporary. I wouldn’t get attached. When the season ended, I’d walk away clean.
Except I’d already failed spectacularly.
Griffin had become the first person I wanted to talk to when something happened. He was the first person I wanted to see when I woke up. I thought about him constantly throughout the day. Worried about him when he was on the track, and I never used to give a flying fuck what a driver did.
