Pity shone in his hazel eyes. “I’m afraid not. If it was just a mix up, I would escort you up as a guest—and it’s not because I don’t want to. I need help with the merger.” He let out a frustrated grunt. “But you’ve been banned from the premises.”
It took everything I had not to sit down. I struggled to find air, forced my lungs to breathe. I couldn’t afford a panic attack. Not here, not now. St. Just was a shark. He could smell weakness a mile away.
“Banned,” I snapped. “I haven’t done anything.”
“I’ll fight this, but you need to go home, Amanda.” His phone rang. “I’ll call you with any updates.”
“Thank you.” I deserved more than one friendly face at the firm, but I was grateful there was one champion for my cause. “We’ll talk soon.”
St. Just gave me a nod before answering his phone and striding back to the security barricade and sanctuary beyond. All I wanted to do as a kid was be a lawyer. Wear the power suits, go to court. Other girls had dreams and hobbies. I had goals and ambition. Now, in a blink, it was gone.
Chapter 26 –Amanda
“If you’ll wait right here,” the butler intoned, sweeping his hand to the front parlor of the Fifth Avenue house my parents owned. The one they occasionally lived in when they were in the Big Apple.
Clenching my jaw, I forced myself to focus on my mission here. If I thought too hard about the latest blow, I might melt and cry.
There was no way I was crying in front of my dad.
Following the butler, I dragged my suitcase and laptop bag across the hall. They were the only worldly belongings I had left. In the front parlor, a woman looked up from her tablet. Not a strand of her gunmetal grey hair was out of place.
I took one look at my father’s secretary and called after the retreating butler. “Where is he?”
The butler looked at me, looked toward the parlor, and pressed his lips shut. He knew better than to get involved.
“He’s in a meeting,” Glenda answered tightly.
The battle-axe…wasn’t even surprised to see me. The last time Dad saw me, I was taken from the altar by a masked man. There was no way Glenda didn’t know the details, even if she had been escorted out with the other wedding guests before that incident. Now she didn’t ask where I’d been, what had happened, or seemed shocked to see me appear.
“He’s upstairs?” I demanded.
“You can wait here or in the kitchen,” the secretary said primly. “There’s a security detail eating in the dining room.”
Dad’s home office was on the second floor, and it was a good bet he was there now. That was where I was going. The secretary shot to her feet, crossing to intercept me as I walked past the parlor and toward the stairs.
The butler wisely disappeared, leaving me to the henchwoman.
“I’m not in the mood, Glenda,” I snapped.
The secretary tried to move around me as I made my way to the stairs. For an ageless woman, she was still fast.
“You can’t go up there,” she insisted. “I’ll see if his schedule allows—”
I shoved my finger in her face. “No, not today.”
Today, I was Archy Loring’s daughter. If that ever meant anything, we would see if the bonds of nature ran deeper than business.
“Don’t test me. It’s been a shit day,” I added with a bite.
“Miss Loring, you don’t want to go up there.” It was the way her voice dropped. The professional mask faltered. Glenda had been Dad’s secretary since he turned legit. For a decade, I’d interacted with this woman more than with my parent. Never had I seen her slip.
But now, emotion played across her face.
It should have been a warning.
I didn’t care. Didn’t pause. I was incensed. On a scale of bad to worse, the news that I didn’t have a job wasn’t the only disaster during the last twenty-four hours. I gripped my tiny suitcase tightly. It was all I had left.
“Move.” I was ready to physically push past her.
