“And she turned him down?” How ridiculous for her to think she can do better than Preston. Ha! She should be grateful anybody would agree to marry her scandal-laden ass at all! “Never mind. I’ll convince her he’s the one for her.”
He’s worthless when it comes to running the family business, so this is the least he can do. And I don’t care if he sits on the Peery Diamonds board. It’s Lucienne’s company, not mine, and she can deal with whatever screwups he creates. I’ll even tell her we can split the profit from the venture fifty-fifty. That’ll ramp up Preston’s desirability.
“That would be difficult. There was a, um, hiccup with the arrangements.”
“A hiccup.”
Mom expels a small sigh. “She caught him with another woman on the day they were supposed to get engaged.”
“Okay, so the timing was bad. But sex with another woman? That’s actually relatively tame.” There’s nothing he could’ve done that would be worse than her damn scandals.
“The other woman was her half-sister. Vonnie.”
Murder is too good for Preston.I’m going to rip his balls off and shove them down his throat,thenkill him. “All right, he messed up. But that doesn’t mean I need to marry his former fiancée. I barely even know her!”
“Oh, that’s all right. Preston didn’t know her either when he agreed to do this seven or eight weeks ago.”
If he has no feelings for her, he must be getting something from the deal. He’s too self-centered to take one for the family without a proper reward. And I want to know what side deals they made with him. “Why did he agree to do it?” And why couldn’t he keep his dick in his pants so I wouldn’t be forced to fix this ridiculous business deal my family agreed to behind my back?
Mom presses her lips together, then finally picks up her tea and sips it. She makes a face. She doesn’t like lukewarm tea, and it’s gotta be tepid by now. Her index finger taps the rim of the cup. Her left foot bobs in an agitated rhythm.
And my own irritation and apprehension mount.
“He was getting Sebastian Jewelry for marrying Lucienne.” She speaks super-fast, like that’s going to make me miss the import of what she’s saying.
“What? Sayswho?”
“Well…all of us, more or less. We felt like he needed to be recognized for his sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?How is that a sacrifice?” I didn’t pour my all into Sebastian Jewelry, only to have it yanked from me by my own damn family and that scheming heiress bitch! “He was getting a sugar mama, which is the best he can aspire to in life, since he’s too incompetent and lazy for anything else! And you know as well as I do it won’t take him a year to bankrupt Sebastian Jewelry!”
“Of course! Which is why he was going toownSebastian Jewelry, but notrunit,” Mom explains soothingly.
What the fuck?“Who was supposed to run it, then?”
“You.”
“Me?” I shout. I’m too pissed to care that I’m speaking to my mother.
“Well, yes. Everyone knows you’re the best CEO we’ve ever had.”
“You want me to work like a dogfor Preston? For one, that idiot’s ego wouldn’t be able to handle it. And two, I wouldn’t be able to handle it because I just know he’d question everything I did and try to micromanage me, just to make himself feel superior.”
Mom raises a placating hand. “He’s notthatbad, sweetie. And really, he has nothing. You’re already rich from all the investments you’ve made with your brothers.”
“Because I’m not stupid like him! I told him he was welcome to throw some money in with me, but he turned me down, saying he had ‘better opportunities.’ And every single one of them lost money—which, by the way, was no surprise!”
“Calm down, sweetie. You wouldn’t be this upset if we gave Sebastian Jewelry to one of your Lasker brothers.” Her tone says I’m being unfair to Preston.
“Because they aren’t morons! I’dpreferit if they got the company instead of Preston. They wouldn’t ruin it or consider it a cherry on top of their ego sundae.”
“Well, they aren’t part of the Comtoises.” She huffs. “It was fairer this way.”
“Fairer for who?” My throat hurts from my effort not to raise my already loud voice. “It certainly doesn’t seem fair to me!”
“It would be so sad to see him with nothing,” Mom pleads, her tone saying that’d be the worst possible outcome. “We just don’t want him to be destitute. And you’re so capable, Sebastian. You’d be fine without the company, but we know how much you love Sebastian Jewelry, so we didn’t want to take it from you completely.”
I’m so angry, I can’t speak. Mom refuses to understand that this isn’t about money or ego. It’s aboutlegacy, what the company represents.
