What was going on here? What was he planning? Nothing about this made any sense.
But what she did know was that she couldn’t trust him.
It was sad when you couldn’t trust your own father.
Arabella was starting to feel like she’d given this man so much and he’d given her nothing but grief in return.
He was manipulative. And would say anything to get his own way. Yeah, she’d wanted to marry Cole to free herself. But also because her father had told her that without the merger, his employees would all lose their jobs.
She didn’t know how he’d managed to run his business into the ground. He’d owned a large construction firm and a manufacturing plant. Not to mention that at one stage he’d also owned some commercial properties.
She’d figured that she could enter what was essentially a business arrangement to help all those people keep their jobs.
She also had trouble telling people no.
Especially her father.
“But what if I don’t want to move?” she said. Los Angeles was her home. And what about Pop-Pop? She couldn’t leave him. There was no way.
Her breathing grew faster.
Hank turned back to her. “What do you mean what if you don’t want to leave?”
Give him what he wants.
You can’t go against him, Arabella.
“What if I don’t want to leave? I have friends here.” Lies. The only friends she had were over eighty and lived in a nursing home. “Los Angeles is my home and I’m not sure I want to go.”
“It’s quite amusing that you think you have a choice, Arabella,” he said, striding over to her.
She stepped back, feeling a shaft of fear race through her.
There was a weird look on his face. And his cheeks were a deep red. His breathing grew faster, sweat coating his upper lip.
“Do you really think that you get to do things that you want? What makes you think your wants come into this decision? You do what I tell you to do because you belong to me!”
It wasn’t like she hadn’t known that was how he felt. But it still hurt hearing it.
“I don’t belong to you,” she whispered. “You can’t make me do anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Arabella.” His voice grew quieter.
Hank Bridges wasn’t a quiet man. He was a big, larger-than-life guy. And so him going quiet like was terrifying.
Breathe.
“I can make you do exactly what I want and you’ll do it. You should just be grateful that I found a way to get us out of this mess that didn’t involve you having to whore out your body. Butyou were prepared to do that, weren’t you, Arabella? You were going to whore yourself to Cole.”
Why was he saying these awful things?
Arabella swallowed back her tears, raising her chin. “I was going to be his wife.”
“You were being sold to him. He was basically paying for you.”
She shook her head. Cole had been aloof and distracted. Removed. But she hadn’t gotten any vibes from him that he’d seen her as a possession.
A whore.
