Axel held the pages so she could read with him.
The first was a paternity report from twenty years ago. It stated Mira wasnotOtto’s daughter.
Mira’s shocked gasp cut through the thick silence. She grasped at her throat as though the noise had caused a physical tear there. She shot a glare of stunned hurt at Otto. “This is why you’ve always been such a bastard to me?” she asked on a gust of disbelief. Then she turned on Axel to accuse, “You knew?”
“No.” He felt concussed by this. He was dazed, unable to work out what it meant beyond a realization that Otto had tricked him. If Mira wasn’t Otto’s daughter, the contract they’d signed meant nothing. This entire engagement had been a ploy to keep him here so he wouldn’t strike out on his own.
A ball of fury began to condense in his gut.
“Read the rest,” Otto commanded.
Axel turned to the next page. It was a notarized letter to Otto from a woman named Lorena Fontaine, dated three years ago.
As I face the end of my life, I find myself regretting that I never told you I gave birth to your child…
“Oh my God.” Mira recoiled.
Mira’s mother had been expecting Mira at the time, the letter continued. Lorena knew Otto wouldn’t leave his wife. She provided the name of the agency in America where Otto’s daughter had been relinquished for adoption.
“How could youdothis?” Mira’s fingertips lined up against her quivering bottom lip.
Marry my daughter…
Axel was far more practiced at stuffing his reactions deep into a cavern within himself. While Mira was exchanging heated words with Otto, asking about who might have fathered her, Axel was slipping into survival mode. His agile mind quickly filtered through his choices.
He could walk out. This bait-and-switch of Otto’s was unforgivable. He’d kept Axel here under false pretenses, setting Axel back on his goal to form his own company. It would be thriving by now if not for this subterfuge. It would serve Otto right if Axel left Vorstoben in the lurch. The conglomerate would falter under the older man’s erratic command. Axel could pick over its bones soon enough.
Or he could remain here as CEO under Otto. It was not an attractive option, but Otto would die eventually and the board would likely keep Axel on. At some future date, Axel would gain full control of the company, if not the ownership of it.Ifhe wanted to be patient a little longer.
He didn’t.
“Umberto believes he’s found her.” Otto’s deep voice cut into Axel’s churning thoughts. “I have instructed him to reach out and request she take a paternity test. Once we have a positive result, he’ll ask her to come meet me. If she’s willing to marry you, then I will make her my heir and honor that contract.” Otto nodded at the briefcase, looking smug.
Or I could do that, Axel mentally acknowledged, even as he saw how Otto was trying to keep him on a string while bringing a third puppet into this farce. Otto wanted to hold his biological daughter like a carrot before Axel and keep him dancing.
“You bastard.” Mira was trembling with fury. “Why did you even keep me around? Why did you stay married to Mama after you learned that?” She flung a hand at the pages Axel still held. “Why have you let us believe fortwo yearsthat you wanted him to marryme?”
“To keep me here,” Axel said through his teeth, so filled with disgust he could hardly contain it.
“I didn’t care for the scandal. Until I learned I had arealdaughter—” Otto’s lip curled disdainfully “—I had to carry on with the charade that you were mine.”
“Liar,” Mira choked. “You wanted access to Mama’s money. You knew she would have taken all her assets and more besides if you divorced her. Iwilltake them,” she warned, sending a vindictive look between Otto and Axel. “That will sting, won’t it?”
It would. Vorstoben had leveraged against properties that belonged to Mira through her mother. She had allowed those arrangements because she had been desperate for Otto’s good favor.
It was yet another nefarious motive for this false engagement Otto had engineered.
Axel had believed himself inoculated against being taken advantage of. He wasn’t naive, but he hadn’t seen that Otto was deceiving him this entire time. It made him livid, but he didn’t allow any of that volatile emotion to bleed into his tone or expression.
“Is that contract worth the paper it’s printed on?” he asked Umberto. “After such blatant misrepresentation?”
Umberto’s wince claimed he was only following orders.
“I am the majority shareholder. I can dispense those shares as I see fit,” Otto asserted, telling Mira, “There’s a settlement offer in there if you keep this out of the press. But I can bequeath Vorstoben to mybiologicaldaughter if I want to.Ifyou marry her,” he added, turning the cunning gleam in his eye onto Axel.
He really thought he had Axel over a barrel.
“You’ve finally given me something I wanted.Freedom,” Mira bit out, no longer the meek, biddable daughter Otto had conditioned her into. “Prepare to be made sorry, old man.”
