For a second, she considered his offer. She could open her own places in every market where Anderson was doing business, but that would take her years, and she’d be competing with this chain for market share.
This purchase would rocket her to the next level. Finally, the Mori name could mean something great again, not the punch line of a semi-scripted TV show. She would be able to stand for something.
All she had to do was bend to her father’s will.
The silence ticked around them, the air in the enclosed elevator quickly growing hot.
A thin trickle of sweat ran down Akira’s back.Bend. What does it matter?Everything came with a condition. Love was a weakness, used to exploit, used as a carrot and a whip to force compliance. There wasn’t a single thing in life that came without strings.
Her fingers closed on the supple leather of her purse.If you let me, I could love you.
I won’t turn you away.
There had been no strings in Jacob’s note. No strings on his friendship, or his body. He had simply opened himself up to her, leaving the choice of grabbing him in her hands.
Can’t care about him, can’t let him see, because…
Because why?
Because someone will use him to manipulate you.
Like Jacob’s rock-solid strength would ever permit anyone to use him as a pawn.
Because he could use your feelings to manipulate you.
Like his honor would ever let him dangle the promise of his love out of her reach while she grasped for it.
She inhaled, her world coming into laser-sharp focus, every priority slotting into place. So she was going to lose the business she had hoped to purchase. There were more bars in the world, and if her father wanted to fight her on every damn one, so be it. She was on guard now.
There was only one Jacob, and the only one stopping her from having him was herself.
Strength filled her, shoring up the parts she hadn’t known had weakened at some inexplicable point.I could love you.
“Keep the bars,” she enunciated every word. “I’m not playing this game.”
Confusion spread over her father’s face. Had he expected her to fall apart and take his ridiculous deal?
He clearly hadn’t bargained with her in a long, long time.
“You think I’m bluffing.”
“On the contrary, I’m hoping you’re not. I remember how much you despised running a business. The constant demands on your time, the millions of boring minute details?” She gave him a nasty grin. “Buy the damn things. I give it maybe three months before you’re looking to unload them.”
“Not to you, I won’t.”
She lifted her shoulder. “I have more money and power than you could imagine, because I earned it. Because I know how to work my ass off.” She flicked her fingers at him. “Seriously. Keep them. I can easily crush you.”
“This isn’t over—”
“It is over. Because if you pull a stunt like this again, I swear I will call every reporter I know and tell them that delightful little story of how you forced my mother to give birth to me. That would be some lovely publicity when you’re gearing up for the birth of your new child, hmm?”
He stilled. “What?” His thin lips barely moved.
She smiled, but there was no amusement in the gesture. “Oh, yeah. She told me, about a year before she died.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Mei—”
“Mei didn’t want children. But your clock was ticking, so you lied and told her she wouldn’t get pregnant. Then came me. Surprise.”
