Hence the reason he was here offering up his own child as payment.
The man was as fucked up as my mother.
“Are you suggesting I haven’t been fair?” I prompted, wanting him to get on with it.
He studied my face as though searching for salvation. He certainly wouldn’t find it with me.
“Knox, please.”
The plea in his tone was likely meant to tug at my heartstrings, but it didn’t work. I’d lost all respect for Rhett back when I’d originally found out what he and my mother had done. Even more so now that I knew he was willing to barter his only child.
“Surely there’s something I can do,” he stated, his shoulders squaring. “Give me more time.”
“More time to what? Do right by your daughter?”
He was watching me intently when I noticed another gleam come into his eyes.
“Yes,” he said quickly. “You’re right. I haven’t done right by my daughter. I just need more time.”
I thought about the last time I’d gone to visit my mother and encountered Emily. It had been more than a year since I’d laid eyes on my stepsister.
Granted, I had never viewed Emily as such. Hell, I’d never been around her long enough to establish any sort of bond, much less one of a sibling. Truth was, I hadn’t given Emily much thought at all initially. My mother had been married to her father for all of three months when I moved out of Rhett’s house. And during those brief weeks I’d resided there, I had viewed Rhett’s then seven-year-old daughter as nothing more than a pest. Since the day I’d hightailed it out of that house, moving to New York to start the life I was meant to live, I only saw Emily on the occasional holiday. Even those were few and far between, considering my complete distaste for my mother and stepfather thanks to their heinous betrayal.
Of course, Kitty and Rhett weren’t the only reasons I stayed away. However, I preferred to use that simple explanation rather than try to rationalize or, God forbid,explainthe shift that had taken place inside me that one fateful day three years ago during a brief holiday visit to the Campbell estate.
It had started like any other visit I had scheduled, with me planning to blow through Kitty and Rhett’s life, looking forward to making them miserable while they pretended all was right in the world. I had returned, fired up to piss off my mother, but my intentions shifted almost instantly upon my arrival when I caught sight of my then fifteen-year-old stepsister standing on the balcony of her bedroom, overlooking the ocean. Her hair had been long then, the silky dark tresses curling down her back, blowing in the gentle breeze, caressing her alabaster skin. Her elbows rested on the railing, her chin in her palm as she stared out, seemingly deep in thought. I still remembered what she’d been wearing—light blue cotton shorts and a thin, nearly see-through tank top. The mere sight of her had struck something deep inside me at the same time it made my dick hard.
Fifteen fucking years old, and Emily had captivated me in a way no woman ever had. To this day, I’d never seen anyone so beautiful. Or so incredibly sad.
My reaction to her had been inappropriate, to say the least, and it was more than the fact that I was eleven years older than her. The problem was, I was a man who embraced his dark desires, and at that moment, Emily had tempted me like nothing I’d ever known. Which was the very reason I’d kept my visits short and infrequent since then. I never trusted myself to be alone with her. Still didn’t.
Not that it had mattered. Every time I saw Emily, I found myself more and more ensnared by her, my desire to do dirty things to her intensified. And the older she got, the deeper my obsession became. There was no doubt in my mind that seeing Emily now would have disastrous results.
And that was what had me saying, “Three more years, Rhett.”
His eyebrows popped up, and hope glittered in his dull brown eyes.
“You have until Emily’s twenty-first birthday.”
“I’ll take it,” he bit out.
I stood. “Good. Expect to get the amended paperwork from my lawyers by the end of the day.” I motioned toward the door. “See yourself out.”
If Rhett had said thank you, I would’ve considered punching him in the face. After all, I wasn’t doing this for him.
Several hours later, I found myself relaying the details of Rhett’s visit to the man who’d become my closest confidant in recent years.
“He didwhat?”
I pulled the top from the decanter, poured the single malt into two Glencairn glasses. “He showed up at my office and used his only daughter as a bargaining chip.”
A dark chuckle sounded before, “The man has no shame.”
I glanced over my shoulder, smirking. “That he does not.”
“I have to admit, it was a good hand to play.”
I glared at him. “Emily is my stepsister.”
