“Emily’s an adult. She can do whatever she wants,” Rhett said with a tight smile.
“Can she?” I barked a laugh. “If you believe that, you really are delusional. You’ve sat back for fourteen years, watching as my mother treated her worse than the help. She’s twenty-one fucking years old and has no friends, no money, not a goddamn thing to her name. She’s been held here as a prisoner all this time and you’ve sat back and let it happen.”
For fuck’s sake, the girl had wanted to go to college and they hadn’t even allowed her that.
“She’s perfectly content to be here,” Rhett argued, his tone bored, as though he had no interest in the conversation. “She doesn’t want for anything.”
Only a life and freedom. I kept that to myself. Rhett would surely have an argument, and since none of it would matter come tomorrow, there really was nothing more to say.
I knocked back the rest of my drink, set the glass on the desk, and met his hard stare once more.
“Why do you want to do this to your mother?” Rhett asked.
I shook my head, completely baffled that Rhett could give a fuck about Kitty but not his only child.
“She’s a grown woman. She’ll be fine without me. Kitty has a man with a healthy bank account. We both know that’s all she’s ever needed.”
“Your mother loves me,” he argued.
Sure, in her own warped and twisted way, it was possible Kitty loved him. But her love was contingent on what she could get out of it. Rhett knew it as well as I did.
“If you say so. When she realizes you no longer have the reins to her golden goose, there’s a good chance she won’t have much use for you anymore.”
I stared at Rhett and it was then I saw all the hatred the man had for me. It was certainly mutual. No, Rhett wasn’t at fault for what my mother had done all those years ago, but he was at fault for pretending it had never happened and abandoning his daughter in favor of giving Kitty everything she’d ever wanted. For that I wanted him to suffer.
“As of tomorrow, the house belongs to me. I’m putting it on the market. The Realtor will be by in a couple of days to get it staged. I suggest you have your shit out of here by then.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” he seethed, glaring at me.
“What did you think I was going to do? Pretend it never happened like you did?”
“I didn’t know what she was doing.”
“Maybe not, but when you found out, you didn’t do anything about it.”
Rhett’s gaze shuttered. “Kitty’s going to be devastated. She’s your mother.”
Ah, hell. The man just didn’t get it. He never would.
I took a deep breath, reined in my temper. “And she’s your wife. Let’s just hope you can maintain her lifestyle, because if you fall on hard times…” I left the sentence dangling.
Rhett had the decency to look contrite. We both knew Kitty didn’t have loyalty to people, only money. She was a slave to her own greed, and I couldn’t imagine she would ever willingly live beneath her means.
No one could say Kitty Campbell wasn’t smart though. She was definitely that.
Too bad she taught me to be smarter. Otherwise, this might’ve gone her way.
6
Emily
I couldn’t sleep.
No matter how hard I tried, I continued to toss and turn in my bed, the consistent hum just under my skin making it impossible to relax.
I considered pacing the room in an effort to exhaust myself, but I figured Daniel would see me on the creepy cam he’d installed and ultimately report back to Kitty. The last thing I wanted was to draw the attention of my stepmother. After our encounter in the hallway earlier, I was not looking forward to our next one.
Rather than get twisted up in the silk sheets, I snuck out of bed, keeping to the perimeter of the room, and then out into the hallway. Sure, Daniel would realize I was gone if he looked at the cameras, but for the moment, I didn’t care. I was just looking for some fresh air. If I was lucky, it would cool me down enough that I could sleep.
