Butgod, I like them.
It’s impossible to not like Lucky. And Jack—bringing his dog and fixing my car? Even Decker—I appreciate the hell out of how much he looks out for the people he cares about.
That’s admirable in my book.
So yes, I want them to like me. All three of them.
It’s a bone-deep,soul-deep, desperate desire to have more family that likes me for me.
Not for my money. Not for my name.
But for the person that I’ve been trying to be.
I shrug at Rhys though. “They already know we’re related. I’m lying because I have trust issues and I want to get to know them, to know if they can like me as a broke housekeeper who has nothing to offer them, before I tell them that their biological father is worth billions of dollars.”
His eyes flicker over my face. “You wanted to call him an asshole. Theirassholebiological father.”
He’s not wrong. “Relationships are complicated. Now. What do you want?”
“You seriously expect me to believe you want more siblings like the sister who stole your fiancé?”
I rub my brow and sag against the wall.
People are so annoying sometimes. “Oliver dumped me several years ago when his family was having legal issues. Told me he didn’t want to sully my name when he was also overwhelmed at the position he’d been thrust into unprepared, and he couldn’t handle both me and the job he had to do. So yes, I was initially pissed and hurt, because that’s a natural reaction to being dumped, but I’ve also had a lot of time to get over it.”
“Rumor is?—”
“Wrong. Rumor is wrong.” I know, because I started it. Margot Merriweather-Brown wants her ex back. They were going to combine their businesses and be the world’s biggest power couple, but then her sister stole him.
I didn’t want Oliver back. Ineverwanted Oliver back.
Aside from being unwilling to put myself in a position where the same person could hurt me twice—see again, trust issues—I’d seen enough of him the past few years to know that he’s changed from when we were involved, and while I have the utmost respect for who he’s become after all he’s been through, I’m not attracted to him anymore.
Not like that.
Also?
Oliver’s a good person. He deserves to be loved by someone who can put her entire heart and soul into it in a way I never could.
But I had to play the role that I wanted him back so my father would think I was complying with his wishes, and his wish was that I marry Oliver so that I could facilitate a corporate merger that would’ve actually been a takeover of Miles2Go, Oliver’s family’s gas station and convenience store corporation.
That I was still the same heartless, aggressive, business-first daughter that he raised me to be.
People don’t think about you as much when you’re agreeable as they do when you make waves.
So my father has no idea I’m about to destroy him.
He still thinks I’m hisgooddaughter when I’ve had a rage slowly burning hotter by the day every day for the past four years that he’d classify me and Daphne asthe good one and the bad one.
Rhys is frowning at me again. “That’s all you’re going to give me?Rumor is wrong?”
“He changed, I changed, Daphne changed. Though, in retrospect, I should’ve known they’d be good together. They’ve both always been softhearted and cared more about the bigger things in the world. Oliver needed more fun in his life. Daphne needed someone who’s loyal to a fault. Especially now, after what my parents did to her. Congratulations, you now know more about how I feel about this than anyone else in the world, with the exception of my sister and her boyfriend.”
I should stop talking.
I really should.
The more I tell him, the bigger his request. The more he has to hold over me.
