Page 54 of His Assistant

“Yes, if I hadn’t paid the loan,” he says. “But the loan was paid, Sofia, so this was a warning. Those men know you work for Dominic. It’ll be a miracle if they don’t come after you too.”

I freeze. I never told him about the break-in, or that I’m staying at Dominic’s penthouse. He’s going to be furious.

“What is it, carina?” he asks, instantly concerned at the shift in my demeanor. I hate that he knows me so well.

“They already came after me, Papa,” I say in a small voice. “They trashed my apartment.”

“What?” he screams. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was a few weeks ago⁠—”

“A few weeks?” he shouts, his face getting redder by the second.

“Papa, you have to calm down,” I tell him. “You’re going to have a heart attack if you don’t.”

“So what, Sofia? They took away my livelihood and threatened you. If I can’t protect my daughter, I might as well be dead.”

I roll my eyes and groan. There’s no reasoning with him. So instead I go to his mini fridge, grab a bottle of water, and thrust it into his hands. I don’t stop glaring until he opens it and takes a sip.

“You need to make a decision, Sofia,” he says once he’s swallowed half the bottle. “You can keep working for that man, or you can keep being my daughter. I can’t do this anymore.”

Now it’s my turn to shout.

“Excuse me? I’m a grown woman, where the hell do you get off?”

“This is for your own good, carina. He’s not a good man, and working for him will only lead to more troubles in our life. I’m not willing to put up with it anymore, so if you insist on working with him, I want nothing to do with you.”

“You can’t be serious,” I spit. “You can’t just cut off your family when they make you angry. I’ve worked my ass off to make sure you’re okay, and now you’re throwing it in my face.”

“That was never your job.”

“No? Because there wasn’t anyone else banging down the door to help us. There was just me.”

“Well, now the money is paid, and you have no reason to stay there. How is this even a choice?”

“I’m pregnant,” I finally manage. “And Dominic is the father. So, no, I can’t just walk away from him now. It’s a lot more complicated.”

He doesn’t respond at first. He just stares at me, jaw tight, his face completely unreadable. Then he walks to his office, steps inside, and slams the door.

I go after him, pushing my way into the office. By the time I get there, he’s already in his chair, staring at the spot on the wall where Dominic’s business card was pinned.

“Papa?” I ask.

“No,” he says lowly. “Don’t ‘Papa’ me. How could you do this?”

His voice is quiet, but it’s full of rage. I’ve never seen him like this, and it scares me. I can take the shouting, but this quiet fury is too much.

“As I said, I’m a grown woman.”

He shakes his head. “Then why did you do something so childish? Sleeping with that monster is bad enough, but you got pregnant with his child? Didn’t your mother and I raise you better than that?”

My eyes start stinging with hot tears. “It just happened.”

“Did he force you?” he asks, meeting my eye. “It’s okay, Sofia. He’s a powerful man, but I’ll fight for you.”

“No!” I shout. “He didn’t force me, I chose to be with him. I want to be with him.”

“You don’t know who he is,” he tries.