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“Yes. Here we are.”
I checked my watch. Seven minutes until the announcement. “You have two choices, Sutton. You can fight this transition at every turn, clinging to what was and ultimately becoming irrelevant. Or—” I stepped closer to her, forcing her to tilt her head in order to maintain eye contact, “—you can recognize the opportunity in front of you.”
“What opportunity would that be?” she asked.
“To build something bigger than your father ever imagined.” I held her gaze. “With resources you’ve never had access to before.”
I could see the calculations happening behind her eyes. Sutton Prescott was too smart to dismiss the possibilities outright, even coming from me.
“At what cost?” she finally asked.
“That depends on what you consider valuable,” I replied. “Your future at Ashcroft Group and the direction Prescott Vantage will take under its new ownership.”
I watched as she processed my words, that brilliant mind of hers weighing what I said, other options, calculating risks, and measuring my intentions against what she believed she knew about me.
“Five minutes until the announcement,” I said, checking my watch again. “You don’t have to decide right now. But know this—I recognize what you’ve built here, even if your father didn’t fully appreciate it.”
That got her attention as I watched her eyes widen for a split second. The dynamic between father and daughter was ripe for exploitation.
“I’ll consider it,” she finally said.
“Good.” I smiled. “That’s all I ask.”
A knock on her office door interrupted us. Howard stood in the doorway. “It’s time.”
“After you.” I gestured for Sutton to walk ahead of me out of her office.
As we walked down the hallway, I felt a surge of satisfaction that went beyond the victory of acquiring Prescott Vantage. Sutton Prescott was exactly what I’d known she would be including intelligent, ambitious, and beautiful. Making her break under me in more ways than one would be a worthy challenge.
By this time tomorrow, she would either be working for me or watching everything she’d built crumble around her. Either way, I would win.
And winning, after all, was what I did best.
8
SUTTON
Normally, I would have enjoyed the atmosphere that Copper & Smiths gives off in droves. The exposed brick walls the color of dried clay and copper trim that ran along the length of the bar that caught the light and threw it back, warming the space. This place had a way of making you feel like you’d been coming for years even if it was your first visit, probably contributing to the fact that it had become one of my go-tos whenever I wasn’t working late. Not to mention, the drinks were top notch, but I was busy trying to focus on what Cassie was saying about her latest dating app disaster story because my mind wanted to drift to other topics I refused to let it go to.
“So then he tells me he’s ‘ethically non-monogamous’ but forgot to mention it in his profile,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes as she stabbed a piece of chicken from her salad. “As if that’s just a casual third-date reveal.”
I forced a laugh even though that was actually pretty funny. “At least he told you before things got serious.”
“Sutton.” Cassie set down her fork and stared me down as if she was reading into my soul. “You’ve been somewhere else since you got here. What’s going on? Is it the acquisition? How bad is it?”
“Yes, but it’s more than that,” I said as I debated banging my head onto the wooden table in front of us. Then again, that might lead to our drinks spilling and that was the last thing I needed to happen. “On a scale of one to apocalyptic? It’s somewhere around ‘extinction event.’”
Cassie winced. “That bad?”
“He showed up personally for the announcement,” I said, lowering my voice even though the happy hour crowd provided decent cover of my words. “Made a point of singling me out for a private conversation beforehand.”
“And? What did he say?”
I replayed the conversation in my head for what felt like the millionth time. “He offered me… an opportunity. His words, not mine.”
“To keep your job?” Cassie asked.
“To build something ‘bigger than my father ever imagined,’” I quoted, making air quotes with my fingers. “With resources I’ve ‘never had access to before.’”
