“Darling—”
“Mother, please.”
Giving Donna a baleful glance, she got to her feet gracefully and, taking her daughter’s arm, both women walked gracefully from the room.
“Please have a seat, Ms. Nichols,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“I would prefer to leave.”
“Sit!” She jumped at the snap of authority in his tone and sat back down.
“Now...” He leaned forward at the table and steepled his long fingers, his eyes going over her face insolently. “Why don’t you tell me and Clint what you had to do for my father to think that I would want to marry someone like you?”
“Thomas—”
He cut his friend a glance that had the rest of the words drying up. “Ms. Nichols?”
“You think I want to marry you?” Donna asked him coldly, her look disdainful. “I have known your dad all my life and have often wondered how it was possible for a sweet man like him to have an arrogant, self-important person like you for a son! You think you walk on water and expect people to treat you as such!” Taking a deep breath, she continued. “I had no idea that your father would do something like this, because trust me, if I had known his intentions I would have done my very best to dissuade him. I hate this as much as you do, Mr. Hoffman.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” he told her caustically, his eyes hardening. He turned to look at Clint, who was glancing from one to the other nervously. “Is there an explanation in there somewhere?”
Clint nodded and looked at his papers quickly. “He made a promise to her mother that he would take care of her.”
“What?” Donna stared at him in shock. “Mama has been dead for almost ten years.”
“Apparently your mother saved his life years ago when she was working in the hospital and they became fast friends. When she was diagnosed with lymphoma and realized she was dying, she made him promise to take care of you.”
“he gave me a job in the company. That was more than enough.”
“Not to mention that he paid for you to go to college,” Thomas told her coldly. “You've managed to endear yourself to my father and being the man he was, he no doubt felt he had an obligation to you.” He leaned forward and pinned her with his bright green gaze. “Congratulations, Ms. Nichols, you've managed to do what a lot of women have tried to accomplish and failed. Getting my name.”
Donna got to her feet, her body trembling as she fought the bitter tears! “I have a name, and one that I am very proud of!”
“I've read your files Ms. Nichols and heard the story of your birth,” he told her coldly as he got to his feet, towering over her; six feet five inches of subtle strength and muscles, his expression formidable. “You have no idea who your father was, because he deserted your mother as soon as he found out that she was pregnant so your mother had to give you her name, isn’t that the case?”
Donna’s fingers curled into fists and it was all she could do to stop herself from lashing out at him and slapping him hard. “I am not the first and will certainly not be the last person who doesn't have a father.” Her dark brown gaze raked him contemptuously. “Find a way out of your predicament Mr. Hoffman, because it will certainly not be me.” With that she turned and hurried out of the room!
“Was that necessary?” Clint asked him quietly when they were alone in the room.
Thomas tore his eyes from the empty doorway and stared at his friend coldly. “There must some way to overturn the proviso.”
Clint shrugged. “You can certainly try, but trust me when I say that it's ironclad.”
Thomas swore beneath his breath and walked over to the cabinet hidden inside the wall. Touching a button, he grabbed a bottle of cognac as the cabinet slid out, and poured himself a generous amount, bringing it to his lips to drink down half the content before turning back to look at his friend. “I cannot marry her.”
“Then you have a problem.”
“You think?” Thomas said with a harsh laugh. “I've been playing around with the idea of proposing to Caroline for the past three months and kept putting it off.”
“And you know why.”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Thomas asked him cynically as he brought the bottle over to the table. “Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me. Would you like a drink?”
“No, thank you. I'm heading to the East Coast for the weekend and I'm driving.”
“How is Sheryl?” Thomas asked, referring to Clint’s wife.
“Murmuring about quitting her job as a prosecutor.”
Thomas nodded, staring into his drink moodily.
“You were never going to ask Caroline to marry you,” Clint told him quietly.
Thomas lifted his head and stared at him sharply. “You have a side job as a mind reader?”
“You wouldn't have taken this long to pop the question. You're forgetting that I know you, Thomas. You're married to that company and everyone knows it.”
“And yet my father has seen it fit to make it impossible for me to take over the reins,” he said bitterly as he downed the rest of the drink.
“Donna is a beautiful woman—”
“She isn't my type,” Thomas said bluntly.
“She is beautiful and loyal, and your father apparently thought the world of her.”
“Was Dad having an affair with her mother?”
“What?”
“How else would you explain this preposterous plan of his that I marry her?”
“I'm sure that their relationship was just a platonic one.”
“I intend to find out.” He slammed the glass down onto the table, making the other man jump. “Explore all and any options, Clint. I have no intention of marrying that woman!”
*****
Donna barely reached her apartment and went into her bedroom before she gave into tears. She'd sat in her car, the engine running before she drove out of the circular driveway that led away from the house. The huge iron gate had swung open to let her out and she'd traveled the few miles from the paved road before she turned onto the highway. She'd blasted her music to stop herself from thinking too much about the insults that had been hurled at her and the look of contempt stamped on the handsome face of the man she'd loved from afar for a long time. She'd started at Hoffman’s Industries straight out of college, her business administration degree fresh, the ink hardly dried on the paper, and had gotten a well-paying job in that towering glass building that housed the corporation. She'd been aware that she'd gotten the job because of her connection with Thomas Hoffman the second, and had been determined to prove that she was worth the generous salary and benefits she was being paid. She'd risen to the level of personal assistant to Vice President of marketing and had contributed a lot in that department. Donna blinked the tears away furiously and got up, going into the kitchen to put the kettle on. She'd seen Thomas Hoffman the third, march in and out, but had never gone into the inner sanctum of his office. He'd nodded to her briefly whenever he saw her but had never engaged her in conversation. She stood in front of the pantry and stared at the contents absently before choosing a packet of herbal tea and taking it to the counter. She wasn't going to marry him, she swore to herself. It didn't matter that she'd fallen in love with him over the years.