He sighed, as if the worst of what he had to say was now behind him. In fact, he smiled and reached for my hands, still clenched together in my lap. He pulled on them and it was everything I had in me not to pull them back.
“Ashleigh, I’ve had the most wonderful conversations with the headmistress of a finishing school in Switzerland. Villa Pierrefeu is one of the last of its kind and when I think about the sort of training you’re going to need—”
“Training for what?” I asked him. “What exactly am I being trained for? I was leaning toward a career in academia. History to be precise. What good would a finishing school be for that?”
God. Finishing school. In Switzerland. Where I would learn how to better sip my tea and plan complicated seating assignments and place settings at various parties he imagined I would throw.
Did he not know me at all? I wasn’t some princess he’d groomed to enjoy the whirlwind of the elite social life. I wasn’t a Hilton or Kardashian bent on making myself famous, ultimately culminating in some scandalous reality TV show.
I wanted to study. I wanted to teach at the highest levels.
I wanted Marc.
Marc didn’t give a crap about how polished I was.
Arthur bowed his head. “With great wealth comes great burden. You know this. I’ve shared this with you. You will be exposed more and more to people of our ilk as you grow older. You’ll start to mingle with them. It’s just how it happens. I’ll need to count on you to be an exceptional hostess for me. Until now, I’ve kept you excluded from all that, but it is our world.”
I stood and tugged my hands away from his grasp. “That’s your world. It was never mine.”
He stood as well. “This is what comes from giving you too much freedom.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted to pull my hair out. “Too much freedom? I’ve been sequestered on this estate from the time I was a child. I was allowed to attend only three years of high school. And now you want to ship me off to Switzerland to turn me into some kind of perfect hostess? For you.”
“Not just for me. For your husband someday, too.”
“My future husband is going to be Marc and I’m pretty sure he’d rather have an educated wife instead of a finished one!”
There it was. My greatest mistake. Later, I would look back on this moment and wonder if this had been the thing to seal our fate.
Arthur’s face got red and he was gripping the crystal glass in his hands. “I did not go through all of this, do all of this, to have a daughter who would end up with the bastard son of a whore drug addict.”
“Are you serious right now? What have you gone through? Your father was a rich broker. You’re a rich broker. Very successful, congratulations. But it’s not like you suffered anything for it.”
“You don’t have a fucking clue what I’ve suffered.”
I took a step away. The cursing was back. The face mottled with rage and fury.
“You’re going to Switzerland. End of story,” he bit out.
I shook my head. “You can’t make me. I’m an adult. I can walk out that door and there is nothing you can do to stop me. You think I’ll die without your money, but I won’t.”
Then he sneered at me. “Yes, my darling girl, you would. Because you have no idea how cruel the world is to people who don’t have money. So I’ll keep it in terms you can understand. You go to Switzerland, or I’ll have your childhood friend expelled from Princeton. In fact, I’ll make sure the expulsion will be so repellent, he’ll find a difficult time getting any credible college in this country to accept him.”
I let out a gasp. “Who are you?” I asked him.
This man who I’d called daddy. This man whom I’d obeyed like a good little girl. This man who’d made me curtsey and kiss him on the cheek before bed.
“I’m your father.”
I shook my head. “No. People don’t do things like this. Not to their children.”
He sniffed. “People of our class do it all the time. When there is this much money involved? This much at stake? There can be no wild cards. To be clear, Ashleigh, I don’t care what age you’re going to be in a few weeks. You are still my daughter and you will do as you are told.”
“…your life is his, until he says it isn’t.”
There was nothing left to say. I walked over to the hall to retrieve my suitcase.
“Don’t bother with that,” Arthur called out. “I’ll have George handle it.”
I turned and made my way to the massive staircase, feeling like I was weighed down with each step I took.
“So,” Arthur said, calling up to me again. “Switzerland then?”
“Of course,” I answered quickly, lying through my teeth. “Who wouldn’t be thrilled to go to such a lovely school?”
“Excellent. I’ll be leaving then. I have plans for an extended stay in the city. I just wanted to make sure we were clear on this matter. You leave in six weeks. Everything has been arranged.”
“Well, I certainly hope I won’t see you before I go,” I said politely. “Have a nice stay in the city.”
I could see it took him a second to understand what I’d said. Whether it made him angry or not, I didn’t care. He’d won. He’d gotten what he wanted, which was me away from Marc.
What I didn’t know was why.
13
Ash’s Birthday
Marc
I rang the doorbell at the front door of the house. It felt weird. But I wasn’t taking any chances if Landen was around, although I didn’t think he was since George was gone. Which meant Landen was mostly likely in the city.
It seemed like forever, but finally the door opened, and there she was. I hadn’t seen her in months because of the whole prom mix-up. Really thinking about it, it had almost been a year. Since last August.
She hadn’t changed much. White blond hair that fell in soft curls around her shoulders. She was wearing a hint of makeup but not much. She looked completely smoking hot in the white, spaghetti-strap dress that fell to her ankles. Like some modern-day hippie chick who should have flowers in her hair.
She pretty much looked like Ash. The girl I’d grown up with.
Except my reaction to her now was different. I’d known she was hot. When she walked around in those barely-there bikinis, she could totally make my dick hard.
But I’d never realized how fucking beautiful she was. How absolutely fucking beautiful.
“You’re beautiful,” I muttered. Like I couldn’t keep the words inside me.
Her face lit up. “You’ve never said that to me before.”
No, I wouldn’t have. Stroking Ash’s ego was never my thing. If anything, I did the opposite. Standing here now, seeing her as the adult she’d grown into, there was no point in denying it.
“You are stunning. I’m sorry I never told you before.”
Her cheeks turned pink and she looked away. “You’re doing the whole making-up-for-the-prom thing pretty well.”
She wasn’t wrong. Part of this night out had been about coaxing her into coming back, but mostly it was to make up for what I’d done. I had a plan.