Page 71 of Taming Scarlet

“He’s very subtle about it,” she said, angling her head up at me. “Believe me, I’ve been hearing it my entire life. He will talk about a topic I understand perfectly, then say something likeAnd by that, Scarlet, I mean that…and then explain it like I’m a child. Like I didn’t go to college for business like he demanded.

“It’s like he thinks that because I live the lifestyle I do that it somehow erases the four years I spent learning everything that I could possibly ever need to know about how his empire operates.”

“Did you want to know how to run his empire?” I asked.

“It was expected, whether I wanted to or not,” she said, shrugging. “And I’ve used some of the things I learned to help me build my brand. I know he doesn’t see that. He thinks it’s all frivolous. And maybe it is to him. But to an average person, I make a very nice living ‘posting silly pictures,’” she said, air quoting it in a way that suggested her father had used those exact words at some point.

“He told me when I interviewed that he had hopes for you to take over the company. What?” I asked when she let out a dry laugh.

“The only way I would be able to get my hands on that company is if he dies soon. That sounds awful, but it’s true. He’s so invested in it, and he trusts everyone so implicitly, that he doesn’t see that they are slowly but surely trying to get more control in their hands and away from him. So that when he does pass someday, they take it over.”

“And you get nothing?” I asked.

“I get a buyout, most likely.”

“Have you tried to explain this to him?”

Scarlet’s eyes rolled as she exhaled hard.

“I have tried to explain to him, in detail, how Stephen himself is trying to undermine him. He doesn’t believe me. Tells me I’m naive. That I just don’t like Stephen. To be fair, I don’t. He’s a condescending prick and he acts like he didn’t grope me when I was sixteen, when he absolutely did.”

“He what?” I asked, surprised with how quickly rage could bubble up in my system. I found my fingers digging into her flesh, and had to focus to force them to relax.

“On this very ship, in fact,” she said, body tensing again. “Tried to corner me in the hall right outside my bedroom, and reached up to grab my tit. The only reason it didn’t go further than that was because Drea was coming down to my room for us to get pretty.”

“Did you tell your father this?” I asked, feeling any respect I’d used to have toward Marcus slipping away.

“I did.”

“And?”

“He said that he probably just accidentallybrushedme. When he had a whole handful of my boob. Whatever. I did make it a rule that he’s never allowed to have a room near me again. Which is why we haven’t seen him over here. He’s closer to Dad’s room.”

“That shouldn’t have happened to you. And your father should have believed you.”

“When you grow up in this world, you learn really young that money and power can excuse all sorts of bad behavior among men. I think to the outside, people assume that they only use that power against people who are so much more powerless. House or office staff, for example. Women in the poorer cities they visit. But being wealthy and privileged didn’t protect any of us,” she said, eyes far away.

“Any of you. Meaning your friends,” I said.

“Drea, especially. I’m not betraying a confidence there. She and her mom tried to bring it to trial, but her father forced them to drop it. Spouting off that shit about one bad act shouldn’t bring down a ‘great’ man.”

“Great men don’t abuse women and girls.”

“In this world, apparently, they do. And get away with it. While Drea…” she said, exhaling hard after trailing off.

While Drea got fall-down drunk and acted out sexually, wanting to be the one in control, but somehow only managing to get further victimized.

“Is this why you don’t date? Or don’t date much,” I clarified, since I was sure she’d dated, but it definitely didn’t hit any gossip sites, and not her socials at all.

“Men in these circles are raised by those so-called ‘great men’ who passed on even worse ideas to their sons.”

“What about in college?”

“Do you know what they teach business majors?” she asked.

“What?”

“To get what you want by all means necessary,” she said. “The way the guys I went to college with talked about women was disgusting. Like they were property to be bought and discarded when they lost their value.

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