Page 46 of The Billionaire's Hire (The Venture Capital Trilogy)

I put my phone down and then stared into space.

Growing up, my father was always cold. He was a perfectionist, and if I did something he didn’t like—which was most of the time, as an unruly child and later, as a teenager—he called me out on it. Our relationship mostly consisted of himbeing disappointed in me and telling me so. When I got older, and I went to business school and started making connections of my own, he became more tolerant.

It was as if, all of a sudden, he realized I was a person. A person he could make use of. But when my usefulness ran out…

What do I care if he disinherits me?asked the voice in my head. I was my own man. I had plenty of money—billions, in fact.

So, I didn’t care about my inheritance. Not exactly. It was more the spitefulness of my father’s threat, the waste of it. He’d worked for years to build his empire. He’d sacrificed a lot, including his relationship with me. And now he was threatening to leave his billions to my enemies, including a hockey coach I’d fired and the Windsor sisters. It was such a ridiculous, impulsive, short-sighted threat that I couldn’t let it go. I had the nagging feeling that my mother would disapprove of this. She wouldn’t want me to walk away. She wouldn’t want my father’s years of sacrifice and the suffering we all did because of it to be for nothing.

Cooler heads needed to prevail. Just because I didn’t need my inheritance didn’t mean that I thought it was wise to divvy up my parents’ billions and dole it out to individuals who had no legitimate right to it. If my father threatened to give it all to charity, that would be one thing. But to people who meant less than nothing to our family? It was pointless to the brink of ridiculousness. It was nothing but spiteful.

I called my father back. “Dad—don’t hang up. Let’s talk this through. I know this isn’t what you wanted, but we can figure it out.”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of men like Ramos,” my father said. He still sounded angry, but at least he was calmer. “There’s only one way to deal with them, to pay them. We can figure the rest of it out afterward.”

“I don’t agree with you,” I said. “Paying Ramos off will only come back to bite us in the ass. If there’s something wrong with the building, it’ll come out someday. And I can’t have that on my record, not to mention my conscience.”

“Since when did you ever have a conscience?” My dad snorted. “You gave me your word that you would help me. Usually, you get deals done, son. That’s not happening. I’m starting to wonder if having this girl back is the problem. I’m wondering if this girl is the difference.”

“Leave Jenny out of it—she’s got nothing to do with this,” I said quickly. “We’re on vacation with our friends, celebrating their wedding. She’s not doing anything wrong.”

When he said nothing, I continued, “She came to me this morning and told me she feels guilty about taking me away from work. She said I should close my deal.”

“How interesting,” my father said. He suddenly sounded more upbeat. He also sounded… smug.

“Why is that interesting?” I asked.

“Why would she say something like that?” he asked. “Why would she feel guilty?”

“Because we’re on another vacation.” I sounded defensive, even to my own ears. “We just got back from the Caribbean.”

“Hmm. I find it curious that she’s suddenly interested in your business dealings. And that she’s using the word ‘guilty,’” my father said. He was making an accusation—I just wasn’t sure what he was accusing Jenny of.

“I don’t think you need to read too much into it,” I said mildly.

“Maybe, maybe not,” he responded. “Still, she’s telling you to close your deal. And then you called Ramos, and then you called me. Maybe she’s not the problem—not like I assumed. But it does seem that she has a fair bit of influence over you, doesn’t it?”

“Let’s leave Jenny out of it,” I said again. My father’s tone was shifting, and I didn’t like it. He was insinuating something. I didn’t want his words circling Jenny. I felt like they might surround her and twist her in their ugly grip like a snake squeezing its prey.

“I know you haven’t had a life in a long time,” I said. “But just because I have one doesn’t mean I’m ineffective in my business.”

“You don’t seem very effective at the moment,” he drawled.

I sighed. “Ramos won’t give us the approvals because of structural issues. He won’t do it unless we buy him off. This situation has nothing to do with me.”

“The fact that you can’t get him to move at all haseverythingto do with you.” He paused for a beat. “As does the fact that you failed to take action until your lady-friend urged you to do so.”

“Enough, Dad.” I fought to keep my tone neutral so that we wouldn’t start yelling at each other again. “Have your team deal with it—it’s not like you don’t have the resources. This isn’t my mess to clean up, but I’m still doing my best to help you. Maybe for once, you could be grateful.”

“Deliver, and then I’ll be grateful.”

We hung up, and I didn’t feel much better. In fact, I felt worse, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. My father was awful, but that was nothing new.

But his insinuation about Jenny was. Usually, this would be the sort of thinly veiled criticism I would let go in one ear and right out the other.

So why, all of a sudden, did I have a pit in my stomach?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

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