Page 131 of Bitter Rival

Daisy laughs harshly. “Wow. Okay. So I guess we’re being civil. In other words, we’re pretending that you’re a mother who actually wants to spend time with her daughter.” Daisy nods. “Thanks for the memo. It’s always good to know which game we’re playing.”

Astrid sighs. “You’ve always been such a drama queen. You made your choices, Daisy, just like I did.”

“I chose not to accompany you on another husband-hunting expedition. I chose not to be an accomplice in your schemes and manipulations because unlike you, I have a conscience. But I didn’t choose to be completely abandoned?—”

“Oh please, you were living in a multimillion-dollar house in Santa Monica. You act like I left you broke and homeless?—”

“You did!” Daisy cries. “Did you really think Daniel was going to let me live there after you robbed him blind and took off?” Daisy shakes her head and exhales a ragged breath.

She looks like she’s fighting back tears, which is exactly why I wanted to confront Astrid in London and not involve Daisy.

Her spine straightens and she lifts her chin and squares her shoulders like she’s preparing for battle. “But as you can see, I survived. After all, you taught me how to stand on my own two feet.”

Astrid scoffs. “Would you have preferred I coddled you? You would never be the artist you are today without the life experiences you’ve had.”

I can’t listen to this bullshit another minute. But it’s further proof that Astrid deserves what she has coming.

“Is that how you sleep at night?” I ask. “By justifying your actions and pretending it was for Daisy’s own good? Do you have any idea what your daughter has been through?” I grit out.

“It’s fine,” Daisy says, putting her hand on my arm. “Just let it go.”

It’s not fine. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

I thought I hated Astrid before but after the way she’s treating Daisy, like she was just excess baggage and not her own daughter, I hate her on a whole new level.

“It’s interesting how you act like you’re so much better than me,” Astrid says, her eyes on me. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that you had Daisy’s best interests at heart when you tracked me down in London and lured me here?”

“What?” Daisy spins to face me. “You tracked her down?”

“Oh gosh, was that supposed to be a secret, Beck? Ahhh, I see.” Astrid nods. “You don’t want my daughter to know just what kind of man you really are, do you? That’s why you were hoping to confront me on your own.”

“You flatter yourself, Astrid. What would make you think I’d ever want to see your face again?”

She smiles. “Maybe I know you better than you think. Daisy, why don’t you ask your precious Beckett what he did with the million dollars he stole from my bank account. I’d love to hear his answer.”

Daisy gasps. “What?” she asks faintly.

Fucking Astrid. “What wild assumptions you’re making, Astrid.”

She rolls her eyes. “You can drop the act. I know it was you. Just for the record, I hope you didn’t pay that PI a lot of money. He folded like a deck of cards.” Astrid studies her manicure. “Although I can’t say I blame him. Rocco can be incredibly persuasive. I hired my own security detail to keep me safe from the strange man stalking me. You can never be too careful these days. And to think that my poor, little Daisy was trying to defend you.” She gives me a mock pout. “You must feel like a real heel for keeping her in the dark.”

Fuck. Double fuck. Next to me, I feel Daisy tense.

Her words come back to me. “Promise me you won’t keep me in the dark.”

Daisy looks up at me. “Tell me none of this is true,” she pleads. “Look me in the eye and tell me she’s making this up. Tell me that you weren’t working behind the scenes this whole time and that you didn’t lure her here. Tell me, Beckett.”

I’m tempted to lie to her face and tell her I have no idea what Astrid is talking about. But since Astrid is here and she’s obviously aware that I was having her followed, I can’t take the risk that she’ll slip through my fingers.

I’ll have to take care of this today.

Which means that Daisy will eventually find out the truth anyway.

Rock meet hard place.

There’s no good way out of this so I stick to facts. “You knew I wanted to find her. I never made a secret of that.”

“But…that was three months ago. And I asked you not to—” Her eyes lower and she takes a step back. “God. I’m so stupid. Of course, you weren’t going to give up on my account. And now that this whole thing is over, you have nothing to lose because I upheld my end of the deal.”

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