Page 3 of Daddy's Desire

“Yes,” Courtney said. “I’m so glad we met. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Now we never need to know,” Brylee said.

Larkin was writing down her number and handed it to her. “I always have my phone on me except when I’m asleep.”

Courtney tucked it into her bra. “Thank you, guys, so much.”

“That’s what friends do,” Nia said.

Before Courtney could say anything else, the bathroom door opened and her mother stood there scowling at her.

“What is taking you so long, Dear?” Diana, her mother, said.

“I was on my way out and met these girls. It was nice meeting you,” she said and walked to her mother.

Once the door closed, her mother grabbed her arm. Courtney gasped and cringed. “Mother, you’re hurting me.”

“I don’t want you talking to trash like that,” Diana said.

“How can you say that? You don’t know them.”

“I do know it because I’ve seen them before at these functions. The group of girls are always bubbly, and they hang off some men obnoxiously. I don’t know who they are, and I never see them anywhere else. Did you see the way they were dressed, for God’s sake?”

Courtney shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t talk that long.”

Her mother relaxed. “Good. Now, let’s get back. People are waiting for us.”

“Who is?”

Diana paused. “Friends of mine.”

“It’s not that man I danced with, is it?”

The way her mother’s face tightened told her it was.

“You will be nice to them. The Suttons are very rich andare considered part of the city’s elite. This is what I’ve been working for so many years.”

Courtney gritted her teeth. God, she really was going to make her marry a stranger. “What about what I want? Does my happiness not mean anything to you?”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” her mother hissed.

“Dramatic? This is my life you’re destroying.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “Stop it. I’m making sure you never have to worry about money again.”

“My father already made that possible. We never have to think about money because of all his hard work.”

“How do you know what we have?” Diana asked suspiciously.

Courtney backpedaled. She didn’t want her mother to know her father had sat Courtney down several times and told her about his plan for her future. Courtney knew she received eighty percent of his will and her mother twenty percent, which was more than enough for her mother to live on for three lifetimes. It just never seemed enough.

Courtney had known from her mother’s demeanor after the will was read that she was not happy with what she received. Courtney hadn’t been allowed into the office, but she’d already known what it said.

“We’ll talk more about this later,” her mother said.

Courtney opened her mouth, but it snapped shut when her new friends walked out of the bathroom. She waited until her mother turned her back to smile and nod.

They nodded, andone of them winked but otherwise ignored her, for which she was thankful. She really hoped they hadn’t heard the way her mother insulted them, but she would apologize when she saw them next time.

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