Page 88 of Provoke You

“And why he hates me. At the lake, he called me a spoiled brat. For sure he heard that from Dad.”

The news should be devastating to me, but after all I’d gone through in the past few weeks, nothing surprised me anymore. What was Andy’s problem with me? Obviously, he got his dad back the minute he showed up. Dad cast me aside without question. So I should be the one hating him?

“I’m willing to bet that your dad has spent all this time telling Andy that the LeBlanc fortune should be theirs. At the hospital he said something that didn’t make sense until now.”

“What did he say?”

“That you should let them be.”

“You mean that I should die already and let them ride into the sunset with my money? After all they’ve done, I will make sure neither of them gets a single penny.”

“I’m sorry, Ela. You don’t deserve this.” Matt placed his hand on my shoulder and massaged it gently.

I leaned on him and let his fingers soothe me. I blew out air and waited for the tears to flow, but nothing happened. I supposed I was done crying for Dad and his lack of love for me. His change in behavior made so much sense now.

He had a son. Someone who was his own blood. The family he married into was never really his, or at least he never saw us as family. Even if he tried at first. It all ended when Andy showed up.

“That’s why he looked familiar when I met him at the bar two days ago.”

“Nope. That’s not why.” Kitt walked into the kitchen. The walls in this house were so thin. We had zero privacy.

“You know, you could at least pretend that you’re not listening to everything we say all the time.”

“It’s my job to know things. I literally get paid to listen in.” He winked at me. “For example, your stepbrother looks familiar because you partied with him once.”

“What?” I took the picture he placed in front of me. I remember that party, vaguely, from maybe two years ago. “This is the night I ended up in the hospital.” I glanced at Matt. “My fault. But it was the day I realized I needed to turn my life around if I didn’t want to end up dead in some ditch.”

“He’s been stalking you for a while.”

I stared at the face on the picture, wishing I could remember more about that night. “He showed up that night with one of my girlfriends. He kept making all of us do shots. I don’t do shots, but somehow I got super wasted.”

“Ela.” Matt wrapped his arm around me. The pity in his eyes sucked the air out of me.

“Fuck. Dad’s been trying to get rid of me for years. All this time, he’s been hoping he’d come to New Orleans and find me in a ditch.”

Kitt nodded. “I think that once you cleaned up your act, he realized that none of that was going to happen. So he decided to take matters into his own hands.”

This was a hard pill for me to swallow. I couldn’t wrap my mind around any of it.

“The first time, it almost worked.” Matt continued Kitt’s train of thought. “You landed in the hospital, but he couldn’t keep you there. That’s why this time, he hired a nurse to make sure you stayed long enough for him to file papers with the court.”

The events from two nights ago were still blurry. Everything that happened after I left the bar came to me in flashes, like from a dream. I was sure Dad had been there outside the restaurant. He was the one who took me away and made me drink an incredible amount of alcohol. He didn’t care if he killed me in the process.

“We have to go see Ben right now. Dad cannot get away with this.”

“Agreed.” Matt typed something into his phone. “Let’s go right now. He’s waiting.”

I bet Ben knew about Dad’s plans, or maybe he only suspected how far Dad was willing to go to keep my fortune. If I had not been so set on defending Dad, making excuses for everything he did, Ben would have trusted me with everything he knew. Instead, he had to basically go underground since Grans died. He pretended to cut all connection with me so Dad wouldn’t see him as a threat.

“Do you think Dad knew I’d go looking for Ben the minute he told me he was selling the Baroness?”

“I’d say yes. It was why they were waiting for us at the lake.”

“Two birds, one stone.” Dad knew how I would react to the news that my hotel had been sold. He’d always known what buttons to push. “He sold my hotel just to flush Ben out.”

“Exactly. It was the perfect spot too. No one would’ve thought to look for you at the bottom of that lake.” Matt cradled the nape of his neck. “He’s not going to get away with this. I promise.”

“Dad made a huge mistake hiring you to babysit me.” I pressed my lips to his.

“But he didn’t hire me. It was Jennifer.”

Just like Ben, Jennifer knew I wouldn’t believe anything bad they said about Dad. Did Dad agree to keep Matt in case he needed a scapegoat? As soon as he realized Matt was on my side and would do anything to protect me, Dad wanted him gone.

“Hey, Boss. Chase called. He says he has company. We gotta go.”

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