Page 91 of Forbidden Grumpy Boss

“I’m your father.”

“Mom would be mortified,” I say, hating how my voice quivers. “She’d be embarrassed to see what you’ve turned into, throwing your weight around like a common thug.”

The flicker in his eyes is brief, but it’s there. Lizzie’s fingers hover over his chest, careful about touching him. For a second, I think I’ve hit a nerve. But he brushes it off with a scoff.

“Your mother’s dead,” he says flatly, his tone so dismissive that I feel my heart ache. “Whatever she thought of me went with her.”

I feel my stomach twist. The callousness in his voice, the complete disregard for the woman who raised me—who raised both of us—shocks me more than I care to admit. I search his face for some trace of remorse, some glimmer of empathy.

But there’s nothing.

“You’re unbelievable.” My voice trembles despite my best efforts to keep it steady. “You’d destroy a kid’s future just to get me under your thumb.”

“I know you can’t see this now, Leah, but I’m doing this for you.”

“You’re doing this foryou, Dad! Jesus, you feed people so much bullshit you can’t even tell when you’re high on your own product. In what world is using a kid as leverage the right thing to do?!”

“The right thing to do?” he scoffs. “Silas has been—”

“I’m an adult! I made my own choice.”

“Well, this morning, he made his choice too.”

I feel blood rush to my head. “What are you talking about?”

He shrugs, his expression indifferent. “It’s a shame, really, to see you throw everything away over a man who wouldn’t lift a finger to save you if it came down to it. A man who really couldn’t care less about you. But you’re so blinded by your need to hurt me that you can’t see it.”

“What choice? What are you talking about, Dad?” I demand with my fists clenched.

“You think I came to you first?”

“What?”

His smirk returns, sharper than before. “I already gave Silas a choice, Leah. I told him to choose. Either I get the protests, and everything dropped, and his movie goes on, or he keeps you and keeps the production stalled.”

I take a step back. “When was this?” I’m momentarily stunned, the words washing over me, leaving a numbness in their wake. “And?” I ask, with the word barely a whisper and my pulse quickening.

“What do you think, Leah?”

My heart races. Rome comes to mind. The way he turned me away like I was nothing. He still hasn’t said anything to me telling him I loved him, and he’s been getting increasingly distant. Is it possible that he—

“He chose the deal.”

Dad leans forward, a satisfied glint in his eyes. “He chose the deal, my dear.”

I blink, trying to process what he’s saying. “That’s—I don’t think he’d do that to me. There’s no way.” But even as I say it, doubt creeps in. Silas has never told me he wanted something more serious than the fake engagement. Yes, we’ve made love repeatedly. But perhaps the feelings were all one-sided.

Perhaps I’ve been making a fool of myself.

“Don’t be naive, Leah,” Dad says, a cold chuckle slipping past his lips. “Silas is a businessman and a good one. Just like me. He looks out for himself, just like any successful man should.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe him. “Silas isn’t like you.”

“No? Why do you think we were best friends?” He cocks his head, studying me with a bemused expression. “Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart. But you’re trusting the wrong man.”

“Then why did you give me the choice if you knew Silas already accepted yours?”

“Because I wanted to give you some semblance of control over the situation, Leah. I told you I was doing this for you.”

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