Page 31 of Bittersweet Legacy

My eyes followed him with incredulity, did he think I just needed time? How delusional was that man?

I looked at Caleb who gave me the stink eye, like I had personally offended him by reacting that way. That guy was a walking contradiction. He clearly didn’t want to marry me any more than I wanted to be married to him and yet my rejection offended him. I shook my head.Idiot.

Once they closed the door behind them, I turned around and didn’t even have a chance to talk before my face flew to the left.

I actually heard the slap before I felt the burning sting or tasted the bloody tang in my mouth where I’d bitten my cheek.

I turned to look at my father, my hands in tight fists beside me, my cheek burning like a bitch. I wouldn’t give him the pleasure to see how much it hurt.

“This is just a friendly warning, Esmeralda. Do not disrespect me ever again or question one of my decisions. You will not like the result.”

“I will not marry Caleb Astor – nothing you can do or say will change my mind.”

“Nothing?” he asked, and I hated the challenge in his voice.

“What more could you ever take from me?”

“You,” he laughed. “Ah sweet girl, you’re even more naïve than I thought.”

He laughed some more as he returned to his desk and took three folders out of his drawer and slammed them on his desk.

He took the first one and started to read. “Luke Danvers, born Luke Fieldman. He changed his name at age 19 after being estranged from his parents.” He looked up at me. “He did that when they disowned him because of his substance abuse… which is still very much a problem.”

I crossed my arms on my chest, glaring silently.

He sighed in fake contrition. “He is now in a very high-end rehab facility, which I’m paying for. It would be too bad if after losing the girl he loved like a daughter he finds himself on his own in the streets and worse…. Imagine how he will fare in prison for kidnapping?” He shook his head, “I don’t give him a long life expectancy.”

My heart started to hammer in my chest, I would never allow Luke to be punished for me, not after all the sacrifices he made, not after what I started to discover reading my mother’s journal.

“Do you want me to continue?” he asked, resting the first folder on the side.

I looked at the two folders remaining, not sure I really wanted to know what, or who else, he could blackmail me with.

He chuckled. “Oh what the hell, you’re my child after all, I’ll share with you. Benjamin Deluca.” He looked up at me to gauge my reaction but I did my best to keep my face as blank as possible.

Mom said it in her journal, and Taylor warned me. These Patricians were like hyenas, looking for the first small sign of weakness before going for the kill. I’ve made it too easy for them, I kept making it too easy for them but I needed to learn and fast.

“His parents had him late didn’t they? Umm,” his eyes skimmed the paper. “All of their income is dependent on their little Italian restaurant. I wonder how they’d manage without it, especially to cover his mom’s diabetes medication. It’d be tough, don’t you think?”

“Their restaurant is working very well.” I replied rather defensively realising only too late I’d walked straight into his trap.

He nodded, taking a piece of paper from the folder and waving it in front of me. “Yes, I’ve got a copy of their annual accounts here. Too bad they’re only renting, huh? I know a company quite interested in buying the building just to make changes.”

Fear was now mixed with my anger. If Ben’s parents lost the restaurant, it would be a disaster, it was their only source of income, his parents were much too old to get a job somewhere else.

My father’s smile widened maliciously. “I see we’re understanding each other.” He slapped the file on the desk and reached for the last one. “Last but not least… Juliet Anderson.”

I frowned, Juliet and I were friends, yes, but we weren’t even that close – how much did my father know about my life prior to coming here? “I see she is raised by a single mother and has a severely mentally impaired little brother. They are lucky her mother has a good job as a hotel manager and that she is getting such a good medical cover.” He sighed, letting the file fall on the desk and walking back to me, his eyes locked with mine. “What would happen if someone bought the hotel and fired her, huh? How would the family cope?”

My nostrils flared in anger, I cared for them all, I loved Luke like the dad he’s always been. My father understood I had little consideration for my own wellbeing but I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of destroying someone else’s life, no matter what the cost would be to me and he knew that, of course he did.Evil bastard– he saw right through me and my weakness.

“What do you want?” I asked not able to stop my voice from shaking.

He stood very close to me, right in my space hovering over me threateningly. “I want you to learn your place, I want you to act like you’re supposed to. The only thing I want to hear when I order something from you is ‘yes, father’ or ‘absolutely, father’ or even ‘right away, father’. Do not dare discuss my orders again, especially not in public. Are we clear now, Esmeralda?” He asked, one eyebrow arched challengingly.

“Yes… father.” Saying these words felt like swallowing razor blades. I was planning to leave at the end of the year. One year in Brentwood Academy would have helped me get a scholarship to any university and I would never have had to look back at this life, my hateful father and my damaged brother.

But this marriage, these threats, they were life sentences hanging over my head. I wanted to scream at the realisation that Taylor and my mother’s journal had been right. Once you were in the Patricians, you were not getting out unscathed.

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