Page 92 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

There was a finality to his words that renewed my anxiety. "The marketing campaign?"

"Our love affair."

There was no smile on his face now, no warmth in his gaze, just icy coldness. He might have saved my life, but something was off. The man I'd fallen in love with was gone. Maybe he'd never really been there at all. "Okay," I said. "Can we talk about it at the resort?"

"I'm not going back to the resort. You might not be, either, but that depends on a few factors."

"You're scaring me, Andrew. Could you put the gun down?"

"I'm afraid I can't. Sit in the chair behind the desk, Lauren."

"Why?"

"Just do it," he bit out, pulling me toward the chair, then letting go of my hand long enough to shove me down on the seat. A second later, he pulled something metal out of his pocket, cuffing my right wrist to the arm of the chair with a motion so quick I barely registered what he was doing. I stared down at the metal cuff in shock, then back up at him. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now we wait."

"For…"

"Your father to come."

My heart leapt against my chest. "You know who my father is, too?"

His answering smile had once dazzled me, but now I saw past the sparkle to the evil. He might have saved my life, but that was only because he needed me to be alive for some reason…a reason I was about to find out.

ChapterTwenty-Three

After making sure I was secured to the chair, Andrew left the room, closing the door behind him. I didn't know if he was going to finish off Bennett, or if he was going to wait downstairs for Victor to arrive.

As the minutes ticked by, my anxiety increased…as well as my anger. I couldn't believe I'd been so blinded by love I hadn't seen who Andrew really was. People had tried to warn me, but I'd been stubbornly defensive of our love story, which had turned out to be a bad fairy tale.

I yanked at the wooden arm of the chair where he'd cuffed me. The lighthouse's dampness had rotted the wood over the decades, and I could feel it giving slightly each time I pulled. I twisted my wrist, ignoring the bite of the metal cuff, using it to help splinter the wood. There was no one coming to rescue me. I had to find a way to save myself.

When the door opened, I halted my movement.

Andrew gave me a sharp glance, then said, "Your father will be here soon."

My gut clenched. "Victor is really my dad?"

"I see Bennett filled you in." His gaze moved to the open file on the desk, and a new gleam of anger appeared in his eyes. "Allison stole that from me and stabbed me in the back. I couldn't believe she would betray me like that."

"You had the file first?" I asked, wondering how many more surprises were coming my way.

"I found it in Victor's office. It looked interesting, so I swiped it along with the paintings on his walls before I started the fire."

I stared at him in bemusement, still unable to correlate this man with the one I'd fallen in love with. "You started the fire? I defended you so many times to Ethan. I told him he was wrong. You weren't a thief. You weren't an arsonist. You were a hero. You saved me."

"And I didn't have to."

"Did you rescue me because you realized I was Victor's daughter?"

"I didn't know who you were when I heard you scream for help. I hadn't read the file that closely, so your name meant nothing to me." He shrugged. "I saved your life because you were pretty, desperate, and because I could. The next day, when I realized you were the woman named in the will, I knew you could be very useful to me."

"That's why you came to my hospital room, why you started this whole charade." I was amazed by how carefully orchestrated everything had been. "What if I hadn't been caught in the fire? Would you have sought me out?"

"Yes. I would have found a way to use you, because you were Victor's dirty little secret. That gave me power over a powerful man."

"For six months, you spent every day with me convincing me we were in love," I said. "You texted me, called me, took me out on dates, had sex with me, told me you loved me." I gave him a long questioning look. "That took time and effort. Why go through all that?"

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