Page 19 of Her Billionaire Hero
And I’ve got to stop snooping in her business.
Chapter Ten
Sloan
My father went to pour us some brandy from the Waterford crystal decanter Preston and I had given him for Christmas the year before. “Hearing that your marriage to that man was over was music to my ears.”
I picked up two snifters and held them out for him to fill with the amber liquor. “It’s never been a secret that you didn’t like us together.” My stomach knotted as I tried to choose my words carefully. “You could’ve broken us up before we’d even gotten started if you’d told me about his affair with Mom.”
“You know my reasons for not doing that.” He took the glass I held out to him, then went to take a seat behind his desk.
Taking his cue to sit, I took the chair on the opposite side. “I do.” Inhaling the haughty aroma of the brandy, I was reminded of the lifestyle I’d grown up in and kept living while married to Preston. I didn’t think people my age normally drank brandy. And I’d never done it of my own accord. But when my father drank it, so did I. I’d done the same with Preston.
I’m a little mimic, is what I am.
There was quite a bit of self-exploration I would need to do if I wanted to completely become my own person. With Preston coming into my life just as I was on the cusp of womanhood, he’d molded me in ways that I hadn’t realized before. I had to undo what he’d done so I could finally become my own person.
Dad closed his eyes as he took his first sip. “Being back in Austin brings back memories.”
I placed the untouched snifter of brandy on his desk, deciding that it would be better to stop being such a follower sooner rather than later. A paper on the desk stood out to me; there was a name was on it I hadn’t seen in years. Audrey Manning.
I reached out and pulled the paper toward me. “Dad, what’s this about?” Scanning the page, the first thing I noticed was that it had come from the Austin Police Department.
“That’s the main reason I’m back in town, honey.” His dark eyes met mine. “They think they may have found your mother’s remains.”
Ice filled my veins. Even though Mom had been missing all this time, I still never thought that she’d died. To have proof that she was no longer alive somewhere on the planet would be bothersome, maybe even devastating. “Remains?” Sixteen years had passed. I wasn’t sure what all would remain of her body now—if it was her. I just couldn’t bring myself to believe or even contemplate that.
His fingers dropped on the far corner of the paper as he pulled it back to him. “Skeletal is what the report says.”
Of course, that’s all that would be left of her by now. But it can’t be her. It just can’t be.
Shuddering as the ice broke loose in my veins, I sucked in my breath. “How can they be sure it’s her?” I looked up at my father as so many questions rushed into my brain. “Where is she? How’d they only find her now, after all these years? And why is she dead? Was it an accident? Did she not mean to leave us, Dad?”
If my mother had been killed in an accident or even murdered, then all the anger I’d had at her for abandoning me and my father was wrong—dead wrong. Closing my eyes, I tried so hard not to cry but failed. The floodgates opened, tears pouring down my cheeks.
Putting my face in my hands, I sobbed uncontrollably until I felt a set of firm hands on my shoulders. “Baby, we will get through this together. I’m angry with myself for all the bad things I’ve thought about your mother all these years. But the thing we need to wait on—before we go and kick ourselves for our thoughts about her—is to find out if that’s Audrey or not.”
Wiping my tears away, I knew Dad was right. “Why do they think it might be her?” I didn’t understand that at all.
My father walked away from me; his shoulders hunched in a way I’d never seen before. It looked as if he bore the weight of the world on them. “It’s because of where the remains were found.” His dark eyes suddenly had bags underneath them and his face was colorless as he took a seat and stared at the paper that lay on the desk.
“Dad, you look awful all of a sudden.” I didn’t like what I was seeing. “Are you okay?” I’d never seen him look so bad in my whole life. Not even when Mom didn’t come home that night, or the next night, or the night after that. “Where were the remains found?”
“South Austin.” His chest caved in as he slumped forward and reached across the desk to take my hands in his. “If it comes back that he had anything to do with her death, then I’m going to want to kill myself for not stopping him when he set his eyes on you, honey.”
Only one man had ever set his eyes on me. “Preston? What does he have to do with it? I mean, other than the affair?”
Letting go of my hands, he picked up the glass and took a long drink. My father didn’t often need liquid courage. But whatever he had to say was something he had to work up the guts for. “I should’ve stopped him anyway. He took you away from me and turned you into somethinghewanted. He never let you become the woman you would’ve been with a man your own age—or at least a man in the same generation as you.”
My eyes jerked to stare at the floor. I’d had no idea my father had ever thought that way. “It’s my fault too. I was too easy to manipulate. I never spoke up. I let him shape me. I was weak.”
“You were a kid, Sloan. Eighteen isn’t old enough to know everything that a person can do to you, mentally speaking.” A harsh breath told me he was taking on all the blame for what had happened to me.
But I’d emerged from the weakness. At least, I was emerging from it now. “I take my part of the blame, Dad.”
“You shouldn’t.” His jaw clenched tightly. “The blame rests solely on my shoulders. As your father, I shouldn’t have allowed him to do that to you. Instead, I hid behind some false sense of people having rights. It never occurred to me until too late—after you two married—that you didn’t have the capacity to know what he was doing to you all those years. The one thing I am glad for is that you came to your own conclusion that it was time to end his reign of dominance over you. I’m so proud of you, baby. So damn proud of you and what you’ve become, even with him telling you all the time that you could never live your dreams. But look at you now.”
“Yeah, look at me now.” I still had tons of weaknesses that I tried hard to hide from everyone. “Dad, I’ve still got a ways to go. I did stay with him for ten years. I don’t think that makes me much of a heroine.”
