Page 152 of Whirlwind

“Know what?”

“Your daddy was fucking my mother?”

My head fell back. “So crude. Anna’s a single woman. Does she need your approval about who she wants to screw?”

“Shut up!”

“Of course, she should have kept her hands off a married man whose wife she’s friends with.”

“You knew!”

“It was a one night hook—”

“Oh, no it wasn’t. A pair of custom engraved gold cufflinks with the initials MH arrived at the house from Tiffany’s for my mother. She turned beet red when I opened the box, and she fed me some bullshit about how the two of them have gotten close lately and she wanted to give him a gift. This is the first time she’s ever lied to me, Violet! Then she finally admitted that they’re having an affair.”

“I think she’s reading more into it, I really don’t think it’s an affair.”

“Either way he fucked her,” his voice seethed over the line. “Is this Marshall trying to cut me out right before the auction? He goes straight to the vault, using his dick for the passkey? Now he doesn’t need me anymore. I’ll just be some pup in the corner he throws a bone to off and on to please her. That’s not happening, do you hear?”

“Calm down. You’re being dramatic. There is no plan or scheme here. My father has no intention of cutting you out.”

“Because he tells you everything, right? Did he give you a play by play of how he seduced my mother?”

I slammed my jaw against the tide of words about how his mommy got nailed in the coatroom of a restaurant and loved every second of it. I took in a deep breath. “No, it was a shock. Honestly, I don’t think this is an ongoing affair. He said they were at a party at a restaurant together, they were drinking, things got flirty, and then there was sex.”

“Ugh. Listen to you—defending the son of a bitch.”

“I’m not defending what he did. I’m telling you what he said happened, which sounds different from what your mother may be implying. I know he regrets it.”

“Well, of course that’s what he’s going to say to his daughter and his wife.” He scoffed. “At the end of the day, I expected nothing less from you Hildebrands. Listen to me and listen to me good, Violet. Remember what I said when we got back from Nashville?”

“I remember,” I said though gritted teeth.

“You tell Marshall to stay away from my mother. Stop him or I swear I will torch that fucking house myself, you hear me? And I won’t stop until I bring all of Powder Ridge down around your bare asses.”

“Powder Ridge is ours.”

“You need me and my mother. You need our money, and our political and commercial contacts.”

“Look, I know this thing with your mother and my dad is a shock to you—”

“And it’s not for you, not to mention your mother?”

“Of course it is. It’s been awful for my mom.” I let out a deep groan to punctuate my pain for him. “But I truly believe it was a one time indulgence.”Motherfuck, it better be.“Look, the auction is coming up, can you cool your jets until then? And yes, I will talk to my dad.”

I rolled my eyes. And how was that going to go?Please, Daddy, don’t fuck your mistress ever again.

“What you and I need to do”—Ladd’s voice got sharper—“is to top my mother and your dad from their little indulgence, as you so nicely put it. Because if this gets out, it’s going to be a stupid, dirty scandal and that’s unacceptable to me. My mother already has a boyfriend who I put up with because he’s got contacts I need and an incredible house in Aspen. Plus, everyone knows that you and I are seeing each other. What the fuck were they thinking? That we would double date with them? Unbelievable. Violet, are you listening? Did you hear what I said?”

I sucked in a breath. “I heard you.”

“We announce our engagement, and that puts a stop to their stupid. So If you know what’s good for you and your daddy, and your dream house, you’re going to sit tight on my cock for a while yet and nobody else’s.”

What the ever-loving fuck?

“We need to discuss this more,” Ladd said. “Where are you?”

Oh, how I wanted to say,“In the Mediterranean with my lover. Did you and Sissy enjoy Mexico?”but I held myself back. Now was not the time for my usual push for satisfaction through biting verbal audacity.

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