Page 1 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

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Kate

“Dad,”Katewhispered,horrified.The misery budded in her heart threatened to bloom. “I don’t understand—you’velostyour club?”

He took her hand, perhaps to stop the shaking in his own. The acrid notes of cheap alcohol and cigarette smoke hung heavy on his breath, as they always did when he returned from his club.Charlton’s Gentlemen’s Club. Club. A word fragranced with memories of aristocratic gentlemen’s establishments in St James’s, where the nobility would hide from nagging wives and share a tipple over the newest copy ofThe Times.

Her dad’s business was little more than a seedy casino-turned-strip club, where only the most desperate would be found on any given day. Or the most dangerous.

Dad’s eyes remained glued to their intertwined hands, as though he were too afraid to look her in the eye. “I made a bet,” he admitted.

Kate’s shoulders sunk in horror. She wrenched her hand from his. “You promised you wouldn’t gamble again. Youpromised.”

“I know,” he nodded, letting loose a cider-infused sigh. “I’m sorry, but you should have seen—”

Her anger exploded from her in a fierce strike as his excuses began. She’d heard them all before. “I’ve spent all evening on the phone to the debt management people!” She picked up the enormous stack of invoices she’d had to compile, brandishing them in his direction. “Do you know how long it took to sort out? I had to detail every single asset—”

Her airway was almost cut off by the realisation.

The house.

The house that Dad had bought under the name of the club as a way of finagling his way out of paying tax, as suggested by his dodgy accountant.

“Dad, please tell me you didn’t.”

Her father, who she’d always accepted regardless of his many faults, couldn’t even meet her gaze. He glared at his hands like a naughty schoolboy sitting outside his headteacher’s office, waiting for a bollocking. “I’m sorry, Katie.”

“Don’tKatieme,” she hissed, storming to her feet. “I have spent the last decade of my life trying to get the club back on its feet financially, working day and night to solve every single mess you’ve made, consolidating loans and pleading with companies to help you get back on your feet.” All while her friends from school had been moving on with their lives, marrying and multiplying without a care in the world. Not that they kept in touch with her anymore, given that she spend her every waking hour attempting to manage Dad’s finances and doing admin for the club. The only contact she had with any of them was social media, seeing their perfect lives plastered across her shattered phone screen.

Kate shook her head, holding her arms across her chest.What am I doing with my life?

Living in a one-bedroom terrace house with her father. The only sacrifice he’d ever made for her was to give her the bedroom and sleep on a futon in the living room. The pale green carpet beneath her feet was threadbare, whilst her father’s smoking had long since stained the walls a sickening yellow.

“I can’t do this anymore.” Her voice was soft.I can’t do anything anymore.

At that, he looked up. Finally. “What does that mean?”

“It means I can’t sit here and watch you throw your life away! In addition to the club and this fucking house, apparently.” She gestured to the photo on the coffee table next to the futon; the only photograph Dad would allow in the house. “Ever since Aaron died, you’ve beendestroyingyourself, Dad.” Her voice cracked. “And in the process you’re destroying me.”

“Do you not think I’ve had enough to put up with?” he responded, his backbone suddenly appearing at the barest hint of criticism.

“You were supposed to be the adult. No one forced you to get into that car.” The disappointment in her expression said the rest.No one forced you to let a drunken teenager drive your car.

It had been the morning of Aaron’s eighteenth birthday when she’d been woken by a kindly social worker telling her that her father, brother, and brother’s best friend had been in a car accident, and that her brother hadn’t survived. She’d been taken into care for the two months that her father was in the hospital, having had no one else to care for her.

There’s still no one to care for me.

The world fell away beneath her feet at the realisation that she was totally and utterly alone in the world. Dad had used her as nothing more than a workhorse to keep his business afloat, gambling away years of her work whenever the need struck him, whilst his drug addiction took care of the rest.

“Don’t youdare,” Dad hissed, pointing a yellow-nailed finger at her. His face had turned an alarming shade of pink, as it always did when he drank too much. They never spoke of Aaron’s death, nor the circumstances surrounding it.

Or, more specifically, the fault surrounding it.

Kate blinked slowly, her anger deflating like a popped balloon. Dad was failing her just as much as he failed Aaron, just at a tenth of the speed. “I’m going to bed,” she announced colourlessly, heading towards the narrow set of spiral stairs in the corner.

Her father nodded, flicking on the TV and finding a boxing match to watch. “I think that would be best. Perhaps… perhaps things will look better in the morning. We have a few days before the club and its assets change hands. We’ll sort something out.”

Tears burnt the back of her eyes, but she managed to conjure a final smile at him as she ascended the stairs.

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