A Touch of Temptation(24)
Their father, Jeremiah Stanton, was shaking hands with someone.
His gaze instantly zeroing on his wife, Alexander cut his way across the crowd toward them, his stride purposeful.
Even Diego felt a flash of anxiety at the fear that filled Olivia’s eyes. “Olivia? Are you all right?”
She glanced up at him, her gaze glittering with pain. “Sorry. Old habits die hard.” She bent toward him, the very picture of anxiety. “You have to find Kim immediately— okay?”
“What are you talking about?”
“My father,” she said, glancing at him and turning away quickly. “I know his wrath when he’s displeased better than anyone. He won’t like what the media’s been saying about her.”
“I don’t either.”
“You don’t understand. He will rip into her for this. Whatever issues you have with her, tonight just...just take care of her.”
* * *
Her muscles quivering, Kim paced the quiet corner of the banquet hall.
Every inch of her wanted to confront Diego, challenge every arrogant word he had uttered about six years ago. She could take anything he tossed at her—his tactics to control her company, his manipulations. But she couldn’t stand his latest accusations. His background had never bothered her—not then, not now. As if she had ever assumed that she was better than him, as if she hadn’t given it everything she had in her—until he had turned her into his prize trophy.
She turned toward the banquet hall, determined to have it out with him right there. And then she saw her father at the edge of the crowd, walking toward her, wearing the fiercest scowl she had ever seen.
With her father being out of country for the past month she had almost forgotten about him. They hadn’t had their twice-weekly lunch, and of course he had only flown in today. Which meant this was the first he’d be hearing about everything.
She smiled as he neared her, a feeling of failure threading through her. She ran a hand over her stomach, unable to stop herself. Anger fell off him in dark waves. Which wasn’t unusual—except before it had always been targeted at Liv.
She bent her cheek toward him as she always did, but he didn’t kiss it. Straightening up, she met his gaze. The fury pulsing in it curled into dread in her stomach.
“Have you lost your goddamned mind, Kimberly?” His words were low and yet his wrath was a tangible thing around them. “I’m gone for a month and not only have you screwed up your life, but your company too?”
She drew a sharp breath in. “Dad, I understand how awful this must sound to you, but I’m trying my best to control the damage. I’m so sorry you had to hear about it like this.”
“Are you? Wherever I turn I’m smacked in the face with news that both my daughters are indiscriminate...” His gaze flicked to her. “Are you really no better than Olivia?”
She shook her head, hating the disappointment in his words. “For the last time—Liv did nothing wrong. And, yes, I know that I’ve messed up, but the truth is that I—”
“Unless you can tell me that everything I’ve heard so far is false there’s nothing you can say.”
His gaze flayed her, eroding her already thin composure.
“You run away from your wedding, you get yourself pregnant by God-knows-who... After everything I taught you you’ve proved that you’re no better than the trash your mother was. These are not the actions of the daughter I raised—the daughter I’ve always been proud of.”
Her heart sinking to her feet, Kim clutched at his hands. She was not like her mother. She was not weak. “He’s not just someone I picked up, Dad,” she said, for the first time acknowledging that very fact to herself, too. She had walked away from the hurt Diego had caused her six years ago, given up on a foolish dream, but it didn’t mean she was impervious to his sudden reappearance in her life.
“Is it true, then?”
“What?”
“You married him six years ago? He’s the father of your...child?”
She nodded. “Diego is the baby’s father. And, yes, our marriage is valid.”
“Then you’d better work it out with him and clean up this mess. The last thing I want is a bastard grandchild.”
She flinched at his cutting words. “I will, Dad. I promise. Will I see you—?”
He shook his head, his denial absolute. “Don’t call me until you’ve kept yourself out of the news for a while. And if you can’t clean it up you’re just as dead to me as your sister is.”
Nodding, Kim sagged against the wall as he walked away without a backward glance. She exhaled a long breath, tears prickling behind her eyes. It had to be the damned hormones again. Because her father’s reaction should not be a surprise. She had seen it enough times with Liv.