“Are there any other balls where rich men are getting auctioned off?” Esmeralda laughed. “Of course that ball.”
“But you don’t have that kind of money!”
Esmeralda was silent and then sighed. “Look, I took out a new credit card. God knows you won’t be able to marry the guy after you publicly shamed yourself like a whore. Besides, we need money!”
“Esmeralda!” She fought to keep the tears in. “How could you do that? Why? It’s just a party! We don’t have the money!”
“But you made money at the big job you were just on, right?” Esmeralda laughed. “We’ll pay for the rest on the credit card. All we really need is your portion.”
“My…portion,” Jane said, fuming. “I don’t owe you guys anything.”
“You took the job to support the family, right?” Esmeralda said plainly. “So support the family. Plus, think of the networking Essence and I could do at a place like that! We could get so many clients, meet so many people. Really, you would be doing it for us. For all of us. After all, didn’t Daddy want us to work together as a team?”
“About that.” Jane glanced around her room—at the memories that filled it, the walls with posters of bands and singers, the stickers that still littered her ceiling. “I think I’d rather fly solo.”
Esmeralda was silent, then said, “But we love you.”
“No.” Jane closed her eyes as tears burned. “You love you.”
“Jane!” Esmeralda shouted. “Don’t do this to us!”
“I’m sorry. I just…I can’t. I can’t support you spending money, my hard-earned money, on something frivolous. From here on out you’re on your own.”
“You’re a selfish bitch!” Esmeralda yelled. “No wonder he’s still going through with the auction. Who would want a frigid virgin for—”
Jane hung up the phone before she said something she could never take back.
Her childhood room suddenly felt too small, choking the life out of her. A memory surfaced of her father.
“Knock, knock.” Daddy walked in with an apron over his work clothes. He held a tray in his hand, and a rose was laid across the plate of eggs and French toast. A giant cup of coffee sat on the far right side. “I figured you’d need this.”
She didn’t trust herself to speak, so she nodded her head and looked away.
“They don’t deserve you, sweetheart,” he whispered once he set the tray on the bed and tilted her chin toward him. “Girls are fickle creatures. I love all three of you, but sometimes, we say things that are hurtful. Things we don’t mean. Promise that you’ll see through that and try to keep the family together.” He coughed; the tray trembled in his hands as he sat on her bed. “Just promise to try. Family is all we have.”
“I promised to keep everyone together,” Jane whispered aloud as the memory faded.
But was that what her dad had meant? To be a maid to her own family? No. And she’d already made her decision to stand her ground. So, with shaking hands, she grabbed a suitcase and started packing.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Brock frowned at the text.
She was late.
He tried not to be irritated. After all, he needed her if their plan was going to work.
Brock was checking his phone again when the door to his limo flew open, revealing a flurry of leopard print and expensive perfume. She flashed him a knowing smile and slid across the smooth leather seat. Her bright red lipstick was like a homing beacon in the dark car.
“Well,” she huffed. “I’m listening. What exactly do you need from me?”
Everything. He leaned back and took a deep breath then faced the one woman he knew could help keep his family in charge of Wellington, Inc.
But this wasn’t business.
No. This was personal.
Brock exhaled and faced the one woman he knew who could easily destroy a man with a simple snap of her fingers, and said, “I love her.”
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline and an excited smile crossed over her soft features. “Really?”
“Yes.” He swallowed. “So damned much I can’t lose her. But I also love my grandfather.”
“Which leaves us at an impasse.” She tapped her chin with a long red fingernail and smirked. “I do love a good romance.”
Didn’t he know it. Rumors had been rampant over the last few years on how she’d set up her own grandsons and basically forced them into blissful marriages, all without missing a beat.
Which was why he’d come to her.
Wellington, Inc. needed her partnership in order to please the shareholders, and if she agreed to help him with Jane he’d owe her. This would give her more power than she already had, but he knew she’d like that, and he was betting it would make her more willing to form an alliance with Wellington, Inc., if only because she’d feel she had the upper hand.