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“I said no, Daddy. I will not marry this guy. Marriage is not business! It’s about committing to being with someone for the rest of your life because you love them, not because they know how to make your company money! I’m not like you! When will you finally accept that? And so what if I’ve been dating both Nico and Hugo! Did you ever stop to think that it’s possible to love more than one person at the same time?”
My father let out a huge sigh. “That’s fine, Michelle. And you’re right. You’re not like me. With the exception of how you conduct business deals, for the most part, you’re not like me. Yes, I married your mother for business reasons. And no, you don’t believe that marriage should be run like a business. I accept that we’re different.”
I stood back, shocked at what he had said. My father had actually accepted that I was my own person. I had never expected him to say those words, to actually acknowledge that he and I were not on the same page.
It was too good to be true, though.
“Damn straight, I’m not. And--“ My father put his hand up.
“You don’t have to marry him, Michelle. But that also means that you won’t be a part of Affinity Finance anymore, and I sure as hell won’t be funding your little real estate business. So go ahead and stay here, spread your legs for the Stepanov brothers, and live your fucking life. You are absolutely correct that it’s your right. But guess what? You make that decision, and you can kiss my money goodbye.”
My father saw the look on my face and instantly knew that he’d won. Without his money, I was nothing. He also had access to all of my bank accounts, which meant that he could freeze or even move money around. And without money, I was completely immobile. I didn’t want to ask Hugo and Nico for help, either.
“When you leave the hotel,” he said on his way out of the room, “there’ll be an airplane waiting for you at the airport.” He slammed the door so hard that my new purse fell to the floor. I broke down crying, right there on the hotel room floor, as my dreams were shattered before my eyes. Elaina came in from her room, then wrapped her arms around my shoulders.
“It’s okay, Michelle,” she said. Except I knew that it wouldn’t be okay. Nothing would ever be okay again. Unless I wanted to up and leave my father, and thereby lose everything that I’d ever worked for, I’d have to get on that plane. I’d be forced to leave the Stepanov brothers.
“How is it going to be okay, Elaina? I have to get on that fucking plane. It’s the only way I can ever break free from my father! I mean, I have plenty of money in the bank, but he’s on all of my bank accounts, Elaina!”
“You can’t break free from him by marrying someone he chose for you, Michelle! I say to hell with him, don’t get on that fucking plane. Stay here and make a life for yourself with the Stepanov brothers. I’m sure they can get you a job working at Erect-it Corporation.”
“Yeah, right,” I said in between sobbing. “Their father and mine go way back, Elaina. I’m fucked no matter what I do. I have to go back to the United States, and I have to marry whatever douchebag he’s found for me. Because if I don’t, then I’ll always be living in my father’s shadow.”
“But, you’re in love with the Stepanov brothers!”
Hearing her say that made everything worse for me. I broke down sobbing into her arms, even harder than before, letting my mascara run down my face. The world may have looked at me as being Daddy’s girl, the woman who got whatever she wanted because she was Chase Harrington’s daughter. In fact, most people would have killed just to marry into our family.
But I had never, in all of my life, hated being a Harrington more than at that moment.
