AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Was all of this just to gloat, or did you think this little stunt would make a difference? You’re a fool, a stupid, naïve—” Mom starts.
“Trudy, shut the fuck up,” Hawthorn growls. “Who the hell do you think you are to speak to her like that? She’s your daughter, your flesh. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Mom’s mouth curls into a sneer, her lips parting as she moves to speak, but Hawthorn interrupts again.
“Penelope has more class in one of her fingers than you will ever have. She doesn’t need to relinquish who she is, her future, and her choices all for the sake of money, and the moment that will was read, that’s what you should have told her. You should have told your daughter to run from that toxic set of rules, you should have told her that money isn’t everything, especially when you already have more than you’ll ever need. But you didn’t, instead, you brainwashed her, you manipulated her, you starved her, you broke her, and then reformed her into your puppet, all in the pursuit of a fortune that was never going to be yours.” Hawthorn laughs. “I bet you hate seeing her happy, healthy, and loved. I bet it galls you to see her succeed without that money, without you. The pair of you will always be exactly as you are now. The daughter of a man who lost his family’s fortune and the disappointing son of a disappointing son. If either of you were more impressive, successful, and powerful, then you’d have gotten that inheritance. If you were more…worthy, the money, the power, and the control would have been left to you. But you were so insignificant that not only were you overlooked, you were dismissed in favor of a fourteen-year-old girl.”
His laugh is cold and so demeaning that goose bumps pebble along my arms just from the sound. “I bet it killed you to watch Izabella land Gulliver. The redundant spare twin that you chose to ignore and forget landed the white whale. Then, to top that, the puppet you created woke up, she saw who you were and what you were having her do, and she stopped you. She broke the will, and she took all that money from you. Was my name on that list?” he taunts. “I’m a Benedict. We control the seas, does it gall you to see my family’s ring on her finger? To know that under your influence, I’d have given away every penny I had rather than be associated with the Rhodes name, but that without you in her life, I’d do anything to keep her, to give her my name, my family’s influence.”
Carefully lowering me to the floor, he maneuvers me behind him before taking a menacing step toward my alarmingly silent parents. “You had twins, the opportunity to create a dynasty, instead, it’ll be Izabella Winslow and Penelope Benedict who create a legacy, and the Rhodes name will be forgotten, nothing more than a footnote in the society pages.” Scoffing lightly, he shakes his head, then turns to me, offering me his hand.
Placing my palm in his, I smile widely, pushing up onto my toes to press a soft kiss against his lips. “I love you,” I whisper.
At my words, all of his anger dissolves, and he beams at me, the look of love on his face so blindingly obvious that no one, least of all me, could ever doubt it.
“Penelope,” my father hisses, my name a demand on his lips.
I don’t turn immediately, instead, I press another kiss to Hawthorn’s mouth, then slowly sink back down to my heels and glance in his direction. “Yes?”
“Your mother and I want to speak to you,” he says, glancing at Mom, whose lips are pursed together in a very unflattering expression, her skin a grayish tone.
“Why?”
“What?” he asks, like me questioning him is so unheard of he doesn’t even understand the concept.
“I asked you why you wanted to talk to me. You didn’t want to speak to me when you locked up my home and banned me from entering. You didn’t want to speak to me when you both changed your cell numbers. In fact, you haven’t wanted to acknowledge I exist since the moment you tried to force me to rape my sister’s fiancé in the hope I’d get pregnant. Which I wouldn’t have, by the way, because I got a birth control implant fitted years ago. You’ve done nothing but insult and ridicule me, and now you want to talk to me. Well, fuck you,” I cry. “Fuck you both, because I have nothing to say to you. As far as I’m concerned, I’m an orphan. It’s just me and Hawthorn, Izzy, Gulliver, Kip, and Davis from now on. They’re my family, and the sooner I can change my name to Benedict, the better, because using the Rhodes name fills me with shame,” I scream.
I know I’m being too loud, that our guests could have heard everything I’ve just said, but I don’t care. It feels so good to tell them how I feel and to fight back. Turning, I look at my mom, seeing the barely restrained anger simmering just below her seemingly calm exterior. “I asked you once if you considered yourself evil, and you told me I was an idiot. But the truth is, you are evil, Mother, and so am I, because you made me that way. But the difference between us is that I can change, I have a lifetime to be better, but this is who you are.” I gesture to her. “Your best years are gone, and this life you’ve made for yourself is all you have left. Izzy and I are a part of one of the most powerful old money alliances in decades, we could destroy you. But we won’t, we’ll just forget about you, we’ll overlook and ignore you, just the way you did with us. Then, when you’re old and your plastic surgery has sagged, we’ll be powerful and rich and happy.” I pause, eyeing her dismissively. “But don’t worry, Mother, I doubt either of us will ever be fat.” With the condescending smile she helped me perfect, I say, “Thank you both so much for coming, enjoy the rest of your evening.” Then I look to my fiancé and smile, a real smile this time. “Are you ready?”
“More than ready, Mrs. Benedict.” He winks, scooping me up off the floor again and walking away. Neither of us bother to look back, and leaving my parents behind has never felt sweeter.
* * *
“I can’t believe we’re both engaged,” Izzy says the next morning as we sit drinking coffee at the dining table in the huge hotel suite.
“I know,” I say, holding my hand out in front of me and sighing happily as I look down at the beautiful ring on my finger before glancing at where Hawthorn is filling the coffee machine across the room.
“Both of us engaged at eighteen, we’re such a huge old money cliché.” She giggles.
“Aren’t we?” I laugh. “I don’t care though, I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” I confess, looking up at her with earnest eyes. “I love him.”
“I can tell,” she says sweetly. “He loves you too. I’m so happy for you guys.”
“Me too.”
“Ten percent,” Kip announces loudly as he emerges from his bedroom, his iPad gripped in his raised hands. “Ten percent, and it’s not even ten in the morning,” he cheers.
“Ten percent of what?” I ask, turning to look at him as he strides across the suite.
“Rhodes Corp., we already secured the shares from Nouman Batrich and Clintmore, and we’re negotiating with Hudson Holdings and Vagnerwarmen,” he says triumphantly.
“Douglas Inc. just agreed to sell too,” Gulliver says as he steps into the room.
“Twelve percent then,” Kip announces.
“Jesus, why are you all being so loud?” Davis groans, staggering from his room, his eyes half shut, his face tinged green.
“Dude, we’ve got twelve percent so far,” Kip shouts, laughing as Davis flinches and grabs at his head with his hands.
