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As he walked away, I took a deep breath. I could do this. I could.
Somehow.
What I’d come to embrace over the last few days was that my acceptance had only some to do with the money in my account or the promises for the future.
My longing to be a member of the family was all about Valerio.
I shivered at the thought.
Valerio had wanted to come with me to meet my father.
In fact, he’d insisted on it, but I’d put my foot down. As much as you could with a man so powerful. However, he had insisted Tony drive me. Since the word was already out about our relationship, on top of everything else, he was on edge.
As I walked into my father’s office, he wasn’t sitting behind his desk as usual. Instead, he was standing in front of the window with his hands in his trouser pockets.
I closed the door, still uncertain how to broach the conversation.
My father chose to do it for me.
“Did you really not expect that I’d become aware of your upcoming nuptials, Selena?”
Oh, shit. I’d thought I would have enough time.
“From whom?”
He laughed and the sound was as bitter as I’d heard before. “Let’s just say the first congratulatory call had been laughable. By the third, I’d paid attention.” Turning around, he shook his head slowly. “I didn’t ask you to get in bed with the enemy.”
“Valerio is no more your enemy than Sebastian Royal was. And he’s dead.”
“That’s what this business can do to you.”
“He might have been murdered.”
At least that bit of news caught him off guard. “Why in God’s name do you think that? He had heart issues.”
“He had a heart attack but on his last doctor’s visit, he was given a clean bill of health. A month ago.” Gilly had allowed me in on the conversation, telling us about all his doctor’s visits that she insisted on going to. That’s why she’d been so certain his death had been at the hands of some vile asshole. I was beginning to believe there was a much bigger scheme going on than I’d originally thought.
Or obviously my father had for that matter.
“That doesn’t mean anything, Selena. You know that.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But toxicology tests are being run postmortem. We will get to the truth.”
“Why does it matter to you?”
“Because we need to discover the truth. Which is why I need you to come clean for me, Dad. Have you been threatened?”
“I told you before, there are always threats.”
I yanked out my phone, taking three long strides toward him. Thankfully, Braxton had grabbed the threat since Sebastian’s assistant had called him first thing. He’d allowed me to take a picture of it as well. “Like this, Dad? And it wasn’t the first one Sebastian had received. He was hiding the previous ones from his sons as well. You need to tell me who you think is threatening you.”
I could easily tell when my father was holding back something, which was exactly what he was doing now. Whatever tactic was being used had pushed him hard. He looked exhausted, frail even.
“No, you need to tell me why you’re marrying that son of a bitch.”
I reminded myself that my father was supposed to remain in the dark for now. “Because I care about him.”
“Bullshit. I don’t know how you two met but I can only imagine he swooped in after realizing you were my daughter. You should know better. You’re a highly intelligent woman, for fuck’s sake.” He was red in the face.
