Page 175
“I believe I get to decide what I inherit from you.”
His mouth curls. Two fingers ease the drawer closed with a quiet click. “You inherited the Harrington name.”
“I don’t have to inherit your hatred with it.”
The cigar rolls between his fingers as he studies me. “And Sera Tallon will save you from becoming what you are?”
“She doesn’t need to save me.”
A column of ash drops into the tray. “But she will compromise you.”
My pulse hits hard at the base of my throat. The last time he spoke this calmly about someone I cared for, he murdered them.
I walk over to the desk. “Leave her out of this.”
The corners of his mouth twitch into a faint smile. “So that’s what all this is really about. The Tallon girl you should have stayed away from.”
The coldness in his voice makes the meaning unmistakable. Every muscle in my body locks. I resist the urge to reach across the desk and shake her name out of his fucking mouth.
Instead, I lean over until my face is level with his. “Don’t speak about her as if she’s a weakness you can exploit.”
His gaze wanders over me, then he pushes back and rises slowly. “Little Sera Tallon.”
The same cold calculation I’ve watched him use against enemies my entire life moves across his expression.
“You actually love her.”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
My father studies me as though the admission has exposed a defect in the bloodline. “You’d risk everything for her?”
“If I have to.”
“And you imagine she’d do the same for you?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Everything you do is my concern.”
“Not anymore.”
He folds an arm over his chest and points the burning tip of his cigar at me. “So Fionn Harrington plans to fuck a Tallon girl, move into his penthouse and pretend he can walk into a peaceful future while the rest of us forget the betrayal?”
My whole life, he’s used family loyalty as a fucking rope to tie us down with. Even now, some part of me recoils at the accusation of betrayal. But he isn’t asking me to choose my family. He’s asking me to choose his war.
“Why does being your son require becoming exactly like you?”
His expression hardens. “A son who stands against his father has already chosen not to be like him.”
“I’m not standing against you. I’m asking you to stop.”
“Wars don’t stop because sons fall in love with the wrong woman.”
Wrong woman. Sera is the first person I’ve chosen without considering what she could offer me in return, and he reduces her to a mistake.
I hold his stare. “If you go after Sera, you lose me.”
His brows rise. “Is that meant to stop me?”
