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“Deny it all you want.” She lifted a shoulder and lowered it. “One day you’ll get smart.” She narrowed her gaze. “And if you hurt her again, you will spend the rest of your life being sorry you did. I’ll make sure of it.”
She had JoJo’s passion. As much as I wanted to be irritated by the threat, I liked that she was so protective of her mother.
“She’s the one who hurt me.” For twenty years she’d hated me. I was only beginning to understand why, but it still hurt.
“Something happened to make her avoid you for so long. And I’ve never seen her behave the way she does around you.”
“She was hiding the fact I had a daughter,” I said.
“It’s more than that, and you know it.”
“How did you get so smart?”
She smiled smugly. “I was born that way.”
I held my daughter’s gaze. “I hate that I missed watching you grow up, Penelope. That is a hard thing to get over. To forgive.”
Her expression turned serious. “She deserves it. And she deserves your best. I expect you’ll give it to her.”
“I won’t make empty promises to you.”
“I respect that.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Wake up, and get with the program. Or Neil will show her what she’s been missing.”
Neil.
He wasn’t going to show JoJo anything.
Penelope was using my irrational jealousy against me, and I was letting her do it.
“Can I sit in on your strategy sessions for your divorce?” she asked as I stewed overNeil. “I know she’s my aunt, but I’d like to see you give her what she deserves.”
She’s so much more than just your aunt.
While I didn’t want her to ever feel as if she had to choose sides between me and JoJo, her real mother, I was perfectly on board with her despising Alma.
No. I didn’t want her to be consumed with hatred as I’d been.
But I didn’t want her to be sucked into her web of lies either.
“Come work for me, and I’ll teach you everything I know.”
I hadn’t meant to say that, though I was eager for any excuse to spend time with her. She was at a good firm. A great firm really. I shouldn’t coax her away from a learning opportunity.
But she was my daughter.
The practice I’d built was hers. I furrowed my brow. I thought I’d been building it for me. But I wanted her to have it. To have everything I’d worked for.
“I’m not quitting my firm.”
“One day you will. And the offer is always open,” I said. “I’m meeting my attorney first thing tomorrow. You’re welcome to join.”
Against all reason, I hoped she did.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
JOJO
“You’re a slut.”
