CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Adalyn
I hated myself for the words that were about to come out of my mouth, I really did.
“Do you want to keep your job?” I squeaked, feeling even worse than I thought. “Do you even know who I am?”
“Yes.” The guy blinked. “And your access has been revoked, Miss Reyes. I can’t let you through.”
So he knew. This bastard.
This bastard. That was exactly what Cameron would have said. I’d even heard the words uttered by his voice in my head. If he was here he would—
No.
I let out a bitter laugh that soon morphed into something that sounded a lot like the start of a sob. I’d been doing that a lot today. Almost sobbing. Almost breaking. Almost calling Cameron. Almost texting Josie to beg her to apologize to the girls for me. Almost letting myself feel like I was making a mistake.
The stoic man in front of me frowned.
“Listen,” I said slowly, squaring my shoulders, lifting my chin. “I know it’s late, and it’s clear you’re just doing your job here. I applaud and thank you for that. But this is an emergency, and I know my father is here. He’s always here and his driver is right outside.” I looked at him, straight in the eye. Begging, pleading. “You need to let me through.”
He hesitated. Looked around. But then he shook his head. “I’m not going to be able to do that, Miss Reyes.”
I closed my eyes, refusing to break in front of this man.
I couldn’t believe I wasn’t being let into the place I’d worked my entire adult life. I couldn’t believe I couldn’t go into the place I had hoped for so long to own one day. I couldn’t believe my father hadn’t answered his phone any of the times I’d called. Not even once. I—
“Boss?”
My eyelids lifted, seeing a face I wasn’t expecting to be here at this time.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” Kelly continued, her heels clicking in my direction. “Whoa, what’s with the glow-up? You’re slaying the runway, boss. And the hair. Oh my God, your hair is all wild and… beautiful.”
For an instant, I looked down, taking in my jeans, boots, and overall practical wear. Then I shook my head. “Kelly,” I said, my eyes finding hers with enough gravity to make her blink. “Can you please let…”
“Billie,” the man said when I looked at him. “Ellis.”
Kelly looked over at him. “Really?”
Billie sighed. “I’m fifteen years her senior, ma’am. And the resemblance to her name is purely coincidental.”
“That is hilarious,” Kelly murmured, inspecting him and not even cracking a smile. “Are you new here?” Billie’s mouth bobbed, clearly surprised. “You’re cute. What’s your handle, not-really-billie-ellis or something like that?” She whipped out her phone. “I would—”
“Kelly,” I called, my voice desperate and tired and… hopeless, if I had to pick. “Can you explain to Mr. Ellis that I need to get through so I can deal with that emergency we talked about on the phone?” She blinked at me. “He seems to believe that my access has been revoked, but I very clearly remember being asked by my father to come here. Today.” I made a face at her. “You remember, right?”
My former assistant started nodding slowly. “Ohhhhhhh. Right. Yes.” Her head turned around, searching the empty hall, before returning her attention to us. “The emergency,” she said more confidently. “Billie, do you want to be the guy who didn’t let the big boss’s daughter in during the”—she lifted her hands, slicing the air—“major-est crisis of the year?”
Billie frowned, but some pink spread across his cheeks.
“Exactly,” Kelly agreed. “That’s not a great look, is it?” Billie shook his head. “Great. Now, open the barrier so she can save the day.” She placed a hand on her hip. “Unless you think a woman can’t be the hero. Is that what we’re dealing with here?”
“Wh—What?” His eyes widened. “No. I am a feminist.”
She gave him a grin. “Barrier, please?”
It took him a few seconds and a curse but the glass gate that granted access to the office area opened up.
I sprinted through the hallway in the direction of my father’s office, hearing Kelly’s heels following behind.
“Boss?” She called, and when I didn’t turn or stop, she sped up. “Whoa. You run fast in those things.” I did. I might be starting to love my boots. “I’m so sorry I kinda cold-shouldered you, but I really had no choice—”
“That’s okay, Kelly,” I assured her, turning a corner.
“Okay, phew,” she answered, now a little breathlessly. “Now that that’s out of the way, there’s something you should know before—”
“I know,” I interjected, speeding up. “And I’m going to stop this some way or another.”
“But, Boss, they’re…”
I reached the door, vaguely aware of Kelly setting a hand on my shoulder and saying something, but I was not wasting a second more. I’d let this go on long enough. I was taking back control and putting a stop to David’s manipulation. I was telling my father I knew everything and stopping the transaction. I threw open the door.
Two heads turned in my direction.
“Adalyn,” my father said in a shockingly calm and cold voice that made me pause.
I opened my mouth to say something, any of the things that I’d rehearsed in my head, but all I could think of was What’s David holding in his hands? Because that couldn’t be—
“Hey, sweet-tea,” David said with a smile I couldn’t believe I’d ever found anything but a sneer. “Oh wait, do they drink sweet tea over there?” His eyes trailed up and down my body, a shiver crawling down my arms. “Well, that’s definitely a surprise. Why are you dressed like some… lumberjack bimbo?”
I heard Kelly scoff behind me.
My father rolled his eyes and said, “David.” As if this man hadn’t just disrespected me and that single warning was enough.
Why did that suddenly irk me so much? That disregard for what was said to me in front of him. That lazy way in which he trusted that I could handle myself. I could, but shouldn’t he be doing more than that?
David shrugged. “My apologies. Hey, I have a surprise for you.” He lifted what he’d been holding. “Cool, huh?”
My throat dried. It was one of the Miami Flames jerseys. I recognized it. Except for the sponsor printed at the front it. That was new. It was the logo of the energy drink. The one with my face.
My jaw fell to the floor. I— Focus, Adalyn. I turned my attention to my father. “I know.” Something faltered in his expression. My heart thrummed in my ears. “I know everything, Dad. So you can stop this.”
“David,” he immediately said. “Give us a minute.” He started to complain but my father held up a hand. “Alone. This is not your office yet.”
Yet.
David’s eyes found mine as he walked toward me, and when he passed me, he winked. It made my skin crawl.
The door closed behind me, and only then did I allow myself to move forward, closing the distance to the now vacant chair across from my father’s desk. I’d sat there not that long ago. Only now it seemed like it had been a lifetime ago.
Cameron’s green eyes popped in my head, and I felt my knees falter, an overwhelming sensation filling up my chest. I wish he was here, my head seemed to chant. Not holding my hand, but ready, close enough to hold it if I needed it to be held. As if trying to appease the hollowness, I patted my chest, finding something under my shirt.
Cameron’s ring. It was still there, hanging from the chain he’d fastened around my neck this morning.
“I hid all of this to protect you,” my father said, bringing me back.
I swallowed hard. Thinking of the last man who’d told me something similar. But it… It somehow felt different. It had a different effect. A part of me seemed hesitant to believe Dad. “I don’t need you to protect me. I’m not a child. I could have taken the truth.”
My father sighed, and it was a curt, quick sound that managed to carry so much. “That’s exactly what your mother told me.” He shook his head. “You look a lot like her today.”
“I do?”
He gave me a nod. “I never wanted it to happen this way,” my father continued, looking down at the desk. “All this time, it’s always been my one regret. What kept me from your mother and you.” He shook his head. “Looks like I seem to repeat my mistakes. Do you resent me, Adalyn? Does she resent me as well?”
I opened my mouth, but something stopped me from speaking. She? “Mom? Why would she resent you for this?”
My father’s brows met in question. He wasn’t talking about Mom.
“Who are you referring to?” I asked. And because there was something at the back of my head, something that started to buzz, I added, “Who should resent you, Dad?”
Andrew Underwood seemed so openly confused for a second that when he answered, it was nothing but a rasp. “Josephine.”
My heart stopped for an instant. Josephine? But it couldn’t—
“What has Josie to do with selling the club?”
He paled.
My knees faltered then. I leaned my hand on the chair, gaping at him. Taking in his expression. He looked like a ghost. And that reminded me of what my mother had said. The letters.
Your father has secrets.
Then more started toppling in, flooding me with memories. Facts that hadn’t been pieced together.
You’ll leave tomorrow. On an assignment…It’s something I’ve actually been thinking about for a while.
There’s some kind of a guardian looking over Green Oak.
Robbie doesn’t like to talk about it, but he was—and maybe still is—in a lot of debt.
“You’re Green Oak’s angel investor.” My throat worked but the lump remained lodged there, making it hard for me to speak. I clutched Cameron’s ring. Then, something else Josie had said that day barreled right into me. Something that couldn’t mean what I thought it did. But it had to. “What are you trying to tell me? Why did you bring up Josie? I need to hear it. Out loud.”
He stared at me, and then he said, “Josephine is your half sister.” And the confirmation felt like a bucket of water had been thrown in my face. “She’s my daughter,” he added, and there wasn’t a trace of guilt in his voice or his face. There wasn’t shame. Or remorse. Longing. There was nothing.
Nothing at all.
“I thought you’d realized,” he said. “I thought that was why you were here and what had prompted that dramatic entrance. You said you knew everything.”
I… didn’t think I could breathe. I had a sister. A half sister. Dad had another daughter. “You thought I knew about Josie? But—You…” My gaze roamed around his face. It was impassive. “You’re not surprised or angry. You’re fine. I…” My head was whirling, shooting thoughts left and right. Piecing things together and tearing others apart. I gasped for air. “Were you hoping I’d find out about Josie?” But it couldn’t be, could it? “Was that why you shipped me off there?”
“Yes and no,” he admitted quickly. Far too quick for me to process. “I sent you there because Green Oak seemed like an experience you could benefit from. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t assume you’d put it together.” He shrugged. “I guess I was wrong.”
His words reverberated in my head as I stared into my father’s eyes. They were Josie’s light blue eyes. Only they lacked everything hers had. A powerful emotion rippled through me at the realization, at how obvious it had been, at how he’d just put me down for not piecing it together.
He always did that. Put me down. Hid things.
“You guess you were wrong?” I repeated, something rioting in my chest. Something that had nothing to do with how I’d just been heaving for a breath. “You sent me out there knowing I might find out about a half sister you’ve been hiding from me, knowing I’d interact with her, possibly befriend her, and you shrug it off like that?”
“Once more, I thought that was why you were here,” he said. And God, there was so much noise in my ears. My head. I couldn’t think. I missed Cameron’s hands, anchoring me to the world. “I’ve been expecting this for a while now.”
I briefly closed my eyes, gave myself a few seconds to sieve through the surge of ugly and overpowering emotions climbing up and down. “I was here because I heard rumors of you selling the Flames. To David. Because I know about him using you. Using me. Because I thought I was somehow responsible for him forcing your hand.”
He sighed. “It’s late. Let’s go home and continue this some other time. There’s no stopping the sale of the club anyway, but I’m sure you’ll have questions about that. I’ll ask my driver to drop you off at your apartment.”
The rush of blood in my rib cage, my head, at his words had been so loud that for a second I’d thought I hadn’t heard him right. It was impossible, after all, that someone broke this kind of life-changing news to his own daughter and then followed it up with that. My head lifted, and what had been a scattered mind focused.
“No,” I all but spat, taking in the blank expression on his face. “You’re not dismissing me like this. I’ve given up a lot to be here right now.” I’d let the girls down. Left a heartbroken Cameron behind.
He checked his watch again. “It’s late, Adalyn,” he said slowly. “And you’re clearly rattled and in no shape to have a discussion. I’m doing this for your own good. Just like everything else.”
“You mean hiding I have a sibling or asking David to marry me in exchange for a job, as if I was nothing but cattle being traded?”
His jaw clenched. “That’s an exaggeration.”
A clarity that hadn’t been there all these years crystallized. “What else then? Maybe it was the way you overlooked my efforts to impress you. To earn your approval and respect. Was that for my own good?”
“I never overlooked you, Adalyn.”
“Then why?” I asked him, my voice terrifyingly calm. “Why would you offer your daughter to a horrible man? Why would you let him play us both by not telling me when you should have? I had to find out from his own lips during the anniversary of the club. How is any of that protecting me? How is sending me off, banishing me, doing that? You never checked on me, not once.” I brought my hand to the middle of my chest. “You’re my father.”
My father nodded his head slowly, then let out a chuckle I didn’t understand. “So that’s what made you get like that and attack Sparkles? Good God, Adalyn. It almost cost me the club.”
All semblance of hope still in me vanished.
“That’s all you have to say,” I said, not asked. Because I didn’t need an answer. He’d given me one. I shook my head. “It wasn’t about me, was it? Nothing was.”
“Everything I do is for us,” he said, something getting through to him. “David threatened going to some gossip site with the story of our arrangement if I took the VP position from him. The sponsors too. But that’s water under the bridge. Honestly, I thought you had a little more self-respect than letting this bother you.”
So Dad had never been protecting our relationship. Or me. He’d only protected himself. His name. And that broke my heart. It had been tearing all throughout this conversation, I realized. But it completely shattered now.
Silence fell in the office for a long moment. I couldn’t believe I’d come here, broken the girls’ trust. Missed out on today. I’d taken a hundred steps back, and it made my chest hurt like it never had. I clutched Cameron’s ring in my fist.
“How much in debt is the Vasquez farm in?” I didn’t need to say more. I knew my father understood.
“Big debt.”
I nodded my head. “Josie. How did it even happen?”
My father’s eyes narrowed, and any other time, that look would have been enough to silence me. But I suddenly didn’t care. I didn’t want his respect. I only wanted answers. “I always made sure Josephine was taken care of growing up. I provided for her. I invested in the town so she didn’t have to grow up in the same sad place where I was born.”
He lets people believe he’s from Miami, but he’s not. Those had been Mom’s words.
And that’s how the next and last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Dad was from Green Oak.
“That was never my place,” he stated, as if it was some card he could play. As if that was meant to justify everything he’d said or done. “I was always meant for greater things. That’s why I packed my bags the moment I could, leaving nothing and no one behind. I only returned once. Shortly before meeting your mother.” He sighed. “But it never meant anything, it was just a careless night that I’ve been paying for all my life.” Eyes that were nothing like Josie’s looked at me. “I’m not proud of it, but I don’t regret my decisions.”
“You’re not proud of it,” I repeated his words. A sad, hopeless huff left me. “You talk about a smart, beautiful, hardworking woman like she’s some bad investment you don’t want to think about.” I shook my head. Suddenly needing to move. I braced both hands on the back of the chair in front of me. Looked down before meeting his gaze. “Did you ever intend for me to take over?”
His shoulders sunk with what I knew was rebuff. “You could have any role within our portfolio. Real estate, infrastructure companies, even one of the resorts we own. Have your pick. But not the club. I’m selling the Miami Flames to David and his father.” He walked around his desk. “It’s decided.”
I remained quiet. He was not getting it. Dad wasn’t getting any of this.
“You’ll move past your infatuation with the club.” His hands smoothed out the lapels of his jacket. “It was dying a slow death anyway, it has been for a decade now, so be happy we’ll make a profit thanks to your little impromptu breakdown and that sponsor deal David has in line.”
Thanks to me, or at my expense? I wanted to ask.
But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that my father was allowing that energy drink to sponsor the team or taking their money. Nothing really mattered.
This had never been about legacy or infatuation, not even money.
“Sell the goddamn club,” I heard myself say. My father winced back. “This was never about me. Or the Flames. It was about you.” My hand flew to my chest again, clutching Cameron’s ring. I knew what being shielded, cared for, protected was. Cameron had claimed to be selfish, but I saw now how wrong he’d been. He’d done all of that selflessly. For me. With my best interest at heart. Even if he’d made a mistake. “It’s on you if you don’t want to understand.”
I turned around, making my way to the exit.
“Adalyn,” my father warned.
I didn’t stop. “You have twenty-four hours to tell Mom and Josie,” I said, not looking back. “I’m giving you the chance not to make the same mistake you did with me. But if you don’t tell them, I will.” I came to a stop in front of the door. “You’re also relieving all of the current Vasquez debt. I guess it won’t hurt with all that profit my breakdown made you.”
I opened the door, no hesitation, only one goal in mind.
And when I spoke next, it was with one thought, one man, one plan in mind, and one foot on the other side. At the beginning of the rest of my life. “Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear? I resign.”