Chapter 26 – Amanda
“If you’ll wait right here,” the butler intoned, sweeping his hand to the front parlor of the Fifth Avenue house my parents owned. The one they occasionally lived in when they were in the Big Apple.
Clenching my jaw, I forced myself to focus on my mission here. If I thought too hard about the latest blow, I might melt and cry.
There was no way I was crying in front of my dad.
Following the butler, I dragged my suitcase and laptop bag across the hall. They were the only worldly belongings I had left. In the front parlor, a woman looked up from her tablet. Not a strand of her gunmetal grey hair was out of place.
I took one look at my father’s secretary and called after the retreating butler. “Where is he?”
The butler looked at me, looked toward the parlor, and pressed his lips shut. He knew better than to get involved.
“He’s in a meeting,” Glenda answered tightly.
The battle-axe…wasn’t even surprised to see me.
The last time Dad saw me, I was taken from the altar by a masked man.
There was no way Glenda didn’t know the details, even if she had been escorted out with the other wedding guests before that incident.
Now she didn’t ask where I’d been, what had happened, or seemed shocked to see me appear.
“He’s upstairs?” I demanded.
“You can wait here or in the kitchen,” the secretary said primly. “There’s a security detail eating in the dining room.”
Dad’s home office was on the second floor, and it was a good bet he was there now. That was where I was going. The secretary shot to her feet, crossing to intercept me as I walked past the parlor and toward the stairs.
The butler wisely disappeared, leaving me to the henchwoman.
“I’m not in the mood, Glenda,” I snapped.
The secretary tried to move around me as I made my way to the stairs. For an ageless woman, she was still fast.
“You can’t go up there,” she insisted. “I’ll see if his schedule allows—”
I shoved my finger in her face. “No, not today.”
Today, I was Archy Loring’s daughter. If that ever meant anything, we would see if the bonds of nature ran deeper than business.
“Don’t test me. It’s been a shit day,” I added with a bite.
“Miss Loring, you don’t want to go up there.” It was the way her voice dropped. The professional mask faltered. Glenda had been Dad’s secretary since he turned legit. For a decade, I’d interacted with this woman more than with my parent. Never had I seen her slip.
But now, emotion played across her face.
It should have been a warning.
I didn’t care. Didn’t pause. I was incensed. On a scale of bad to worse, the news that I didn’t have a job wasn’t the only disaster during the last twenty-four hours. I gripped my tiny suitcase tightly. It was all I had left.
“Move.” I was ready to physically push past her.
“Don’t,” she warned.
Fear. That was the emotion coloring her voice.
I was numb. I had nothing left to lose. “No.”
Glenda flicked a glance up the stairs, but then, with a ragged breath, stepped aside. “You can’t say I didn’t try to stop you.”
As my feet stomped up each step, I should have worried about what I’d find. I didn’t. I was furious. The anger was the only thing keeping the panic at bay.
Setting my luggage beside the office door, I lifted my fist and pounded on the wood. The door rattled.
In the echo, a hushed sound vibrated behind the wood. I leaned forward to catch any words. I came here to discuss the state of my life with my dad. The puppet master behind the scenes, who’d royally screwed up everything. His business could wait.
The energy from the other side pulsed. A vile chill wafted down the hall.
The door ripped open, and a brutally ugly face leered down at me. “Well, hello there, pretty girl.”
The door widened. Dad glared at me. “Amanda, I’m busy.”
“This is Amanda?” the stranger mused, accent heavy and harsh. His tongue darted out to run over his thin lips.
I stepped back as a foul note hit my nostrils.
Onion, beer, and the stench of an unwashed body.
The stranger wasn’t much taller than me.
His body was built in hard lines, which were filled with enough muscle to stand out under his black and white Adidas zip up jacket.
His thin hair was dark, gelled back to make it look fuller than it was.
But it was the square face, deeply scarred with pock marks, and the beaked nose that set me on edge.
I didn’t want to be Amanda in this moment.
But I was already here.
“Hi, Dad, we need to talk.” I pulled my shoulders straight.
“I’m busy—”
“No, Archy,” the stranger lisped. “Your beautiful daughter is here. She needs to chat. I’ll take a piss break, and you can tell her the good news.”
Snakes writhed in my stomach.
“The good news?” My dad shot him a tight look.
“I think I’m…how do you say?” The stranger wrinkled his nose. “Amicable? Aimable? Whatever the fuck word. I’ll take your terms.”
“You weren’t in favor of them five minutes ago,” my father observed dryly.
The stranger shrugged and stepped into the hall. “That’s before I saw this lovely woman in the flesh.”
I didn’t move fast enough. He reached out and chucked my chin before laughing as he sauntered down the hall.
“Dad?” I croaked.
I felt like I was eight years old, rushing from my bunk bed to my parents’ room because I had a nightmare.
But Dad was never home. Mom…well, Mom would have comforted me, but she gave up the fruits of capitalism to live a free life out in the bowels of nature, where bathing took place in the mountain springs and the stars were her ceiling. A modern hippie, she was gone now, too.
I had no parent to keep the demons away.
“Get in here,” my dad hissed. “I must say, I’m surprised you’re back after whatever stunt you pulled yesterday.”
His fingers sank into the flesh on my wrists, and with a vicious tug, he pulled me inside and slammed the door.
“It wasn’t my stunt,” I said before thinking better of it.
He gave me a withering look. “Quit lying, girl.”
I’m not!
But he was never going to believe me. That was why Glenda wasn’t the least bit surprised to see me. They thought I was responsible for the disaster.
“Well…you’re here now,” he mused, rubbing his palms together.
“Dad, what’s going on?” I breathed, my own complaints taking a temporary backseat.
Dad walked to the sideboard, poured a finger of single malt scotch, and tossed it back. “That’s a mercy. He liked you.”
I rubbed my arm and shifted in the middle of the room. “Who is he?”
Dad poured another small splash. “Maksim Varga. He’s a business associate.”
There was nothing even remotely businesslike about the man from the hall. He seemed the kind of man who tormented small animals for fun.
“What did you want?” Dad snapped, pulling me back into the present. “You know better than to barge in here. Dammit, girl, it’s like you’re a child. I thought you grew out of that.”
“I have!” I bit back, marching over to where he stood.
“I have grown up. I got a law degree and a partnership at one of the best firms in the city. But you know what I heard, Dad? I heard that you’re taking credit for it.
That you had me terminated. Not only that, but you canceled the lease on my condo!
My things were already packed up and sold! ”
Dad stared condescendingly at me, a parent allowing a toddler to throw a tantrum. Maybe if I smashed his precious, scotch he would react.
But he just stood there.
I fisted my hands at my side, glaring at him. “Say something!”
“You coming in here, acting like a spoilt brat, is exactly why you don’t deserve to be made senior partner. Kirk was right about you.”
I gaped at him. “Dad, I worked my ass off at that company! I earned my place there.”
“I’m astounded that you think that,” he scoffed. “You only got the job because I called in a favor. So ungrateful, thinking it was on your merit.”
It was. Emotion stung my eyes.
“Why did you take it all away?” I hissed, not trusting myself to speak at full volume.
“You didn’t need it anymore. And if you had just done what you were supposed to, for once in your life, it would have worked out. But no…no, my little Amanda had to go fucking everything up. You always have to do it your way, and then you’re upset when I have to be the grown up.”
Not only was he twisting words, lashing out at me with that narcissism, but he wasn’t making sense.
“What didn’t I do? How could I possibly fail to meet your impossible standards!” I flung my hands in the air. “I did everything!”
Dad slammed his tumbler on the sideboard, making the bottles of booze rattle. He stomped toward me. I didn’t scramble back far enough. A hard, angry touch pinched my cheeks as his other hand fell on my upper arm. He jerked me forward, bending into my face.
“You want to know? Fine, I’ll tell you,” he spat. “But don’t say I wasn’t a good father, trying to hide this from you.”
I swallowed a whimper. I will not show weakness.
“You want to act like a grown up? The real world is cruel, Amanda. It’s full of responsibilities and terrible realities. I tried to spare you. I did everything in my power, and you couldn’t fucking do the one thing you were supposed to!”
I was well and truly scared. “What didn’t I do?” I whispered through the tight grip he kept on my face. “I did everything.”
“You were supposed to marry that twat and move to his lavish estate. He had enough money to save this family, and now the collector has come, and oh! Guess what! Little Amanda didn’t follow through with her part.”
Dad’s face was turning purple.
“Daddy,” I wheezed. Money wasn’t part of my marriage to Steven. What wasn’t he telling me? “Daddy, I didn’t know.”
“All you had to do was marry him, live in a castle like some princess, and have a couple of little brats. Not a very hard thing to do.” The cold volume cut.
That was why Dad terminated my job, going behind my back to tell his buddy. My boss wouldn’t have been able to let me go if I’d known. They…they were selling me to become a broodmare.