Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Parker
I had lunch to eat and a conscience to clear. Ninety days were nearly up but there was one more thing I needed to do before I got my hands on my trust fund.
“This is a nice surprise,” my dad said as I popped my head around his office door.
“Maureen said you hadn’t had lunch.” I held up a Pret bag with his favorite egg and cress sandwich. “I thought we could eat together.”
“Wonderful. Come in and sit down.”
I took a seat and unpacked the sandwiches. “I got you water. No coffee. Mum says you’re not allowed.”
He sighed. “I’m on a complete coffee ban now. She said if I still want a glass of wine at weekends, the coffee has to be cut completely. Maureen won’t even get me a cup.”
“Maureen knows which side her bread is buttered. Mum is infinitely more terrifying than you are.”
“Agreed.” My dad opened his egg and cress sandwich but before he took a bite, he looked me in the eye. “So, straight to it, why are you here?”
He’d not gotten to where he had by mincing his words. “I just want to talk about my trust fund.”
He took a bite of his sandwich, giving me more time to elaborate. But I hadn’t quite found the words.
“The lawyers are sorting out the paperwork. All funds should be in your name by the end of the week.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know and I should be deliriously happy with what he was saying. But it was like the lie I’d told him about Tristan and me had lodged in my chest and now was fighting to get out. “I wanted to talk to you about that,” I replied.
He took another bite of his sandwich. Seemed like he was ready to listen.
“You know I thought it was a shitty rule that you made my access to the trust fund conditional upon me being married.”
“This is not news to me, Parker. I get that you didn’t like it. But you’re married now. And you’ll get access to your fund by the end of the week. So what’s the problem?”
The problem was, I didn’t feel right getting twenty-five million pounds under false pretenses, however much of a good cause I was going to donate it to.
My dad wasn’t a stranger I’d never have to face again.
I loved him. And respected him. I had to come clean about what I’d done—even if it meant risking access to the fund.
“I didn’t like it,” I said, trying to buy myself some time. How did I tell my dad that I’d lied to him so he’d give me money?
“And I said, you’re not telling me anything I didn’t know. But I had my reasons, and I stand by them.”
I sighed, put my wrap down, and sunk back in my chair. “I don’t see why you have to be concerned about my personal life. I’m twenty-eight years old.”
“It doesn’t matter how old you are. I’m your father and until the day I die, I will worry about you. I will continue to want what’s best for you from beyond the grave.”
“Maybe I know what’s best for me.”
He chuckled. “Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. I have a feeling we’ll do this dance together, this little power struggle, until the day I die too.”
“Will you stop talking about your death? You’re vegetarian now, for goodness’ sake.” I gestured to the corner of his office. “You have a standing desk. You’ll continue to rule London’s financial world for a while yet.”
He smiled at me. “When you were born, you came out holding your head up like you were determined to plow your own path. I love that about you. You have a fierce sense of right and wrong. You work hard. You’re a good person, always far more concerned about everyone else than yourself.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d heard this story a million times.
“I’m very proud of you, Parker.”
“Daddy,” I said, in a voice that implored him to stop being so kind. Was he trying to make this even more difficult for me than it already was?
“Spit out what you’re trying to say.”
There was no choice, I had to just come out with it and hope for the best. Worst-case scenario, he stopped me from getting my trust. At least I’d have a clean conscience. “I only married Tristan so I could get access to my trust fund.”
He stayed silent, as if he hadn’t heard me.
“Dad?”
“Go on.”
“I wasn’t in love with Tristan when I married him. He agreed to be my husband for ninety days until I got my money.”
My dad nodded like I’d just told him they were out of egg and cress sandwiches.
“Dad, I’m telling you I lied to you. My marriage to Tristan is just pretend.”
My father steepled his fingers in front of him. “I’ve known you a long time, Parker. And I know you well. I’m well aware that when you married Tristan, you were just trying to get your hands on your trust fund.”
It was as if he’d kicked me in the stomach.
“You knew?”
“You’d been trying to get me to change the rules of the trust for years. And then all of a sudden you stopped asking. I know you better than to assume you’d given up. This isn’t my first rodeo. I knew you’d just changed tack.”
“So you guessed about me and Tristan from the start?”
He shrugged. “You’d barely met when you announced your wedding. And anyway, if we’re putting all our cards on the table here, when I saw Tristan after your auction dinner, he mentioned something.”
My jaw dropped and I stood, my napkin tumbling to the ground. “Tristan told you I’d asked him to marry me?”
“Not exactly. I read between the lines. He confirmed it when I asked him straight out.”
It was as if he’d pushed me over. I couldn’t have been more shocked. My father and Tristan had been in on it all along. “So basically, you gave him your approval?”
Nausea swirled in my stomach. I couldn’t even try to deceive my dad without him actually having orchestrated it. There was no escaping his reach.
“Parker.” His tone was warning. “Don’t overreact about this.
Tristan was a virtual stranger to you when you suggested your little scheme.
I’ve known him a long time. No doubt he felt obligated to let me know about your plans and frankly, so he should have.
He’s a loyal friend. He didn’t know that I wouldn’t mind if you were only getting married to get access to your fund.
But he didn’t tell me even though I’m sure he wanted to. He was trying to respect your privacy.”
I sighed. I thought Tristan was . . . mine.
I thought he was loyal to me. I got that we didn’t know each other very much at the beginning, but we’d grown close.
Feelings had developed. At least on my side.
Our emotions might not be everything a married couple had between them, but real had replaced fake in many ways.
Why hadn’t he told me my father knew? There had been plenty of times when he had the opportunity.
Our honeymoon—when we’d first slept together.
Or straight afterward. He should have said something.
“So you gave him your blessing?” Earlier today, I’d worried my father would feel betrayed when he learned the truth. I didn’t expect that I’d be the one to feel like I’d been lied to.
“I told him that if he married you—even if it was for the sole reason of getting your hands on your trust—it would fulfil the terms. And I thought it better him than someone I didn’t trust.”
“There is really no escaping your power, is there?”
“Don’t be na?ve. You’re going to come into a great deal of money in a few days.
And that money is going to make a huge difference to the people who benefit from it through Sunrise.
You only have the ability to make that difference because you’re my daughter—because of the money I’ve put in the trust. You’re always looking at the downside, but there’s a tremendous upside. ”
“I get it. And I’m grateful that you’ve given me that trust . . . It’s just . . .” I loved my dad. I was proud of what he’d accomplished. Only sometimes, I wished I felt in control of my own life.
“I know I can be interfering,” he said. “And I can’t say that I didn’t invite Tristan to come to the charity gala because I wanted you two to hit it off—”
“You were playing matchmaker?”
He shrugged. “Turns out I didn’t have to try. Remember, he bid on you before he knew you were my daughter. You can’t say that for any of the others who raised their paddles that night.”
I sighed. “That’s true.”
“And you know Tristan well enough by now to realize he’s not a man who gets serious about women at the drop of a hat. Fake marriage or not, I can tell by the look in his eyes he’s serious about you.”
“It doesn’t matter how he feels. If he can’t be honest with me, if he doesn’t respect me enough to tell me the truth, then nothing between us is real.”
I stood. I couldn’t just sit here and chat.
I wanted to go home. But I wasn’t sure where that was.
Tristan had made me promise not to go back to my flat.
To a hotel? I needed to go back to Tristan’s to collect some stuff.
I supposed that would at least force me to confront him.
I wanted to know why on earth he would keep something like that from me, especially when it seemed like we had been sharing so much—for real.
I headed out to my car. I needed time to process what my dad had said. I could do with a night away from Tristan before we had this conversation. I felt so hurt and betrayed by him—he and I were supposed to have secrets from the world. I was supposed to be his inner circle.
I pulled out my phone to call Sutton and saw I had an email notification.
I swiped up to open my inbox and my stomach dropped through the seat of the car.
It was an email from Mike, my ex. The man who’d only been with me because he thought I was rich.
The man who made me look at every other man differently.
Why on earth would he be emailing me? There was nothing he had to say that I wanted to hear.
Was there? Only one way to find out. I opened the email.
Dearest Parker,
I wanted to vomit. I used to love when he addressed his notes to me that way.
A long time has passed since I last saw you and I have always regretted how abruptly we parted ways.
Regretted?
I think often about our times together. You were a kind, wonderful person and I was lucky that you loved me.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He had been lucky to have me. But I’d been a fool to love him.
His email continued in the same way, repeating how he regretted he’d left, he’d never met anyone like me, he’d changed in the last few years. He’d grown up and realized how selfish he was.
Mike had always been good at saying the right thing at the right time.
No doubt nothing had changed on that score.
When at the end of the email, he said he was currently in London and would like to meet up to clear the air between us, I actually laughed out loud, tossed the phone on the passenger seat, and started the car.
As if I wanted to waste a single minute on that guy.
I pulled out of my parents’ driveway and headed back to Tristan’s place.
As I drove, my thoughts hopped between Tristan and Mike.
They were so different in so many ways, but wasn’t I heading to Tristan’s place to confront him about keeping things from me?
Shouldn’t I do the same with Mike if I had the opportunity?
Maybe clearing the air with him would help me rebuild trust with someone who obviously hadn’t acted maliciously.
If I changed my mind, I could just not show up. It would serve Mike right.
I pulled over to the side of the road and grabbed my phone, replying that I could meet for coffee the next day at four.
I gave him the name of a coffee shop around the corner from my office and didn’t even bother to sign off.
Maybe I’d go and give him a piece of my mind or show him how much better off I was without him.
Maybe I wouldn’t turn up at all. Either way, it felt good to be the one in control for once.