40. Kash
Chapter Forty
KASH
“I see you brought that woman with you.”
The words had me stiffening, turning to look at my father. He had a polite smile on his face, posture relaxed because he was in full Edward Sutherland mode. We weren’t in his office anymore. We were in public, and he would never show his anger in public.
Behind him, I saw Lex talking to Lionel Ford-Vanderbilt. His eyes flickered to us, moving between my father and I briefly before he looked away.
“Do you mean my wife? Because yes, I did bring her. She’s family,” I said.
Anger flashed in my father’s eyes, gone in a blink. Still, I noticed the way his hand twitched. He hadn’t hit me since the day I turned eighteen. I was never sure if it was because he thought I would leave or because he thought he had sufficiently broken me.
“That woman is not a part of this family. Women like her don’t deserve to carry the Sutherland name,” my father hissed.
He would have shouted the words if we weren’t in the ballroom surrounded by our investors and their families.
“People like you don’t deserve to walk the earth, so I guess we’re both disappointed.”
The words froze my blood.
I turned my head to see Naina standing beside us, eyes flashing with anger. Yeah, anger was the right emotion here. Because it was the only emotion that made people blind and stupid. It made them act irrationally and irresponsibly. It made them hurt people.
Just like it was making me do all those things.
Because in my anger, I reached out and grabbed Naina’s arm, pulling her away from my father and to a corner of a room that wasn’t full of people.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I hissed.
Naina’s cheeks burned red, confusion flashing in her eyes.
“I was just?—”
“Don’t just anything. Don’t speak to my father again.”
Naina’s throat bobbed with a swallow, her lashes flickering.
“Kash, I was just trying to divert his anger.”
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
“I don’t need you to do anything, do you understand? This is not a real relationship, you don’t have to defend me. You don’t have to do anything other than show up and pretend. Do you understand?”
Emotions flickered in her, so fast I couldn’t catch a single one. When they disappeared, all that was left was a dullness, all the color and brightness sucked out of her.
Guilt pierced through my heart, and I ignored it.
Because I had been stupid to think I could ever keep Naina, and I needed the reminder that it was wishful thinking.
It only took a few days and a couple of hours to remember it.
“You’re right, I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said. “Do you want me to apologize to him? Would a pretend daughter-in-law do that?”
“An apology is not necessary. I’ll talk to him.”
Her mouth moved into something that resembled a smile, but it never reached her eyes.
“Great. You can let me go now.”
Reluctantly, I released her arm, her skin a pale white where I had gripped it. Hurting her was not how I wanted to leave my mark on her. It wasn’t how I wanted Naina to remember me. I was better than that, I knew it.
But I had been on the receiving end of my father’s anger, had the scars to prove it. Worse still, I had video evidence of everything else he was capable of. Better Naina hate me than whatever my father would have done to her.
“Do you need anything else from me?” Naina asked, her tone had no inflection. My words were leaving their own scars, ones I won’t be around to heal.
“I don’t need anything from you.”
The words hit their mark. Naina’s lashes flickered as she nodded.
I watched her walk away, everything inside me screaming to get her back. It was better this way.
“I hope you put her in her place,” my father said. Pride flickered in his eyes, making bile rise up my throat.
I was long past wondering why a father wouldn’t want his child to be happy. Why he kept all the beautiful things away from me. Because I had realized the truth a long time ago. My father believed that people only deserved what he gave them, and nothing more. We were all fucking miserable around him, but no one had the power to take him down.
“That’s what you get, son,” he continued, “marrying someone of the wrong breeding. Now, once you’re married to Crystal, you can still keep that woman around. A woman like Crystal is delicate, she might not be able to keep up with stronger appetites. I’ll have the divorce papers drawn up and have her out of here before the ink even dries.”
He patted my shoulder, like this was the greatest fucking pep talk, and walked away. Across the room, Vera stopped Naina and asked her something to which Naina nodded. Vera shot me a curious glance.
I picked a champagne glass off a tray a passing waiter carried and downed it in one gulp. Unfortunately, champagne was the strongest thing in this room, and I couldn’t fucking use it to drown out the sound of heartbreak.
“What was all that about?”
I picked up another champagne glass and downed it before turning to face Lex.
“I’m ready,” I said.
Lex didn’t need a reminder of his offer, and he didn’t bother asking me why I changed my mind now.
Naina left the room, followed closely by Vera. I knew I shouldn’t pay attention, but it was almost impossible not to.
“Tell me what you need me to do,” Lex said. “This is your show.”
My father climbed onto the stage erected in one corner of the room, followed closely by Lionel Ford-Vanderbilt. The animosity between the two was almost visible to the air.
My stepmother and Valerie Ford-Vanderbilt, Lionel’s wife, stood by the stage, looking up at their husbands with smiles on their faces.
It was a good thing Vera left because she couldn’t stand to be around the Ford-Vanderbilts, and the feeling was mutual. I joked that I couldn’t stand Reid, the truth was, his parents were far worse. It didn’t surprise me when he left.
“Tradition, honor, and excellence are the cornerstone of Sutherland Ford Vanderbilt. With each new hotel or resort, we ensure those cornerstones are solid and no one can raise a finger and say we didn’t do our best. Despite the obstacles thrown our way, we are standing in front of you because we aim for the best. For perfection. Nothing less will do.”
My father looked right at me as he said that.
“We strive to destroy everything about us that is not perfect because it’s the only way to succeed. Over a hundred years of SFV and we didn’t get this far by bowing and scraping the bottom of the barrel. Nothing less than perfection. This is SFV, and it will always remain the best.”
His words were followed by applause by everyone in the room.
“A little too on the nose, isn’t he?” Lex commented.
“You learn to tune it out.”
I felt his gaze on the side of my face.
“Are you sure you can do this?”
It wasn’t about being sure. It was about choice. As long as I didn’t do anything, I felt like I had a choice. For Naina, I would give up all my choices, if it meant she was safe.
She had ruined me, and she would never know it.