He even offered a sardonic smile and was rewarded when the older man’s eyes bulged with fury.
‘You’re an utter disgrace,’ the Earl spat out.
‘On the contrary, I’m a success. In business and now, it seems, in marriage. I may be an illegitimate bastard—’ the words nearly lodged in Lukas’s throat, but he made himself say them anyway ‘—yet to the world I’m the man who bagged an earl’s daughter. And secured a company, all at once. Though I wonder what that says about my new father-in-law’s loyalty to you? It’s no secret that you’ve been desperate to get your greedy fingers on Sedeshire International, and yet he chose not to sell to you.’
‘You’re nothing!’ the old Earl exploded viciously. ‘A nobody.’
‘Indeed, as your closest...’ Lukas paused thoughtfully. ‘Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a friend—I’m not certain that you understand the meaning of the term—so let’s go with...ally. As your closest ally, I wonder what conclusions will be drawn from the fact that he agreed to marry Lady Octavia off to me, rather than one of your sons. Or, should I clarify, one of your legitimate sons.’
‘You’re no son of mine.’
For most of his life Lukas had chosen to tell himself the same thing. It had suited him to pretend that he could not be connected to such a man—more than suited him. Denying the Earl’s existence—even if only in his own head—had been as necessary to Lukas’s well-being as learning to breathe. Now, though, seeing the old man’s rage, Lukas felt compelled to fuel the fire.
‘I couldn’t agree more. Yet you can call me a bastard, just as you called my mother a whore, but it doesn’t change the fact that we share the same blood.’ The words almost curdled in his mouth, and Lukas made no attempt to disguise his contempt.
‘Watch your tongue, boy,’ the Earl snarled.
Lukas stood his ground. The old man might intimidate most people—even himself as a twelve-year-old boy carrying a message from his dying mother, only to be thrown, quite literally, from the Earl’s home—but Lukas had long since learned how to stand up to bullies.
‘One of your offspring is in prison for tax evasion, one can barely run his trust fund let alone a company, and the third has a reputation for plying young socialites with alcohol and drugs and then taking advantage.’
‘Anyone who believes that will be made to pay,’ the Earl hissed, as Lukas gave a bark of hollow laughter.
‘Because you’re a master at manipulating the truth, and getting people to lie for you? Just as my new wife’s father lied for you when it came to the truth about my mother, and my parentage, all those years ago?’ Lukas bunched his fists into his pockets as though that might control the grief and resentment that was rising inside his chest.
The older man sneered. ‘Your new wife is as feeble and inadequate as your mother was. Another waste of a life.’
Lukas clenched his jaw so tight that he thought it might break. He had spent so many years resenting the fact that he’d had to look after his mother when, by rights, she should have been the one looking after him. Resenting her. Hating her, even. But he’d be damned if this oxygen thief standing in front of him needed to know that.
‘You drove her to her grave,’ Lukas managed. ‘She told me how you tried to get her to terminate the pregnancy when you found out, then ensured she was left homeless and jobless when she refused.’
He might have known the Earl could sniff out any hint of weakness. The old man’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, then glinted.
‘You think you know it all, don’t you?’ His smile was nothing short of brutal. ‘But you don’t know a thing, boy. You think she had morals, defying me to have you? You weren’t her first baby. You’re just the one that survived a failed attempt to get rid of you.’
‘That’s a lie.’ The denial was out before Lukas could stop it. Before his brain could kick in and warn him that this was exactly the reaction the man standing in front of him had wanted. Even now, the old man’s eyes gleamed with victory.
‘Oh, no lie.’ He grinned, a cold, cruel baring of teeth. ‘Your mother didn’t want you any more than I did. She tried to rid herself of you, like I told her to. She always did what I told her to do. She never loved you, because there wasn’t room in that weak, pathetic heart of hers for anyone but me. But, then, you already knew that, didn’t you, boy?’
Lukas had no idea how he managed to hold himself together, let alone stopped himself from dropping the sorry excuse for a man to the ground. But he’d long ago learned to control that frustrated, angry streak that seemed to run through him and he wasn’t about to give in to it now.
‘I know that whatever she did was because you pushed her. You took advantage of a woman who loved you, so who was weaker and more pathetic? All you ever did was use her.’
The old man snorted in disdain. ‘Love? You talk of love, yet here I am, attending the wedding of my oldest friend’s daughter and some upstart.’ The Earl waved a gnarled hand at him. ‘Not because you love her—you don’t even know her—but because you wanted to steal their company from my grasp.’
‘Octavia knew the deal from the start,’ Lukas scorned. He had no intention of letting the old man know that the marriage part of the deal wasn’t exactly concerned with the business side. ‘I didn’t make her believe I cared, only to then use her. Unlike the way you treated my mother, my new bride knew the circumstances of the agreement all along.’
But still it didn’t stop those cold fingers of apprehension from slinking down his spine. The image of her walking down the aisle in her father’s grip.
‘You tell yourself that so that you can believe you’re better than me. But you’ll ruin her all the same. You don’t have it in you not to do so. You’re no better than a mangy dog from the gutter.’
‘You’re mellowing in your old age,’ Lukas mocked. ‘You managed far crueller put-downs when I was a kid. You, the bully who took such delight in mocking a twelve-year-old boy—telling me that I should stay in the gutter, where I belonged, that I would never amount to anything. I’ve no doubt you comfort yourself daily with the notion that landed gentry isn’t true nobility.’
‘And if I hadn’t mocked you, would you have been so driven to get to where you are today? That dirty, worthless kid would never have had it in him to make it this far. Perhaps you should be thanking me for giving you the drive that you so sorely needed back then.’
The Earl stopped thoughtfully as some of the contempt faded from his expression. ‘You’re focused and ruthless, just like me. Perhaps the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree after all.’
Loathing coursed through Lukas. ‘I’m nothing like you,’ he ground out, appalled.