“Alexander Wentworth is going to sign away his parental rights to Chloe and you are going to convince him to do it.”
Lucy stared at him in shock.
“Make Alex sign away his parental rights?” she gasped. “No! Whatever he’s done to me, he’s still her father!”
“You promised to obey, Lucia.”
“Sure—about stupid things, like who gets the remote control! Not something like this!”
Maximo’s face was cold. “Unless Wentworth’s rights are terminated, he could decide to challenge you for custody of your daughter at any time.”
“Custody?” She gave a harsh, bitter laugh. “I’m just praying to convince him to give her an occasional phone call, or a gift for her birthday!”
He looked at her for a long moment. “He will never care about her. He only cares about himself. That makes him dangerous.”
“He wouldn’t try to take Chloe away from me!”
“You never thought he would abandon you, either. Excuse me if I say you’re a poor judge of character.” But before she could get hurt by this rude statement, his gaze softened. “Perhaps because you believe the best of people. An admirable quality. One I’ve never shared.”
“Well, I’ve never believed the best of you,” she muttered.
He ignored her. “Wentworth might try to use Chloe against you for reasons you cannot imagine. To blackmail you out of an inheritance, for example.”
She laughed incredulously. “What inheritance?”
“Remove him from your life. Either you do it the easy way—or I’ll do it the hard way.”
“Why do you care? You don’t give a damn about me—or Chloe!”
“You’re wrong.” His dark blue eyes focused on hers. “You are both under my protection now. Do you not understand what that means? I must keep you safe. And he is a danger to you both.”
“But Chloe needs a father. You said so yourself!”
“If he asks to be her father, it won’t be because he’s looking out for her interests. Just his own.”
“But—”
“You will obey me, Lucia.” His voice held a steely edge. “I know what is best.”
He expected her to submit to his will. Of course he did. Women didn’t say “no” to Prince Maximo d’Aquilla, did they?
But Lucy couldn’t cut Alex out of Chloe’s life. She couldn’t make a choice that her daughter might someday regret. But under Maximo’s commanding gaze, the best she could do was look away. She scowled at the passing landscape.
“What is that?” she said suddenly.
“What?”
“That.” She pointed at a run-down mansion on the edge of the village. It must have once been an elegant villa; but the windows were all boarded up, the stucco walls falling into ruin, the yard overgrown. “Who lives there?”
His whole body sat up straight in his seat, on the alert. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” she said, wondering why he seemed so tense. “It just looks…out of place.”
His jaw tightened. “An old man lives there. A man nobody cares about.”
She frowned. “But surely, if he’s elderly, someone should…”
“Forget him,” he said sharply.