Richard

of my money, I could do anything I wanted. They were sorely mistaken. I could only do what my father would allow. Hell, my mother had died alone as proof of that fact.

For years, I had cowered in his shadow. But now I was defiant. Now I felt like a man. And it was all thanks to Madison Hearst, my soon-to-be stepsister and the love of my life.

I gave her the next day off and invited my father to meet me at my office, where I would break the news to him that I wasn’t his good little soldier boy anymore. It had taken most my life for me to see him for what he really was, but now that I had, there was no turning back. This was do or die. Either my father would back off and let me run the company as I saw fit, or he’d threaten to ruin me and stalk out under the impression that I still gave a fuck. If the former happened, Maddy and I would have to keep our relationship secret, but that wasn’t impossible to do. If my father chose the latter, I’d take everything out of my bank account, dump my vested shares, and she and I would run away together. It really was that simple.

There wasn’t much for us here, anyway. Billions of dollars could give us a fresh start somewhere new. Hell, maybe we could go into business together, a joint venture where she kept me honest and I kept her realistic. Part of me was secretly hoping that was the way things would turn out. There was nothing I wanted more than to throw my father’s misery right back in his face just before I vanished into thin air.

I made myself a cup of coffee while I waited, imagining my gorgeous, half-naked stepsister lounging on my bed and getting a well-deserved break from all this insanity. Whatever happened next, I was rushing right back home to her. I couldn’t stand to be away from her for more than a few hours at a time. Waiting here without her was torture.

Thankfully, I heard the front doors open and close not long after. Oh, thank God. He was finally here.

I made a point not to bring him a mug of coffee as I strode out, smiling as I envisioned the pure rage on his face once he heard my decision. But that smile soon turned to a slack jaw and a frown as I saw who was standing in my foyer instead.

“Jane? What the hell?”

She grinned, tossing her long, auburn hair as she sauntered toward me in her leopard-print kitten heels. “Don’t you ever get tired of greeting me like that?” she asked me, clutching a manila folder in her hand. “A girl could get the idea that you’re not very fond of her.”

“I’m not,” I growled. I didn’t want to leave any room for her to get the impression that I was somehow pleased she was here. “I was expecting my father. Why are you here?”

“Because the senior Mr. Harvey doesn’t need to get his hands dirty,” she said, stopping mere inches from me. She was wearing a very expensive brand of perfume, but on her, it was putrid. “He knows how to delegate. Shall we do this in your office, Preston, or would you rather get into it right here?”

I hated the way she looked at me then. There was a hunger in her eyes, one that made my stomach turn. I snatched the folder out of her hand, knowing damn well that whatever she wanted was detailed in there.

“What the hell is this?” I asked her, flipping it open. “Is he trying to buy me out?”

I choked as I saw the reality of the situation. My eyes widened and a hot ember of rage took flame in my chest. This wasn’t a buyout offer at all.

I looked at Jane, trying not to shake as I asked her, “Where the fuck did you get this?”

“Oh, Preston,” she purred, walking around behind me. “It wasn’t that hard.” She stopped and slid her hands around my waist from behind, trailing her blood red nails down my stomach as she whispered, “Next time you’re fucking your stepsister, maybe don’t leave the balcony doors open. Anyone could just look in and see.”

“And take pictures,” I snapped, whirling on her so fast I almost knocked her down. This was how my father had known about me and Maddy. Jane the hell-bitch had delivered the photographic evidence right into his sleazy hands.

She regained her balance and smirked. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Preston. I just do what I’m told.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure my father twisted your arm about this,” I sneered, tossing the folder and its contents into her face. “What does he think this is going to accomplish, huh? Does he think that I’ll come crawling back now, begging him not to ruin my future at Harvey Enterprises with these obscene photos? She’s not my stepsister yet, Jane. Nobody going to give a shit if my father—”

“—waits to release them until he and Madison’s mother are legally married?” Jane asked, batting her eyelashes in mock innocence at me. “If he cuts off all your money and then sends these photos to ever single potential employee Madison will ever interview with in her entire life? You really think no one will give a shit that Madison Hearst was fucking her stepbrother?”

I shook my head in disgust and disbelief. “He can’t possibly be serious.”

“Oh, he is,” Jane assured me, grinning from ear to ear. “In fact, he’s willing to throw you completely under the bus, if that’s what it takes. He’ll leak the photos to some tabloid somewhere and watch you go down in flames, if he has to. He might even come out the better for it, denouncing his only son’s perversions and rooting him out from the company.” She stepped on one of the pictures and slid it toward me with the toe of her high heel. “Check your bank accounts, Preston. I’m sure you’ll find that you really are between a rock and a hard place.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly logged in to my personal accounts. Just as Jane said, every single one of them had been frozen. Two of them I couldn’t even log into at all, and the third had a red banner across the screen that said “pending the results of an investigation.”

“I have cash,” I told her. It wasn’t much, but it was still enough to get me and Maddy the fuck out of here. “Hundreds of thousands. I don’t need billions to start a new life without my father and you.”

“You mean the money you keep in the safe at home?” she asked me, and I felt my insides coil with dread. “Carla was sweet enough to fetch that for us. But don’t be too mad at her, Preston baby. She was very loyal—right up until the point where your father threatened her with deportation. Little Enrique would be so torn up if his mommy had to go back to Venezuela without him.”

I wanted to wring this bitch’s neck. I wanted to watch the life drain out of her eyes as I pressed and pressed until her throat collapsed. I wanted her to suffer through every moment leading to her death. And then I wanted to do the same to my bastard father.

“Think about Madison,” Jane said, snapping me out of my murderous rage. “Maybe you don’t care what people think. Maybe you’ll find a way to get by with that business degree of yours. But let’s face it—Madison will be fucked. She’ll never get a job anywhere ever again. And who knows? Maybe some day she’ll have a mysterious accident just like your mother did—”

“I swear to God, Jane,” I whispered, just barely holding back the fury inside of me. “Keep talking about Madison and my mother. Say one more word about either of them, and I’ll make sure you have an accident somewhere down the line. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year, but it’ll happen. And it’ll be messy. It’ll hurt. You’ll suffer in ways you can’t even comprehend. Say something smart, Jane—I dare you. But if you know me at all, I’m betting you keep your fat, whore mouth shut.”

Jane’s lips parted, and I waited for her to say something stupid, anything at all that would give me a reason to carry out the sentence she so richly deserved. But then she shrugged, shouldering her Prada bag as she told me, “Just think it over, Preston. You can ruin both your lives, or you can both come away from this relatively unscathed. Maybe it’s a shit choice, as far as choices go, but at least he’s giving you one.”

“Go,” I said. It was the only word I could manage that wasn’t an expletive.

“You’re right,” she said. “I should. Mr. Harvey will be wanting an update.” She looked me up and down before adding, “We could have had it all, Preston. And maybe, if you pl

ay your cards right, we still can. I’ve always liked the thought of having a baby, you know? Stranger things have happened. Feel free to stare at my ass on my way out. Maybe you’ll be seeing a little more of it soon?”

I watched her walk away, fiddling with her cell phone as she stepped back through the doors to my office and out into the sunshine that seemed at odds with the anguish I was feeling now.

I spent the next ten minutes ripping everything apart. Everything I owned, everything I had built—I didn’t want it. All I wanted was her. And she was the one thing I could never have.

When my knuckles were raw and bloodied I sank to the floor in front of the stairway, my chest heaving as I fought for air between snarls and gasps. Everything was crumbling down around me, and the person I needed the most was the one whose heart I was going to have to break in just a matter of minutes.

Someone texted me. My hands shook as I reached across the floor and retrieved my phone from where it had struck the wall when I’d thrown it. Beyond the cracked screen, I read the last little message from Jane.