Double Daddy Trouble

“I wouldn’t get on there if I were you. I got stuck on the ninth floor.” The woman was flustered.

“Thanks.” Brooke smiled meekly. “I’ll take the other one.” It must be why everything was running so slowly.

“Princess?” Niall was still on the phone.

“I’m at work. I’ll call you later. Don’t do anything, Niall. Swear to me you won’t. I’ll get your money. Just don’t say anything to anyone.”

“It’s our little secret. Always has been. Unless you don’t come up with the cash. Then it will be everyone’s secret.”

Brooke stepped on to the next elevator. Niall held her future in his hands. And if there was one thing she knew, it was not to trust him for a single second. There was nothing steady or honest about him. He was filled with one thing only—greed.

She leaned into the elevator. This was all going to fall apart. It would crumble at her feet.

Thirty-Eight

Brooke

Trying to sit through a meeting and share her success about Dreams with Wings, should have made Brooke feel triumphant, but instead she felt sick. All she heard was the sneer in Niall’s voice, echoing in her head. It was like a broken record and she couldn’t pick up the needle. Why did he have to ruin everything? Steal the only happiness she’d ever known? She felt the pit of hatred harden. It was money—it always came back to money.

How was she going to get through this?

“Brooke?” Bruce waited at the other end of the conference table.

“Yes?”

“You were going to lay out how we should integrate your design into the website? Do you have that for us?”

She blinked. “Yes. Right. Exactly.”

She scrambled through her notes, looking for the file on the web design. It wasn’t her area of expertise, but she knew how she wanted it to look and feel when donors or families clicked to research the foundation. It would be the main basis for information. It had to be perfect.

“Bruce, I’d like to consult with the web designer and then we could work through that at the next meeting.”

“But we need that for the celebrity endorsement page. That should come up first, don’t you think?” he asked.

Her head pounded. Why was Bruce giving her a hard time? “Sure. But I need a consult first,” she spat the words with more anger than she intended.

“Sorry.” He pushed back from the table. “Let me know when you have something for me to see.”

He marched out of the conference room.

Brooke sighed. She had let her fear surface in front of everyone. She smiled at the group. “Let’s reschedule this meeting for tomorrow. Ok? I think we all need a day after the launch’s success.”

She hurried out of the meeting, looking for a place to hide. She ran to the ladies’ room and splashed water on her face. She dabbed a towel to her neck. She had broken out in a sweat.

There was no way she was going to give Niall money, but if she didn’t, she could lose Lee and Tyler.

She didn’t have enough in her savings to make a payment that would satisfy her greedy cousin. She could take out a loan, but she knew that still wouldn’t be enough to make him happy. If she had been worth six-digits to Tyler in a poker game, Niall had to be thinking a figure somewhere near that.

She leaned into the wall for support. The chills ran through her. Heat and cold. Back and forth, controlling her body with fear and rage.

Where was she going to come up with that kind of money?

Danny greeted her at the door when she arrived at the penthouse. Lee and Tyler were stuck at the office in a meeting. They told her to go ahead and eat dinner without them.

“Anything you need, Miss?” Danny asked.

“No. I think I’m going to take a hot bath.”