into an almost sick sort of dread that made her stomach lurch.
She didn’t just want to hit Robert where it hurt financially. She
didn’t just want to take from him the very thing he’d once
taken from her. No, it was so much more than that. He hadn’t
just taken the tangible from her. He’d once been like a brother.
The person she trusted more than anyone. He’d broken that.
Broken her heart. She wanted to break his.
With a string of women who could never be called
girlfriends, and very few close friends because Robert was, at
best, a self-centered pig, Claire had few options on how to get
to his heart. Lucky for her, Robert had something he valued
above anything else. Something he’d give his life to protect.
There had been one woman in a string of never-ending women
who meant nothing. She probably meant nothing too, but what
she’d given Robert meant something. What she’d given him
was his whole world. That woman had done Claire an
immense favor.
Robert had a daughter. He’d had her young, when he was
seventeen. His parents, who were actually good people, had
stepped up and raised her while he finished high school and
went to cooking school. Claire hadn’t even known about
Haley until they’d opened the restaurant together and Robert’s
parents had brought her in, a sweet little thing, tiny for her age.
Since Robert’s parents were mostly responsible for her care
until she was much older, Haley had turned out even sweeter
over the years. By all accounts, she was polite and kind. It was
hard to believe she was twenty-one now. Claire hadn’t seen
Haley in person since she was ten. She was a child then. She
wasn’t a child now.
Claire wasn’t a naturally intimidating person by physical