Dad frowned. One single glare and Mom ceased speaking as he waved her away. A flick of the wrist that her questions were nothing.
She shrank into her chair. While Dad hadn’t changed in months, Mom seemed . . . tired.
The lines around her eyes were more prominent, not that there were many. She had a team of estheticians who pampered her weekly along with a world-class dermatologist and the highest-paid plastic surgeon in New York City to ensure she didn’t look a day over forty.
Unlike Dad, Mom hadn’t come from money. She’d married into wealth, and because of her prenup, there was little she’d do to risk the six-carat diamond on her ring finger. She’d fight time and age tooth and nail until the end of her days.
At one point, I’d pitied Mom. She loved her lifestyle and it had trapped her to my father’s every whim. But that was before she’d left me alone. Before she’d cowered to his will and, as such, forsaken her child. There was no pity left.
She could call every day from now until the end of her life.
It was too damn late.
She’d made her choice.
And I’d made mine.
“Why are you really here?” That question I aimed at my father. “I’ll take the truth this time. Because there is no way you’d travel here to rescue your daughter.”
“You’re to come home. Once we arrive in New York, we will have a more thorough discussion.”
“Unless you plan to put a bag over my head and drag me onto the airplane, I won’t be leaving Quincy.”
Dad’s jaw clenched. “You’ve made your point, Memphis.
You’ve had your little tantrum. Enough.”
“You think this is a tantrum?” I huffed a dry laugh. “This isn’t me acting out to get your attention. I don’t need or want you in my life.”
Imagining Drake saying that statement to me would have been like a dagger through my chest.
Mom flinched.
Dad didn’t so much as blink.
“If you want a thorough discussion . . .” I threw his words at him. “We’ll be having it here. This is your window of opportunity.”
He pursed his lips.
“Fine.” I made a move to stand but he held up a hand.
“I received a call from a woman.”
I settled into my chair as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Who?”
“She didn’t give me her name. But she claims that you have Oliver MacKay’s child.”
It took everything I had not to react. I felt the color drain from my face, yet I didn’t move. I barely breathed.
“She’s blackmailing us. Either we pay her to keep quiet or she’ll be going to the press. You’re to come home so I can ensure you keep your mouth shut while my lawyers eviscerate her.”
My heart beat so hard it hurt. Who was this woman? How could she know about Oliver? Unless this was all a lie. Maybe Mom’s private investigator had done more than simply follow me to Montana. Maybe I’d screwed up and left some trace along the way.
Dad was stubborn enough to intrude into his daughter’s personal life.
“Here’s what I don’t understand.” I held up a finger when Dad opened his mouth. “Why do you want to know so badly?
Why?”
“Why won’t you just tell me so we can deal with this mess? Is it Oliver MacKay?”
“It’s not your business.”
“Damn it, Memphis.” He leaned forward, a growl in his voice. “You are acting like an insolent child.”
“You are not entitled to control of my life.”
“I am your father.”
I shook my head. “You do not understand the meaning of that word.”
“Memphis, this is so petty,” Mom said. “Your father is trying to help. But we need all of the information.”
“This woman. This blackmailer. Let her go to the press.” It was the last thing I wanted but I suspected my father felt the same. So I’d call his bluff.
As long as I didn’t admit or confirm that Drake was Oliver’s child, there was nothing but speculation. Considering I was in Montana, this drama wouldn’t touch me in the slightest.
But it would definitely put a damper on Dad’s day.
“Oliver MacKay?” Dad seethed. “Really, Memphis? I thought you were smarter than that. Instead you’ve acted like a whore and now I’m cleaning up this mess.”
Mom tensed in her chair but she certainly didn’t come to my rescue.
A whore. Maybe. It stung, but it wasn’t the first time he’d used his words like a whip. “If you’re worried about your reputation and a scandal, then pay the woman and be done with it. Or don’t pay her. I don’t care. But I told you months ago, my son is mine and mine alone. You can either accept that or not. It doesn’t matter. We don’t need you.”