My father’s assistant was nowhere to be found, so I turned the handle to his office door and walked in unannounced. He didn’t bother to look up from his computer.

“What is it, J. R.? I don’t have time today.” His tone was dismissive. He punched the keyboard with his fingers.

I clenched my fists. “You’ve seemed to have plenty of time to gallivant off to who the fuck knows where. Enough time to lie to my goddamn face.”

All at once, his fingers came to a startling halt over the keys. My father did anything he pleased. He expected never to be questioned; and yet now I questioned everything. Opposing him seemed to be the ultimate transgression, even though he’d screwed over the company, my mother, and all of his loyal employees, including Eden. If he thought he could get away with this, he was sorely mistaken. I’d had enough.

His voice was chock-full of animosity. “That is none of your goddamn concern. Your precious little pet didn’t have enough experience to run her own team. I made the right decision for my company. Now get out of my office. I have a business to run.”

“It’s not your company anymore. You have a board now.”

William let out a grotesque, unnerving laugh. “I still control the majority of the shares. Those pawns on the board wouldn’t dare go up against me.”

I took a step toward the desk, my hands shaking at my sides. His words lit the flame in my veins ablaze. “You’re a fucking piece of shit. I’m ashamed to call you father, you low-life scum. Majority shareholder or not, how dare you use her to get to me? She could have easily been head of her own team, and you fucking know it.”

“How dare you,” he shouted, slamming his palms against the large oak desk. “This is my company, and I don’t need a spoiled little cunt like you to tell me how to run it. You think I didn’t know what you were up to? You’re just like your whore mother!”

“You might be my father by blood, but I haven’t considered you one for a long time. I’m doing what I have to so I can salvage the company’s reputation. How long do you think it will be before you’re behind bars?”

As those words lingered in the air, the glare he gave me fueled my anger. I needed to get the hell out of his office before I did something I could never take back. Before I could, though, my father sauntered over to the door, locked it, then turned, glowering with fire in his eyes. With his arms crossed and his brow creased, he spoke.

“You little shit. I hope you don’t think I was naive enough to believe you were mine. That sorry excuse of a mother never had the decency to tell you.”

“What are you talking about?” I said in my best taunting tone.

He let out a snarl. “You’re not my fucking son. You never were.”

All the air in the room vanished. I couldn’t breathe. I shook my head at him. “No.”

A satisfied smirk crept onto his wrinkled face. “Don’t feel bad. She didn’t tell me either until your twelfth birthday.”

“You’re a fucking liar,” I managed. “Why would I ever believe you?”

He let out an evil cackle. “Your little bitch mother is the liar.”

Something came over me. Everything I’d ever held back came exploding out of me like a volcanic eruption. It took every molecule in my body not to strangle him. “If you think this piece of perturbed information is going to make me forget what you did to Mom, to me, to the company—you are sorely mistaken.”

He gurgled a gruff, twisted laugh. “You won’t be so smug when the FBI comes for you, little boy. This company won’t miss you when you’re behind bars. Now get the fuck out.”

The sound of a crunch filled the room as fist hit jaw. Without thinking, I’d punched him. My knuckle throbbed from the impact and rage pumped in my chest. Nice one.

William stumbled back, rubbing his face. He shot me a scowl so penetrating I thought I’d turn into a mound of ash. “Get the fuck out of my office,” he advised in his unflappable manner.

In silence, I reached for the bolt, turning it, then strode out into the buzzing office.

The few minutes it took to get down to the garage and my car seemed like hours. My head spun like a high-speed merry-go-round. I tried to hold on, but reality had other plans. The world around me collapsed. William, my father, whoever the fuck he was, he wasn’t . . . anything to me anymore.

Although the company wasn’t my birthright, I’d earned my position, and nothing would change the fact. That sick man sitting in his pristine office on the top floor didn’t deserve a shred of what he claimed to deserve.

Suddenly, the missing puzzle piece positioned itself, clearly exposing the whole picture. The despicable excuse for a dad had twisted my childhood into a vile, fucked-up string of memories held together by his false claims. He’d used me to torment my mother because of what she’d told him. It all made sense now. She’d left him shortly after my birthday. I thrust my hands over my face, pressing into the flesh of my cheeks.

My entire life was crumbling around me, and the only thing I needed more than air? Eden.

If I could hold her, nothing else would matter. The nagging voice in the back of my mind told me to go after her, but what could I say that would change hers? She’d been the only good thing to come of this chaotic mess, and she had every right to be angry. The rope around my heart, the one she put there six years ago, pulled tighter, like a noose squeezing the life out of me. After I’d had a glimpse into having her again, I didn’t know how I’d survive once she left for good.

Scared shitless, I shut my eyes, hitting my forehead against the steering wheel. As much as it killed me to think she’d be leaving for good, I would never forgive myself if it was my fault she didn’t have the life she wanted. Even if I wanted more, this scenario would keep her away from the fucked-up mess I’d made . . . away from my father, away from my entire despicable family.