Lured into Love (Blossom in Winter #2) - Melanie Martins Page 0,66

for a beat, a trace of a smile settling on his lips. “It’s here that Hendrik gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.” And I know exactly what he means by that. “It’s here that I became a portfolio manager for your family office.” I can see a twinkle in his eye as he recalls such memories. “Boy, I was young and tenacious. Driven by nothing more than hunger to win.” Roy lets out a quick chuckle, looking pensively at the floor, and then at me. “Proving to your dad that the boy from Rouveen he helped get an education could manage billions was all I wanted.”

“And yet, just two years later, you resigned,” I tease him.

“You know why I did it.”

“You did the right thing. My offer was better,” I remind him. “And my dad was disgraced and fired once Mom found out about his bastard, so I saved you from a big mess.”

Blowing out a deep, long breath, Roy starts shaking his head. “I’m still astounded that your family managed to vote him out.”

“Mom can be very convincing,” I tell him, keeping it short.

“I have nothing but the utmost respect for your dad. The fact that he had to leave the country and never return, well, that was quite unexpected, but I guess he had his reasons.”

“Why am I here, Roy?” I ask, cutting through the bullshit. “To talk about my dad’s fate?”

“No,” he says, and it’s exactly the answer I expected. As Roy stands in front of me, just inches from my face, he adds, “We are here to talk about yours.”

Looking him in the eye, I warn, “I’m not Hendrik. And I’m not leaving.”

“Even your dad knew when it was time to leave.”

“I’m not resigning,” I insist.

Roy draws in a breath, his eyes drifting down for a moment, before he says, “If you don’t resign, Tess will press charges against us and everything we’ve worked so hard for will be gone. That is not an option for me.” And he turns his back on me, slowly pacing toward the sofa.

“We have to be found guilty first.”

“Enough!” he shouts, spinning around, his glare now censoring me. “It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but only one goddamn story to destroy it.” We keep staring at each other, and the same tension as when we play chess becomes palpable. “Guilty or not, I won’t risk it. Even if you’re engaged.” I let out a rush of air, irritated with his obsession to maintain a perfect reputation. “It’s my daughter’s heritage we are talking about. Have you thought about her? What will she think about us once she finds out?”

“I’m sure Petra will understand and forgive us.”

Head shaking, he chuckles again. “You’re so delusional. She can’t even cope with the killing of a bear, but you think she will with that of a girl?”

The reality hits me hard, and I remember how mad she was just for the sake of an animal. But I know deep down Petra will forgive me if she ever learns the truth. Or at least I want to believe she will. “Accidents do happen. It was not intentional.”

“And yet we hid the body like it was.”

His concerns are clear and understandable. If Tess unleashes the story to the media, Gatt-Dieren Capital will go down in history not as a reputable hedge fund firm founded by two Dutch social-capitalists, but as a disgraced company started by two murderers of a young virgin at a depraved party. And Petra will ultimately inherit such a reputation. Her health is already so fragile that I can’t imagine how she’ll cope with the media bashing her as the daughter of a killer and all the investigations that will ensue. At least it’s a good thing we’ve never made our relationship official to anyone except our families and close relatives. “You spoke to Tess, didn’t you?” I ask him.

“I did,” he replies calmly as he takes a file laying on the low table. “She’s ready to move forward with the case and a story in the media if you don’t leave Petra alone.”

Roy walks back in my direction and hands me the file. As I open it, my eyes land on a photograph of Petra hugging a college boy in the hallway of Roy’s penthouse. I knew his place was fully equipped with surveillance cameras, but I never knew Roy actually checked the footage. “You have been spying on her?” I ask, although not that surprised now to find