The Rivals - Vi Keeland Page 0,29

shook my head. “I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Since Weston had shared, I thought I’d let him in on a secret of my own. “You want a little dirt most people don’t know?”

Weston smiled. “Absolutely.”

“Spencer and I are only six months apart. He’s a year younger in school, so people don’t realize that. My upstanding father had both his wife and his mistress pregnant at the same time.”

He shook his head. “I never liked your father. Even when we were kids, he struck me as shady. Your grandfather, on the other hand, always seems like a decent guy.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Grandpa Sterling is really special. I don’t see him often enough now that he moved down to Florida. After my dad left my mom, he really stepped up for us. He never missed a school recital or a tennis match. A few afternoons a week, I used to follow him around one of his hotels after school. Even back then, I saw the difference between how my grandfather and my father treated staff and how staff treated them. Grandpa Sterling’s employees revered him, much like Grace Copeland’s staff seems to have loved her. Whereas the staff feared my father more than respected him.”

“I guess every family has its black sheep.”

I nodded. “They sure do.” Realizing I’d shared a lot more about my screwed-up family than he had, I asked, “Who’s your family’s black sheep?”

Weston shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down. “Me.”

I almost laughed. “You? You’re the prince of the Lockwood family.”

Weston rubbed the stubble on his cheek. “You want to know a Lockwood secret?”

I smiled. “Absolutely.”

“I was never the prince of the Lockwood family. They only had me for spare parts.”

My smile faded. “What do you mean?”

Weston shook his head. “Nothing. Forget it.” He paused and then tilted his head toward the door. “I’m going to check on something in the office before I call it a night. I’ll see you in the morning?”

“Umm… Yeah. Sure. Have a good night.”

Chapter 9

* * *

Sophia

The next morning was busy. Weston and I brought the two contractors through the construction site together, and then I headed down to where our legal and accounting team were set up in a conference room. The smile on my face as I opened the door wilted almost immediately upon entry. My father sat at the head of the table. I hadn’t even known he was back in town…or perhaps he’d never left.

“I thought you went back to Florida?”

My father gave me a stern look. “I’m obviously needed here.”

“Oh?” I folded my arms over my chest. “Did someone tell you that?”

I realized there was a room full of men with their heads swinging back and forth, watching the exchange between my father and me. I tilted my head toward the door. “Could we…talk outside for a minute?”

Dear old Dad looked like he really wanted to say no, but instead he let out an exasperated sigh and marched to the door.

Outside, he spoke before I had the chance to. “Sophia, you’re in over your head. You can’t run a hotel and lead a team to perform due diligence so we can make the winning bid to that shareholder.”

I shook my head. “I thought we discussed this at dinner. If I need assistance, I’ll call you.”

As usual, my father ignored me. “You should be focusing on getting information out of the Lockwoods.”

“What information?”

He sighed, as if he couldn’t believe he had to explain everything to me. “We agreed to a sealed-bid process. But it would be helpful to know what the Lockwoods will be bidding so we can best their offer without losing our shirts.”

“And how would you like me to do that?”

“That young blood who came to your defense the other day thinks you’re a damsel in distress. Use that against him.”

“What are you talking about?”

I wanted to think I didn’t understand him, because it was unbelievable to me that a father would suggest such a thing to his child. Or maybe I didn’t want to believe that mine cared more about money than whoring out his only daughter.

“Use your feminine wiles, Sophia. Lord knows you inherited those from your mother.”

I felt my face heat. “You’re serious?”

“We all have to do things at times for the sake of the family.”

I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath before answering. “Which family are you doing things for today, Father? Would that be the one you walked away from when I was three