have your best interests at heart.”
I looked at him doubtfully. “We’d only just met. And you threatened the only parents I have.”
He nodded. “Yes, but I’d known about you for almost three months. My security team surprised me with the news that Nina had a mother and sister that I knew nothing about. Then, I learned you were her daughter, and I was completely shocked. Initially, I thought that she was purposely hiding you away, but when I heard the whole story of what happened, I realized that Nina needed her daughter if she was going to be truly happy.”
My jaw dropped. If he only knew the truth.
“I can’t imagine how I would feel if my boys were taken from me,” Richard said quietly. “I would go insane until I managed to get them back.”
“Nina seems like she’s been pretty okay about it for the last sixteen years,” I said drily.
Richard shook his head. “She might seem hard on the outside, but that’s only to protect the vulnerability that’s underneath it all. I knew that she wouldn’t fight aggressively enough for you because she was afraid of making you hate her. I stepped up and made myself the villain on purpose. If you need to be angry with someone, be angry with me.”
Shit.
My hate for Richard was slowly fading away, but in contrast, the hate for my mother was growing. Nina had somehow convinced Richard that the glimpses of evil he must occasionally see were evidence of her hard shell, and that the faked niceness was her real self. How did such a savvy guy get taken in like this? Or did he only see what he wanted to see? Was he blind to the truth because of his heart?
“Are you really going to try to take ballet away from me?” I asked him quietly.
Richard shook his head. “I’m not trying to take it away from you, I just want to make sure that you have a secure future. I might be on top today, but if anything were to happen to me, I want my boys to be able to fend for themselves. Even the biggest companies can go under, and the stock market is never a guarantee. I’m going to make sure they both go to college so that even if they lose every penny I’ve ever made, they’ll still be okay.”
I was stunned at his revelation. “That’s…surprising.”
Richard nodded. “I didn’t grow up with money. My parents were on the poor side of the middle class. The way my parents struggled to make ends meet gave me the drive to succeed.” He shook his head sadly. “But my boys grew up in a very different world.”
“I know what you mean,” I told him with a small smile. “I’ve always been the scholarship kid at school, so I’ve always had to work harder to prove that I belong there. To show them that out of a million other girls, I’m the one that deserves the chance to walk the halls with the chosen few.”
Richard let out a laugh. “You don’t have to worry about scholarships anymore. I’ve already set up a trust fund to pay for your schooling.”
My jaw dropped. “You don’t have to do that. I’m perfectly capable of making my own way through life.”
“I know,” Richard smiled at me. “That’s why I did it.” He patted my leg. “Just give this a chance. I’ll make sure you can stay in ballet if you agree to put just as much focus on academics. I asked my assistant to make a list of colleges with excellent ballet programs, and I want you to seriously consider what I said.”
I nodded, speechless. Richard had just spent the last fifteen minutes acting like a parent towards a girl he met only a few days before. That was fifteen more minutes than my mother had ever cared about me in my entire life. The contrast between the two was heart-breaking.
I reached out and gave Richard a hug. He seemed startled at first, but then he patted my back.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I pulled away.
Richard walked back to sit with my mother, and I wiped at my eyes, trying to hide the fact that I had gotten emotional just because the guy had asked his assistant to look at colleges for me. Was this what having a father felt like?
My grandfather died when I was too young to remember, and I could hardly use Mr. Logan as an example of a loving father.