Last Name - Dr. Rebecca Sharp Page 0,57

do that.”

“I will do anything to protect my family—and my wife.”

Yes, it was a lie, but Lynn sure as hell didn’t deserve the truth. And I needed to know what had sent Carrie running.

The color drained from her face. Eyes bulged wide. Shock making her look disfigured with hate and jealousy.

“What did you say?” I asked with a threateningly low tone.

Lynn gulped. “I-I told her that dating you would bring up r-rumors about your father. Bad rumors about what happens when the boss has a relationship with an employee. Rumors that you would never want Kathleen or Lars to hear.”

I saw red.

Everything filtered through a red lens of rage as I listened to her jealous little ploy.

“That was nothing like this. That was a fucking affair.” My voice rose with each accusation. “An affair he had with you.”

She dragged in a stunted breath and before I could stop her, she lunged at me, leeching her fingers onto my shirt and clinging to me like a dying parasite.

“You know it was always you, James,” she cried. “I was just young. Impressionable. He was so generous.”

Clamping my fingers around her wrists, I pried her away from me.

“Rich. You mean he was rich,” I asserted. “He bought you things. Took you places. Gave you promotions you didn’t deserve. Kept you in your job when all you really did was keep his cock in business.”

The words made me want to vomit, but they were all I had to make my point crystal-fucking-clear.

She’d set her sights on me because I was the heir—but why wait when she could have the man in charge of it all?

Who cared if it meant she was screwing both father and son?

Who cared if it meant she was destroying a family in the process?

Her face contorted into an expression of the ugliest emotions. “They’ll still talk,” she sneered at me. “I just made her aware of her choice before you made it for her—leave or be left.”

“I would never leave her,” I shouted.

Her lip curled in anger. “When the choice is between that or explaining the truth to your family?” She laughed. “Yes, James. Yes, you would.”

My fist tightened at my side, hatred and rage pulling the muscles tight as I watched her saunter confidently from the room.

She was the devil. And fucking delusional if she thought this was the way to get me back. Or maybe she already knew that and decided to try and leave me miserable instead.

“James?”

I rose up from where I was bent over one of the small tables, trying to clear the situation and emotions paralyzing me. Glancing down, I checked to make sure my fingers hadn’t left any dents in the wood from the force of my hold.

“Hey, Jack.” I turned and greeted the older man with a sigh and heavy smile.

“You alright there, son?”

It hit me then how Jack had referred to me as ‘son’ many times over the last several years. When my father died, I was an adult. I didn’t need another father figure in my life. And I’d never really thought of Jack as one, but now, and looking back, I realized he’d always been there for me—right from the beginning. He’d given me advice and a shoulder to lean on when the weights of my father’s transgressions kept falling on me each time I tried to rise above them.

“Not really,” I admitted, wiping a hand over my mouth.

I wanted to jump fucking ship.

I wanted to swim back to shore and tell Carrie to forget everything Lynn had said, tell her the rest of the truth about my father’s affair.

But what about my family?

My mother? Lars?

They’d already been hurt so much by what my father had done. We all had. But I’d taken care of it—of them. What kind of son or brother would I be to do all of that only to turn around and share with them the truth that had broken my own memory of my father?

“Where’s that lovely young lady of yours?” he wondered, ambling closer to me. “I specifically waited to grab a glass of wine so I could talk some more with her.”

I shoved a hand through my hair. “Not here.”

“Oh. What happened? Is she alright?”

My head fell, finally at a loss. For years, I’d been able to get out of any situation—rectify any problem. But this… I’d finally met my match. I’d finally come to a decision between my family and the woman I loved.

And both decisions were just as much right as