She slid the paper across the table. She knew what it said. The hymen was still intact.
He slid the paper to the lawyer next to him.
“What are you up to?” he growled, his hazel eyes accusing, censorious. “A year ago you sneered in my face and swore I’d never live a night in ‘your’ home, as you called it.”
Kimberly drew in a deep breath as she watched the man who should have been there for her graduation and wasn’t. Who should have cared the first time she was wounded during an assignment, but hadn’t. The man who should have shared in her joys and her fears, yet he never had.
“I wish I had been given the chance to love you,” she whispered then, ignoring the shock on his face. “I wish the Estate hadn’t stood between us, and that your own morality and beliefs hadn’t eroded what could have been, Father. I wish I could have been the daughter you needed, instead of the tool for revenge that you and Mother turned me into.”
He paled. She watched his swarthy expression blanch and shook her head wearily.
“The Trust ends in five years, Ms. Madison,” Caruthers reminded her. “Whatever has fueled this decision can surely wait that long.”
Make Jared wait? She didn’t have the patience.
“I have a life to plan,” she said firmly. “Briar Cliff won’t be a part of it, because after tonight, I’ll never pass another of those asinine exams.” She flicked her fingers towards the report. “Five years is too long to wait to tell him I love him.”
“No!” Her father’s hand smacked imperatively against the pristine polish of the table, the crack resounding around the room as Kimberly flinched at the fury of the sound. “I won’t allow you to make such a foolish decision. It’s Jared, isn’t it?” He sneered the name, his eyes piercing her with his anger. “The little bastard has somehow corrupted you…”
“Enough.” Kimberly stood to her feet, pushing her chair back as she faced her father with her own growing anger. “You have it, Father. All of it. Content yourself with that.”
“I won’t let you whore yourself to him and his friends,” he snapped, coming to his feet as well. “Do you think I don’t know he belongs to that depraved club?” he spat out. “That I’m unaware of his practices, his lifestyle. Are you insane, girl?”
She lifted her chin, staring back at him with a strength she had never known she possessed. His rages had always terrified her; his harsh words had never failed to rip through her heart. Now, she felt only sorrow, only pity that it had come to this.
“No, I finally found my sanity,” she said softly. “You can have the papers mailed to me, Mr. Caruthers,” she informed the lawyer. “My time here is finished.” She turned back to her father, allowing her regret, a lifetime’s worth, to fill her face and her voice. “Goodbye, Father.”
She moved away from the table, heading for the door, for freedom. She could feel her heart lifting, her soul becoming lighter with each step.
“Kimberly.” Her father’s voice stopped her as she opened the door, imperative, demanding.
She turned back to him slowly, seeing so many things she had missed before. Her father had aged in the last six years. He was only fifty, but he looked much older, more bitter than she remembered.
“If you walk out that door you lose it all,” he reminded her. “Everything.”
She smiled tiredly. “No, Father. I win,” she said simply.
He sneered slowly. “You’re just like your mother.”
Kimberly ignored the pain at the implied insult.
“No, I’m not,” she replied slowly. “I’m stronger than she was. I’m stronger than both of you were, because I’m not willing to sell my soul for a piece of land that will neither keep me warm at night, nor love me in return. Unlike you and Mother, I’m not willing to turn my back on love for profit. That was your curse, it won’t be mine.”
She left before he could reply, before he could hurl the insults she could see gathering on his face. She walked from the offices into a day filled with sunshine and hope and ran toward her future.
Chapter Twenty
He was waiting for her when she arrived. His mother had called and relayed Daniel’s fury when he returned from the lawyers’ offices. The Senator was coldly disapproving she had said, but Jared had read more than that in her voice.
“Should I come after you, Mom?” he had asked her carefully, concern rising within him.
“No, dear. Daniel isn’t a violent man. But neither am I pleased with him at the moment,” she had said with a vein of irritation. “You take care of Kimberly. She’s renounced Briar Cliff for you. I expect to plan the wedding, of course. And it will take more than a few weeks, young man. I expect six months at the least. I deserve this. You waited long enough to find the woman that makes your lips curve into that smile your father always got with me.” Her voice had turned misty with memories, though he had no idea what she meant. “Give her my best, and I’ll see both of you soon.”
He had hung up the phone, and waited. Night had fallen more than an hour before and still he stood on the front porch, his heart in his chest, his throat tight with the knowledge of what she had given up for him.
She had given up an estate estimated to be worth millions. More than he would ever accomplish in his lifetime, more than he had dreamed his love meant to her. She had only five years to wait, and he would have been there beside her. He would have given her that time.
It both awed and humbled him, and scared the living hell out of him that she had given it up.