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She hadn’t imagined a wedding or a marriage or a life away from her family. She’d never been able to afford it.
That he was the most beautiful man she had ever set eyes on, and he was proposing marriage.
Because he was the only lover she’d ever had and she dreamed of his hands on her skin at night when she tried to sleep. But he’d lied to her about who he was—even if by omission—and he’d been engaged and…
He was offering her the chance to become a princess and she wasn’t immune to such a fantasy.
She really didn’t know what she hated most.
It was difficult to say.
“Stevie.”
Her father’s weak voice came back from his bedroom.
She tried to gather herself, and walked back there.
“Is it true?” he asked.
Her poor father. He was so gray. So gaunt.
He was nothing like the man he’d been even five years ago. He had been vibrant then. And even though he had been grieving, he possessed physical strength.
But he had been hiding the bulk of his pain. His drinking.
And then when his liver had begun to fail him…
Everything had fallen apart.
Everything was falling apart.
“Is what true, Dad?” For a horrifying moment, she thought he might be asking if the rumors that she’d had a torrid affair with Adonis were true.
“He asked you to marry him.”
“Oh… I… There’s no way that it could’ve been really serious.”
“Daisy said that it was.”
She had tried to downplay the whole event with her dad. The plane crash, everything. But, of course, once it made its way to the media in truly sensationalized fashion, he had gotten a version of it that was out of her control.
“Well, I can’t take it seriously,” she said. “I can’t take it seriously because… Because it’s impossible. Improbable.”
He reached out; his touch was weak. And there were tears in his pale blue eyes. “Stevie, I failed you as a father. I fell to pieces when your mother died. And I drank myself into this state. I’ll never forgive myself for it. But don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“I’m not going to develop a drinking problem,” she said, and then felt guilty about it. “I’m sorry…”
“That isn’t what I mean. Don’t fall into the belief that you need life to be hard. That you have to cling to the struggle, rather than accepting a solution. So many people have wealth and riches, Stevie, why shouldn’t you? Why shouldn’t the rest of the girls? You did a brilliant thing saving that man. I’m your father, and I love you. I could never have made you a princess, but I should’ve treated you more like one.” A tear slid down his cheek. Stevie felt her insides tighten. “I want you to take this. Take this thing that I couldn’t give you. So that when I’m gone I’ll know that you’re living a beautiful, easy life. So that I know your sisters are. They are somewhere in Europe wearing beautiful clothes, instead of working yourself into an early grave.”
“Dad…”
“I mean it, Stevie. You believe… You believe what I did. Which is that at some point your hard work is going to get you somewhere. But this is as far as it ever got me. And this is as far as it’s ever going to get you. Unless you take this big hand up. You saved his life. You deserve every inch of what you’re being given now, and more.”
She didn’t want to say yes to Adonis. Not after the scene earlier.
But she could see the truth in what her father was saying. And she could see his very real worry.
“I don’t want your legacy to be a struggle.”