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I look down at my lap, hands clenched tightly together. “Dad had me work as Connor’s assistant. He bribed the hiring manager, just to make sure I got the job. He wanted me to get close to Connor and convince him to renew the buyout of Montague Media. By any means necessary.”
There’s dead silence in the room, but I’m too afraid to face Serena. What if she’s disgusted? Even so, I still need to get it all out. I can’t leave it half explained.
“He… He told me to seduce him. To make it so Connor couldn’t say no to me.”
I’m confused when there’s a light touch on my arm, the couch cushion depressing as she shifts close to me. “Did he threaten you?”
I look up, the anger in her gaze startling. “What?”
“Was Dad holding something over your head? With me, it was my animal shelter. He said he’d stop funding it if I didn’t go along with his plan.”
He had a plan for her, too? “My house,” I whisper. “He was going to kick us out, quit paying Mom’s health insurance, everything. We’d have nothing.”
Her mouth tightens. “He’s such an asshole. Sick to do that to you. I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”
My stomach drops. She doesn’t understand. “No, you don’t get it. I—I did it. I got close to him. I mentioned buying the company. I lied to him, broke his trust.”
“And what was your alternative?” Her dander’s up now, so different from how I’ve seen her before. “Get evicted? He did the same thing with me. Forced me into that marriage with Gabriel. Threatened my nonprofit if I didn’t. It was important to me, so I agreed. And later, when I tried to back out, he threatened more. So I did the only thing I could. I followed him. I had nothing otherwise.”
I didn’t realize our situations were so similar.
“Even after I did what he asked,” she continues, “he still took everything away. Withdrew funding for the shelter, sold my apartment, even kept my belongings to resell. If it hadn’t been for Archer, I’d have been screwed.”
I stare at her, slack-jawed. “He did all that to you?” His real daughter?
She nods. “I only realized later how much Dad had been controlling me. How he’d kept me reliant on him for so long so I couldn’t go against him. So trust me. If anyone understands what dealing with him is like, I do. You were damned either way. You did what he said and he still made good on the threat.”
“Oh, God.” I cross my arms, hugging myself, and bend forward. “You’re right. I should’ve got out sooner. Not put me and Connor through any of this.”
“Did you actually… seduce him?” she asks carefully.
I nod reluctantly. “But I also fell in love with him.”
The tears come hot and fast then, the arm she wraps around my shoulders a balm to my soul. I didn’t realize how much her acceptance would mean to me. I’d buried the hope that she’d understand, not truly believing it’d happen.
“So Connor knows, then? What Dad made you do?”
I relay the events of this morning at work, as well as my conversation with Dad afterward. She nods along with my story patiently, the opposite of Connor’s reaction earlier. Maybe if I’d explained myself better, things would have gone differently, but I’d been so blindsided.
“Do you think there’s any way he could forgive me?” I ask her after I’ve finished.
“Did you explain it all to him?”
I massage my temples, trying to remember. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast. He was angry and I just—God, I felt like the biggest piece of shit. I was going to tell him everything before that too.”
“Why don’t you try talking to him again?”
I shake my head before she’s even finished. “He doesn’t want to see me. And I don’t blame him one bit.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ll talk to—”
“No, please. I’m not involving others.” It’s already embarrassing enough as it is.
She nods. “Okay. But will you at least stay here in the meantime? I hate to think of you having nowhere to go.”
Well, if she still wants it, it’s not like I can turn her down. “As long as Archer’s okay with it. I don’t want to put him in an awkward position with his brother.”
“He’ll be fine with it,” she assures me. “Connor may be his brother, but you’re my sister.”