DEDICATION
To my patrons who cheered me on when I was at my lowest and to the readers who never gave up on me, even after a vicious cliffhanger.
I love you guys.
CHAPTER 1
Jasmine stared out of the floor-to ceiling-windows, blind to the multimillion dollar view of New York City spread out before her. The state-of-the-art kitchen was filled with golden light, giving the impression all was well in the world, when nothing could be further from the truth. Wracked with indecision, she wrapped her arms around herself and bit her lip. She wasn’t sure how she should handle this, but it couldn’t be put off any longer. She had to say something…
She snatched up her phone, dialed, and paced around the island. She jumped when an impatient, masculine voice barked in her ear, “It’s been three fucking days.”
“I know, Lyle. I’m sorry.” She rubbed the throbbing space between her brows. “I told you, we’ve been trying to sort things out.”
“Are you hurt? Did he touch you?”
“Of course not,” Jasmine said even as she rotated her bruised shoulder, which no longer ached.
He exhaled loudly. She could imagine her brother-in-law pinching the bridge of his nose as he prayed for patience. Under other circumstances, she would have been amused, but there was nothing funny about this, and they both knew it.
“So,” he bit out. “What’s the verdict?”
She opened her mouth, but no sound emerged. Her hand fluttered to her throat as panic took hold. Could she do this? Did she have a choice?
“Minnie.”
Lyle’s clipped tone warned her he was out of patience, not that he had much of that virtue on the best of days. He left her with Roth against his better judgment and would have returned for her if she hadn’t convinced him to stay away, so she and Roth could figure out how they would proceed in their relationship.
That was a lie.
Her father’s damning letter made no difference to Roth. He was holding her to their original agreement. She drew diagrams and made lists, hoping for a solution to magically appear on the page, but no matter how she looked at her situation, there was no way out. Roth demanded recompense for the hell her father put him through. Either she would pay in the privacy of their marriage, or her family would pay publicly.
She could disappear; her family couldn’t. Roth inhabited the same world they did. Their every move was observed by tens of thousands—employees, business associates, reporters, Wall Street. If Roth and her family clashed, the consequences would be devastating. Even if her sisters sold off their shares in Hennessy & Co, Roth wouldn’t stop. She had no doubt he would go after her brothers-in-law. There was no limit to how far he would go in his quest for revenge.
The ease with which Roth orchestrated his takeover proved that he had been strategizing behind the scenes for years. Her father taught him a valuable lesson when he ran him out of the country. Roth spent the intervening years fortifying himself so no one could best him this time around. If she tried to back out of their deal, she could only imagine the hell he would unleash. The best way forward was to keep the charade intact and play the part of a fool in love, willing to overlook all the red flags, and give him another shot.
“We…” She swallowed hastily to coat her dry throat. “We’re going to work it out.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She straightened her spine and tried to sound sure of herself as she declared, “It means I’m staying.”
She paused, waiting for the explosion. His silence caught her off guard.
“Lyle?”
“Colette came clean about the bad investments.”
She dropped her head back in despair and resisted the urge to throw her hands up in the air. What a time for Colette to confide in her husband. How the hell was she going to convince Lyle she wasn’t being coerced after that doozy?
“That has nothing to do with my marriage,” she said stoutly.
“No? You’re with him because you want to be?”
His scathing tone made her flinch.
“After five years of no contact, you run into him by chance, and a month later, you marry him as he takes control of your family’s company. I was born during the day, cara, but I wasn’t born yesterday. Colette and Ariana want to believe in that star-crossed lovers’ crap, but I don’t. I didn’t need to hear Maximus was blackmailing him to know he’s got skeletons in his closet. I didn’t need to see the bruises he left on Thea to know I should have stopped you from marrying him. But with all that confirmed and out in the open, you think I’m going to leave you in his hands?”
Even as Jasmine inwardly cursed him for being so protective and too smart for his own, her heart flooded with love and gratitude. How the hell was she going to convince him to let their marriage play out when she secretly agreed with him? She had no idea Roth was capable of the violence he exhibited toward Thea. He could have killed her housekeeper and there’d be nothing she could do to stop him.
Trembling hands gripped the phone as she asked, “H-how is she?”
“As well as can be after being choked by that bastard. He’s lucky Thea didn’t want to press charges.”
“I called, but she didn’t answer.”
“That’s not a surprise. She’s terrified.”
“If you speak to her, tell her I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“It’s not you who owes her an apology. It’s your jackass husband.”
But it was her fault that Roth was in their lives. Just like the first time, chaos ensued, and people were getting hurt. She thought she knew what she signed up for, that she could handle him this time around. What a joke. She waltzed right into his trap and now they all had to live with the consequences.
“I’ll talk to Colette and Ariana about selling their shares. I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for a stupid company!”
“I’m not sacrificing myself!” she said loudly, but he ignored her.
“Maximus brainwashed you and your sisters into believing that company is worth dying for. The moment Colette started to lose control, she should have come to me for help or let it go. Maximus is gone. When are you three going to realize you can’t please a dead man?”
His words hit her like a punch in the gut. Maybe to him, Hennessy & Co was just a company, but it was their legacy. If his company was in trouble, he would do anything to save it, as she and her sisters would for theirs.
“Business has nothing to do with this,” she said and yanked the phone away from her ear as he erupted in a barrage of scathing Italian. She knew enough of the language to know he was praying for patience… and cursing her to high heaven.
“This is insane,” Lyle hissed, abruptly reverting back to English. “If your father was here, none of this would be happening. He wouldn’t let you make the same mistake twice. Damn it, he gave you the means to keep Roth out of your life. He has secrets he’s willing to kill for. Do you understand that?”
It was all she could think of. “Yes.”
“Maximus warned me Roth would show up once he was gone. It didn’t take him months to make his move, Min. Roth relocated to New York just days after Maximus’s death.”