Page 157 of Lessons In Grey

“Before we get started, I’d like to thank you all for the condolences. Without Helen by my side, I don’t know how I would have made it.”

A dramatic pause of silence.

He beamed. “Let’s get started!”

Emily shifted on her feet, tracking him as he and Helen descended the stairs only for her stare to be broken as she reached for the phone inside her purse.

People broke out in conversation everywhere.

I turned to Emily just as Ash leaned in. “He’s a prick, Emily, don’t worry about it.”

But her eyes had hardened. She slid her phone away, finding him again. “I want to talk to him.”

Ash’s brows rose, her eyes finding mine.

If she wanted to talk to him, whatever the reason, I wouldn’t say no. I would, however, be there to kill him if he stepped out of line. “Okay,” I agreed as she stepped away from me. I took her hand, lifting her palm to my lips, my eyes locked on hers as I kissed it softly. “Let’s go,” I murmured against her skin.

She gave me a fleeting half-smile before turning her attention back to her father.

Ash glared at me, but I ignored her as Emily started for her dad, my hand firmly in hers. She could handle this. I believed inher, even if Ash worried.

Harold was standing with a group of people, laughing and talking, as he had done all evening. The Mayor’s wife, I noticed, and Mr. Resnick were among the people around them.

Emily rolled her shoulders easily, trying to get rid of the tension in them. We had been working very hard since she had moved out to build her confidence. It’s all I wanted to do. Build her true confidence, not the armor she wore when she was deflecting.

Even though this person was who she was at events like this, I’d like to believe that I had a part to play in the confidence that lingered around her now.

Emily and I walked up to the small group without a hitch in our step. We joined them and stood there until they started to notice us.

“Emily,” the Mayor’s wife, Gilla, said, her red smile tightening. “Your father didn’t say you’d be here, but we’ve seen you wandering. I’m glad you finally came to say hi.”

“I didn’t,” she answered, her eyes locking onto her father’s. “You changed your will.”

His smile tightened, a nervous laughter leaving his lips as he glanced around the circle of people who were all now looking between the father and daughter in confusion. “What are you talking about, sweetheart.”

Her hand tightened in mine. She hated that sentiment. Hated it more than anything else in the world. “A month into your affair, you changed the will.” Her eyes shifted to Helen. “You gave them everything except for the money you were obligated to give to your daughters, per the contract my great grandfather wrote out.” Her eyes shifted back to her father’s. “Nobody can claim that the accident was anything more than an accident, but had the police known that when they had been looking into their deaths, I’m absolutely positive that you would have been convicted on that alone.”

He might have been, but with his money and power in this world, even that would have been swept under the rug.

His tight smile fell to anger. “How dare you make such claims against your own father.”

“And how dare you act like you’ve done good in this world when every charity, every donation, every good thing that ever came from the company was done because of mom. You fought every step of the way. You’re a selfish bastard who doesn’t have the capacity to care about anything but your money and the woman on your arm. Mom wasn’t pretty enough for you, so you upgraded, and while Helen is horrifically nice, she can’t be deemed a good person for what she did.”

Helen smeared her lips together, looking to her husband for reassurance only Harold’s eyes were locked on Emily’s.

“I gave you a good life,” he sputtered.

“You gave me a life of emptiness,” she replied evenly. Her eyes shifted to the group, the Mayor having joined, worry in his eyes. After a moment, she released my hand and shoved through them, my eyes tracking her every move as she made her way to the bottom of the stairs and picked up the microphone that had been left on the railing.

I slid my hands into my pockets, studying everyone’s movements. If anyone made a move towards her, I’d kill them.

She switched it on, her eyes shifting back to her father’s. “All you care about is money,” she said, the talking flooding the room slowly dying. “All you care about arethings. I’ve said it before, dad, and I’ll say it again, kids don’t want horses and tablets, they want their parents.”

She turned to the crowd as people parted to give her space. “All any of you care about is money. It’s status. Who has the biggest boat and the shiniest car. Who can wear the most diamonds on their stretched out earlobes. You don’t care aboutpeople. You don’t care about your family.”

She shook her head, looking around as she paced through theroom. “Do any of you have any idea what you’ve done to your children? I’m in college, and I still see the repercussions of what you did to us. Drug addicts, alcoholics, people committing suicide left and right to escapeyou. We didn’t want nannies and endless toys and to stay up all night eating candy and watching television, we wanted our parents to give a fuck.”

Ash joined my side. “You let her have the microphone?” she asked, giving me a look.