Page 69 of Cashmere Ruin

But I haven’t. This is the cold, hard truth of Dominic Flowers: everything he gives, he gives with strings attached.

“You know I’m right. You’re too much like…” He grimaces. “Likeher.”

“Say her name,” I snap. “Eleanor. Your ex-wife. Say it, Dominic. Stop pretending we weren’t real.”

May starts stirring in my arms, upset all over again. But there’s nothing I can do, because I’m upset. And my kid’s heart is already bigger than my father’s.

“See?” He points at her as if he was waiting for exactly that. An excuse to confirm his theory. “You’re just proving my point. You’re too immature.”

“So this is what?” I hiss, slapping the check down on the railing. “A bribe? A price tag for my daughter? Do you even hear yourself right now?”

“We just want the best for her,” he replies. “You can’t give her what we can, April. You know that.”

“Because you stole it from me.”

“Again with that story?—”

“Yes, Dad, again with that story! You robbed me so your new wife could strut around in Cartier and YSL, and don’t you dare deny it!”

“Nora will raise her right,” he insists. “She will teach her discipline, respect. Things you clearly lack.”

“Oh, so Nora put you up to this?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you did, Dad. You just did.”

I can see the slow transformation on Dominic’s face taking place—a Daphne in reverse. His wooden expression turns heated, back to flesh and bulging veins. The Dominic I remember. “So what? So what if this is Nora’s idea, huh? She owes you nothing. You’re not even family to her and she’s willing to give you this—and now, you don’t want it?”

“She owes me nothing? She owes mehalf a million dollars.”

“So this is greed then? Fine!” He picks up his cursed checkbook again and jots down another sum, this time much larger. “Now, will you see reason?”

Then he shoves it in my hands.

Against my better judgment, I read it. I know there’s no price that could possibly talk me into this, but my eyes still gravitate towards the number.

Half a million.

Just like that, in my hands, ready to change my life.

Of course they can offer that now: what Nora didn’t flush down the drain of Coco Chanel handbags, Dominic invested. No doubt, that sum has tripled by now, with more to come in the future.

But it still doesn’t make sense. Whether it’s chump change to them now or not, it’s still money. Money they’re willing to give me—and for what? Another stray kid to pitter-patter around in their spotless halls?

“She didn’t even want me here,” I say. “She didn’t want me, so why…”

It comes together slowly, then all at once. Like a grim, horrifying puzzle, every dirty piece finally falls into place: the cruel pranks,the bullying, the twins yanking my baby out of my arms. Anne’s aggressive attitude when she talked back to her mother, the kind she would usually reserve forme.

Why aren’t you wearing pigtails anymore?

“They’re rebelling,” I realize. “They’re teenagers now. They don’t have an outlet anymore, so they’re turning against you. And you can’t handle that.”

“How dare you…!”

“But it’s true, isn’t it?”

Dominic stiffens. His gaze starts to wander, everywhere but towards my eyes.