Chapter Thirty-Nine

EVIE

At my father’s insistence, I agree to meet him at Dimitri’s the next day, which is fine. It’s time to get this out in the open, once and for all.

Alexei answers the door when I arrive and escorts me to a room I know well. The library, the one room in the entire house that I actually like and could lose myself in. A moment later, Dimitri enters.

“Your father will be here soon,” he says, anticipating the question forming on my lips.

It’s been weeks since I’ve seen Dimitri. The darkness of his eyes and hair always casts him in a role of mystery. Sexiness. Danger. But this time, I’m the one holding high the do not enter sign for everyone—especially him—to see. Squaring my shoulders, I lay it all on the line.

“I can’t marry you, Dimitri. I don’t love you.” I stand in front of him as he leans back in his chair, his lips pursed in a half smile of disbelief. Or maybe desire. I don’t know. “I mean it. Please don’t pursue me.”

He laughs as sudden ringing interrupts, and he picks up an antiquated phone sitting on an ornate side table. “Send him in,” he says into it, the unamused tone of his voice making me suddenly nervous.

No one has ever sent for my father. He’s usually the man doing the sending. Doling out the discomfort. Deciding how much people should squirm in his presence.

The door opens, and I’m surprised to see my father looking like a shadow of the man he normally is—that he was only days ago. The lines in his face have deepened, and the darkness beneath his eyes means he hasn’t slept much lately.

But his posture is rigid, and the air feels heavy. Foreboding. Maybe this is his version of an intervention. Desperate to save me from once again fleeing from a billionaire. Doing whatever it takes to preserve the family name. Taking my hand and talking me off the ledge of the less-privileged life to come.

Wrapping his arms awkwardly around me, Dad presses a dry kiss on my cheek. “Evelyn. With all the mistakes you’ve made, do you really need to add another one to your list?”

My backbone stiffens at his patronizing tone. “I’m turning down the love of a man I don’t love back. I owe it to Dimitri to be honest.” My words are as honest and forthright as they are awkward and unconvincing. Still, I’m rolling the dice on the one tactic I haven’t tried—making my refusal for Dimitri’s benefit.

My father turns to Dimitri. “Looks like Evelyn doesn’t love you. Do you need to be loved in this arrangement?”

Dimitri shakes his head with a smirk. “No. I hadn’t planned on loving your daughter anytime soon, but I’m happy to keep up appearances, for publicity’s sake.”

With no way to comprehend what’s just been said, I stare blankly, my gaze moving between the two men. “I’m confused.” And outraged. “Why the fuck did you propose to me if you didn’t love me?”

Dimitri says nothing to me, and instead addresses my father. “Garrett? Here’s your chance to get your little girl in line.”

That comment catapults me from irate to full-blown losing my shit. “In line?”

My eyes narrow on my father. I don’t know if I’m more pissed off at Dimitri for speaking about me like I’m a petulant child and not six feet from him, or at my father, who’s determined to keep me locked in a loveless engagement, for what I now realize is some bullshit scheme that, no doubt, involves his personal fortune.

“Evelyn, this is as hard for me as it will be for you. But your family is counting on you to make this work.”

“Who? Not Mom. Or Alan. Right?”

“Right,” Dad says slowly, swallowing so hard, his Adam’s apple bobs like it’s just dislodged the last hunk of his pride. And perhaps his soul.

“So it’s all for you. A conniving man who has used every opportunity to manipulate me.”

“I raised you,” he says in a steady, even tone. “Gave you everything. You would let Banks Multimedia fail?”

“How could I let it fail? It’s not my company. It never was. You made that clear when you handed the reins over to Alan. I’ve been my brother’s keeper my entire life. How about you take a shot at it? Actually look after him for once, instead of being his dealer or his pimp. He needs help, not heroin and hand jobs.”

“Goddammit, Evelyn, I didn’t want to have to do it, but if we fall, then you, my dear, will fall too.”

The veins throb in his forehead to the point where I wonder just how big a grave he’s dug for the precious Banks fortune, and why he needs Dimitri to hoist him out.

Still, his words disturb me. “What’s that supposed to mean? I have no connections to Banks Multimedia. You’ve made damn sure of that.”

“But you still have your name. A lineage that spans hundreds of years. And brought you a prince like Dimitri—a man willing to set aside your lackluster looks or scandalous affair and still take you back. You’re practically American royalty, and with Dimitri, you’ll be in an international class so far above everyone, you’ll need only snap your fingers and your servants, private jets, and luxury escapes will be at your beck and call.” The manic shimmer in my father’s eyes dims as his voice lowers to unleash a threat. “But cross me now, Evelyn, and I’ll destroy you.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt you would.” Anger sours my throat, transforming into an uncontrollable wave of bitter, undenied tears. “God, I’ve wasted all these years, doing everything I could to give you the power and status you craved. Giving up my own dreams to keep you center stage. Carrying Alan’s burdens like they were my own. I spent years erasing every indiscretion from the courts and the press. Is this why Mom left you to pursue her freedom without a dime? Did you threaten her too?”

Tired, he shakes his head with a wry smile. “No, Evelyn. I didn’t threaten your mother. I didn’t have to. She left because she was scared the truth would come out. That I would find out about you. Little did she know I already knew. I’ve always known.”

I have no way of comprehending what he’s saying, or why, but when his bony hands cradle my face, his eyes turn black and cold. “You see, my dear, your mother’s past is peppered with one foul indiscretion after the other. You’re not my daughter. And I’m not sure even she knows who your father is. You’re just some bastard child who got a life of privilege on my dime.”

Stunned, I don’t know if he’s lying or not. Fucking with my head for his own sick pleasure, or making up some lame excuse to force me under his thumb, to do his bidding.

I don’t know, and I don’t care. What I do know is that as I deliver the hardest smack across that man’s face that I can muster, I wish for the first time in months that I was wearing Dimitri’s big-ass ring.

Straightening himself and smoothing the lines of his custom-tailored Saville Row suit, the man I once thought of as my father looks down on me. I stick out my chin, accustomed to the view.

“Oh, Evelyn. Such a typical move from a thick little girl.”

“Enough,” Dimitri says, reminding me that he’s been in the room the entire time. “As arousing as it is watching my future wife slap you around, your time’s up, Garrett.”

“But—”

At the snap of Dimitri’s fingers, Alexei appears from the corridor and lays a surprisingly light hand on my arm.

“Show Ms. Banks to her suite. And make sure she stays there.”

Alexei is firm but gentle with me. I make a feeble attempt to pull my elbow from his hand, but his grip tightens effortlessly. And fuck, my phone is in the car.

“Let go of me,” I spit out, my anxiety skyrocketing as I’m dragged away.

“Get comfortable, Evelyn,” Dimitri says, unconcerned at my new status as his hostage. “We’ll be married tomorrow. Try to rest. If you fuss too much, we’ll have to sedate you.”

Dimitri has never threatened me before, and it kills all the fight in me. I know he’ll carry through. Everything that Margot tried to warn me about him is true.

People get hurt. Go missing.

I do my best to stay calm. Thinking—hoping and praying—that I’ll find some way out of this.

Before I get hurt. Or go missing.