A muscle jerked in the base of his jaw. ‘You were mistaken.’
It felt like a blade was slicing through her midsection. She nodded slowly, but now, anger was usurping grief. ‘Is that why you organised this meeting? To see my reaction when you told me that to my face? I never had you pegged as a sadist, Theo.’ She waited a moment, to see if he would explain, apologise, sayanythingthat would lessen her anger, but he just stared her down, face neutral. Annie made a sound of disapproval, then began to stalk towards the door, but Theo was right behind her, his hand curving around her wrist, bringing her to a stop.
‘I did not arrange this meeting to insult you,’ he said, crisp and calm. ‘I was genuinely curious about your reasoning for seeking me out. After all, you have many friends who could help you with this.’
Annie’s heart hurt. The truth was, she’d seen what her friends were really like in that god-awful year of intense grief, when Theo was gone, and her mother had died. There wasn’t a single one of them she’d turn to in a crisis. Not after that. When Annie was no longer a source of lighthearted fun, she’d ceased to be someone they thought of at all.
If anything, the last five years had turned her into a recluse.
‘You made the most sense.’
‘No, that can’t be it. I drive hard bargains. I’m renowned for it—I was, even back then. You must know that having seen your financials, I would offer you only what the actual value of the company is—and such an amount would be an insult to your father.’
She noted the fact he referred only to her father, confirming that he knew her mother had died. And hadn’t reached out.
She’d been dead to him, like he’d said she would be.
And oh, how she’d needed him then. How she’d wanted him to kiss her and make her tattered heart better.
‘I had hoped—’ but it had been a stupid hope.
‘I’m not a charity.’
She flinched. ‘The company is in bad shape—I’m the first to admit it. But the potential—’
‘Yes, there is potential,’ he admitted. ‘To be frank, there is potential that I doubt it has even occurred to your father to think about harnessing, but I can see it. And if the company were mine, I have no doubt I could reverse its course in eighteen months.’
She drew in a shallow breath. ‘Aren’t you tempted, to see what you can do? When was the last time you had a challenge like this?’
His lips quirked in an expression of wry amusement. ‘Every investment I make is a challenge. I seek that out.’
‘So seek this out,’ she half begged.
‘I told you, when I acquire an asset, it is in its entirety. That’s just how I do business.’
‘I can’t do that,’ she whispered. ‘I know I need help, to turn things around, but this is my father’s pride and joy. He’s lost so much, Theo, please, I can’t ask him to lose this, too.’
For a moment, Theo’s eyes flexed with a dark tumble of feelings, so Annie felt like the floor had fundamentally shifted beneath her feet.
‘How badly do you want my help, Annie?’
She blinked, something like hope flickering, albeit briefly, in her chest. ‘I—need it,’ she admitted, aware she was putting all her cards on the table. ‘I’m begging you, in fact.’
‘Excellent. Now that we’ve established my preferred bargaining position, let me explain what would make this deal worthwhile, and we can see just how desperate you are, hmm?’
The hope flickering in her chest extinguished as wariness stole through her instead.
‘I hate your father, Annie. I want to be clear about that, from the start. Your goal is to help him, my goal is to hurt him. However, through this merger, we can both achieve our ends. You should be aware, though, what my intentions are, going in.’
Her lips parted in shock at the darkness of that admission. ‘How can you say that?’ she whispered.
‘Your father is an elitist snob, the kind of man who sees suffering and turns up his nose to face the other way. He is a judgemental bastard I would happily never think of again, for my entire life.’
Annie’s heart felt as though a mountain had been dropped on it. She blinked now, unable to step the moistness gathering behind her eyes. ‘How can you say that?’ she repeated.
‘We both know how—and why—I feel as I do. What you are perhaps not aware of is the amount your father offered me to leave you alone, nor the conversation we had that night. Unlike you, I told him precisely where he could take his interference. Unlike you, I chose to stand by our relationship.’
Annie’s lips parted on a rush of shock. ‘What?’