What a Woman Gets (29 page)

“You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? But the truth is, Cassidy, that your buddy Manley, here, gave it up when he walked out of the condo with a bag of your gowns.” He glared at Liam. “Did you really think I wouldn't notice that you stole them? Or did you
want
me to come after you so I could take her off your hands?” Dad did that little smirk she'd always found so irritating. “Unbelievable. You had the brass ring in your hand and you're giving her away.”

“Brass ring?” Liam obviously found it irritating, too. “Brass
ring?
Are you out of your fucking mind? She's not some trophy to be won. Not a prize to auction off to the highest bidder. Or in this case, the most malleable one.”

Burton looked as if he was going to say something, but thankfully, thought better of it. Her father had chosen Burton for a reason and having a backbone wasn't it.

“You mean like that cheap publicity stunt going on out there? Auctioning off her services like a, well, I don't have to say it.” Her father looked at her as if she was exactly what he was intimating. “At what point, Cassidy, do you plan to reveal who C. Marie is? I'd recommend doing it before the auction closes. The Davenport name will raise bids considerably.”

“She's good enough to have this exhibit on her own merits, Davenport.”

Cassidy had to grab Liam's arm before he hauled off and decked her father. Not that she wouldn't applaud, but neither of them needed the nightmare that would entail.

“She doesn't need your name to make one for herself.”

“Oh really?” Dad crossed his arms, looking so damn smug that
Cassidy
wanted to haul off and deck him. “Then explain the invitation I received today. The one saying you'd be hawking your wares like a common street vendor.”

“Invitation?” That took the wind out of her sales. Someone had intentionally told her father what she was doing?
With an invitation?
“What invitation? I didn't send you an invitation.”

“Well Deborah handed one to me.”

“Where'd she get it?”

“I didn't ask. I presume from the manager here.”

“But that's not possible. Jean-Pierre didn't send out invitations with my name on them. This was a last-minute show.”

“I knew it wouldn't be long before that opportunistic immigrant tried to capitalize on your name. He probably expects me to buy back every piece you sell tonight at the exorbitant price I bought the last one for.”

“Don't you dare.” Cassidy got in his face and wouldn't back down. Not about this. She didn't have to kowtow to him anymore. “I want you to leave, Dad. You'll only make a scene and neither of us wants that.”

“You think they're not already talking out there? The
Herald
saw to that weeks ago.”

“And you're just fueling the gossip. Why, Dad? Is all of this worth the clean-up you're going to have to do
if
I were to do what you want?”

Liam put his hand on her waist and she squeezed it. No way was she doing what her father wanted. And
not
because she had Liam. But he was another reason not to.

“You need to leave, Dad. Without making a scene. Just let it go. I'm not going to marry Burton.” She looked at Burton. “I'm sorry, Burton. You're a nice guy, but I'm not in love with you.”

She was, however, in love with Liam.

The thought flashed in her brain and at that moment, Cassidy knew it was right. There was no big fanfare, just a warm tingly feeling of acceptance. She was in love with Liam, and her father could never take that from her.

“Think very carefully about what you're doing, Cassidy. If I walk out that door, I won't give you another chance. Burton will be gone.”

Oh she was thinking carefully. Of a future with Liam. A future where she could be who she'd become.

“Dad, don't make it like this. Accept that I'm not going to marry Burton and let it go. You have to do some damage control, since everyone out there is talking about you throwing me out. I can't believe you didn't see that coming.”

“You weren't supposed to go. And you definitely weren't supposed to stay out. You were supposed to come back. Any sane, rational woman would have come back.”

“Mitchell, what is going on here? What are you doing to my daughter?”

Everyone turned to the back door where a woman in an evening gown stood.

A woman who looked a lot like an older version of Cassidy.

“
Mom
?” Cassidy felt around for a chair to sit in before her knees gave out.

There wasn't one, but Liam was the next best thing. He put both hands on her waist and leaned her back against him. “Stay strong, babe,” he whispered in her ear. “You can do this.”

She wasn't so sure about that. She had mixed feelings about her mother. There'd been no contact for years; why on earth had she shown up tonight of all nights?

To see her now . . . It was too much. This whole night was too much. What had begun as her triumph was fast unraveling into a nightmare of epic proportions.

“I came as soon as I could, Cass.” Her mother walked toward her, tears in her eyes. “When I learned you were finally out of his house and on your own, I came as quickly as I was able to. He can't touch you anymore, honey. He can't keep us apart.”

Her father took a step closer. “Elizabeth—”

Liam tensed behind her, and Mom held up her hand. “No, Mitchell. We're through. My daughter made her decision. She left. You have no hold on me anymore.”

“Hold?” Cassidy really needed to sit down. Things were happening too fast. It was as if all her worlds were converging at once. “What are you talking about?”

“He—”

“Don't do this, Elizabeth.” Her father clicked his heels together and stood straighter, that demanding tone Cassidy had heard for years even sharper now. More lethal.

Her mother tilted her chin. “Your threats won't work anymore, Mitchell. You can't do anything to me now.”

“Don't be so sure of that.”

“Will one of you please tell me what you're talking about? What happened that was big enough to send my mother to another country to get away from me?”

Mom cleared her throat and glared at Dad. “It's done, Mitchell. I'm telling her. I suggest you send your little toady out of the room if you don't want the world to know.”

For the first time ever, her father actually backed down. “Burton, if you wouldn't mind.”

“No problem, sir.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes as he left.
Sir
.

“You, too, Manley. This conversation is private.”

Liam squeezed her waist. “Cass?”

She thought about it. She should face them on her own. This was, after all, her life and they had yet to define Liam's place in it. But she didn't want him to leave. She wanted him to be here. It was as simple as that.

“Liam stays.” He might as well know the bad with the good.

Mom actually clapped. “Brava, Cass. Stand up to him. Be your own person.”

Cassidy looked at her mother. A little older, but still exactly how Cassidy remembered her. Cassidy had searched online for her over the years, but never found any mention of her after the divorce. It'd been as if she'd disappeared. Cassidy hadn't known if she'd died or had another family, or had ever tried to contact her.

Well, obviously she hadn't. With all the publicity her father had gotten over the years and the fact that his company was still in the same building, Cassidy would have been easy to find. Yet her mom never looked.

“My name is Cassidy. You don't have the right to call me anything else. Why did you leave? What happened that made you leave your four-year-old daughter?”

Her mother took a deep breath and blew it out. “I didn't want to. I wanted to take you with me. But Mitchell threatened to destroy me if I did.”

Cassidy crossed her arms and looked at her father. “Gee, there's a surprise.”

Dad scowled and for once, he wasn't the arrogant, in-charge, alpha guy she'd always known. “Don't do this, Elizabeth.” He was almost pleading.

Cassidy's stomach went hollow. Maybe she
didn't
want to know what they were talking about.

God, what she wouldn't give for her previous shallow, hedonistic lifestyle. Maybe that's why that world was that way, so no one would have to deal with emotions.

“I had an affair and as punishment, your father refused to let me see you.”

Emotions like betrayal. Who kept a child from her mother?

“Goddam it, Elizabeth! I warned you if you ever came back that I'd—”

“What, Mitchell? Cut me off? You did that anyway. From the only thing that ever meant anything to me. My daughter.”

“You were more than willing to walk away with a nice fat checkbook if memory serves.”

“I had no choice.”

“You had every choice. You had the choice not to sleep with that, that . . . that man.”

They were arguing, but Cassidy couldn't get beyond the fact that her father had kept her from her mother as
punishment
. And not just her mother's punishment but hers as well.

“I needed a mother, Mitchell.” She couldn't call him Dad. Not now. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to again. Not after the eviction and not after what he'd put her through back when she'd been four. And five. And six. And all the other times a girl needed her mother. All for his damned pride.

“Look, I get that you two got a divorce, but someone please explain to me why
I
had to pay the price. The divorce wasn't enough?”

Mitchell waved his hand as if she was an annoying gnat—a feeling she'd had all too many times over the years. “You wouldn't understand, Cassidy—”

“Don't tell me I wouldn't understand. I was a child. A
child
. And you took my mother from me. Just like you're trying to take the rest of my life away by forcing me to marry someone I don't love. Who
are
you? What sort of control freak does that to a person? I was innocent. And scared. And alone. And you pawned me off on nannies because your ego had been bruised because she wanted someone else over you.”

“And you.” She faced her mother. Her mother wasn't getting off any easier. “You let him. With your big divorce settlement, you certainly could have afforded to come visit me. It's not as if he shipped you off destitute to a penal colony. So where have you been all these years?”

She was close to breaking. Anger could only sustain her so far, but oh my God, all the wasted years when she'd asked for her mother and been ignored.

Well, dammit, she was going to be heard. For the first time in his life, Mitchell Davenport was going to hear her.

Liam obviously did because he tugged her back against him and wrapped his arms around her waist, giving her his strength.

Her mother pulled the chair out from behind Jean-Pierre's desk and sat. “Mitchell and I should never have gotten married. I wanted a family; he wanted an empire. Guess who won that battle?”

Mitchell said nothing.

“He got his empire and I got lonely. I'm not proud of it, but, yes, I had an affair.”

“With my head of security.” Condescension dripped from Mitchell's words.

“He was a good man, Mitchell.”

“Don't give me that bullshit, Elizabeth. I was building our future and you threw it away.”

“You were building your empire, Mitchell, and I was the pretty little wife who was supposed to host your parties. I was supposed to keep your house and go to garden parties and charity events and sing your praises.”

All of which sounded sadly familiar. Cassidy wrapped her arms around herself. He'd made her into her mother—and then taken his anger at her mom out on her.

“I hated you for that, Mitchell. I hated your coldness, your way of making
me
feel inadequate. Of feeling as if you'd reached your potential and I was still the same small-town girl you'd married. You looked down on me and I knew it.” She cleared her throat and her voice softened. “Jim . . . He didn't look down on me. He liked me. And then, he loved me.”

“That doesn't excuse what you did, Elizabeth. Why you tore this family apart.”

“I—”

“Enough.” Cassidy left the haven of Liam's arms. She wanted to stand on her own two feet, and by God, she was going to. “You two should have had this conversation twenty-five years ago and given me the family I deserved. So someone please tell me why the hell I had to grow up without a mother?”

“I wanted to see you, Cassidy, but—”

“But if she did, I'd cut you off.” Mitchell nodded toward Mom and didn't take his eyes off her. “Elizabeth is well aware of how you've grown up. Of the things and opportunities I could give you that she never could. She wasn't about to deprive you of that.”

“That's why you left me with him? For
things
?” If Cassidy hadn't had the epiphany she'd had with Franklin, this statement alone would have done it. What the hell kind of people had created her?

“That's not why I didn't take you, Cass. If you'll let me explain—”

Mitchell unbuttoned his jacket and put his hands on his hips. “To hell with the niceties, Elizabeth. Let's not sugarcoat it. You had an affair and tried to have your cake and eat it, too. Only I wasn't playing along. You took my family from me; I was taking yours from you.”

“Did you ever stop to think that you were taking mine from me?” Cassidy wanted to be sick. He was talking about her as if she was an asset like his car or his home. “I not only lost my mother, but I lost my father, too.”

Her father actually looked as if he had no idea what she was talking about. Which only highlighted the fact that she was right.

“I gave you a life others only dream about, Cassidy. I gave you anything money can buy.”