“Good to know.” His eyes suddenly sparkled. Serena didn’t know if he was enjoying the thrust and parry of their conversation or if he was imagining a no-strings sexual escapade with her.
“This meeting is not an exploratory conversation,” she said in her haughtiest tone. “It’s not a discussion and it’s not the foundation for negotiations. I am telling you what I want in exchange for the Alves land.”
“Then this conversation is over. I am not giving up my shares.” Cooper thrust his hands in his pockets and gave a sharp nod to his head. “A pleasure as always, Serena.”
She waited until he began to stroll away. “I’m assuming you spoke to your father this afternoon,” she said.
Cooper paused and looked over his shoulder. His gray eyes were guarded but he showed no expression. “Of course.”
“Does he remember the name Felipe Dominguez?” Her chest tightened as she waited for the answer.
“Yes.”
“Hmm,” she said, hating how the sound seemed almost strangled. She had often wondered if Aaron Brock would remember the Dominguez name. It had been fourteen years and while his actions had changed the course of their lives, it had meant nothing to him. “What did he say?”
He walked back to the bar and leaned his arm on the smooth wooden counter. “I wouldn’t repeat it in front of a lady.”
Serena was tempted to roll her eyes. Why would Cooper think she had delicate sensibilities? She had gained quite a vocabulary during her time living in a seedy neighborhood but it wasn’t nearly as colorful as the language she heard in the financial industry. “And what excuse did he give for his actions?”
The corner of his mouth pulled in a wry, lopsided smile. “My father is not one to give excuses.”
“I’m not surprised,” she murmured.
“He said he had teamed up with Felipe Dominguez while negotiating a deal in Rio de Janeiro. But that Dominguez had tried to double-cross him.” She saw the cold glint of anger in Cooper’s eyes. “My father retaliated.”
It was the bare facts, Serena noticed. Did Cooper know the incredible stress Felipe had been under while working with Brock? Felipe was no match for that bully. Her loving father had gradually become cruel and distant. Serena still longed for the man he used to be.
Cooper’s summary of the events also failed to include the slow decline of her family’s fortune or the devastation they had suffered. “Aaron Brock destroyed everything that belonged to my father.”
“My father was protecting what was his,” Cooper argued.
“And not caring that a mother and child were collateral damage,” she pointed out. The fury, as familiar as a childhood companion, began to swirl inside her. Her mother had suffered more than she had. Beatriz Dominguez had been a vivacious woman but Serena didn’t understand her mother’s fragility until after her parents’ bitter divorce. Too focused on her own loss, Serena hadn’t seen the signs until her mother had a breakdown. Beatriz had never been the same. At times it felt that Serena had switched the mother and daughter roles with Beatriz. She was the minder and the protector and she always felt responsible for not taking better care of Beatriz when it mattered the most.
“What was your father’s side of the story?” Cooper asked. “Did Dominguez betray my father?”
Serena blinked. She hadn’t expected Cooper to ask those questions. She assumed he would show blind loyalty to his family. “Would you believe what I have to say?”
“You were there when it happened,” Cooper responded. “What did you see? What did your father tell you?”
Her father had told her nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything she knew had been based on what she had witnessed and researched. The man who was supposed to protect and provide for her was unable to stand up to Aaron Brock. It was harder for her to admit he had retaliated in a cowardly manner than the fact that he had failed. “I don’t have to rely on my father’s words to understand the facts.”
Cooper frowned. “Did your father explain anything to you?”
She wished he had. Everyone had hid the truth from her despite her constant questions. Had one more person told her not to worry her pretty little head, she would not have been held accountable for her actions. “My parents are traditional,” she explained. “They would never share financial details with anyone, let alone their only child.”
“They were trying to protect you.”
Did they? She wondered about that. Or were they trying to hide their failures, their shame? She hadn’t felt protected. She had felt powerless and set adrift when they suddenly lost their home with no explanation. Confused when their status and their closest friends fell away. She had been scared when the tension and the fights escalated between her parents. The breakdown of their marriage had run parallel to the destruction of their fortunes. And then her mother’s emotional stability declined sharply. Serena had to become the protector of the family when she didn’t know how.
She would never allow herself to feel that powerless or confused again. She no longer relied on others to take care of her. It had been the only way she had survived. “I’m sure your parents discussed business over the dinner table every night.”
“I’m sure they did,” Cooper drawled. “My parents are obsessed with business.”
She frowned. “But they didn’t discuss it with you?” He had been the heir. She imagined he had been trained for the role as early as possible.
His eyes were wintry. “What are you trying to ask?”
This was it. Now was the time to use the weapons she had spent what felt like a lifetime gathering. “Do you know what kind of businessman your father is?” she asked, her heart pounding hard against her chest. “What do you know about Aaron Brock?”
Cooper considered his next words. He had done a basic investigation on Serena Dominguez and had learned she was more than a financial genius. The woman was wily and tenacious. She managed to uncover information about companies that legal teams had spent millions to hide. What did she know about the Brock empire?
“My father could be a powerful ally or a dangerous enemy.”
“The man was a ruthless bully.” She grounded out the last word. “Look at what he did to my father. Aaron put so much pressure on him to be perfect. My father was in constant fear of failing, of disappointing Aaron.”
Cooper knew what Felipe had suffered but he wasn’t going to sympathize with the man. Cooper had to be perfect and extraordinary in everything he did or he suffered the consequences. But he didn’t react like Felipe. Cooper had more to lose and yet he had found the strength to hold on to his principles. “Felipe tried to double-cross my father but got burned.”
Serena gave a sharp, angry nod. “My father was once a businessman who only needed a handshake to do business. That changed when he started working with your father. Aaron Brock allowed no room for weakness or failure. He tore my father down, piece by piece, until he was just a shell of the man he used to be.”
That had been Aaron’s method throughout Cooper’s childhood,
