course, he had. Otherwise, it wouldn’t already be reduced to black-and-white on paper. Jay had known all about it. Adam knew about it. Norman and Jimmy were probably in on it, too. Half the world had known what her father planned for her future...but no one had bothered to fill her in.
Hurt erupted into a blaze of fury she could no longer suppress; it flamed outward, until her skin prickled all over with white-hot heat.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at Jay. So she focused her anger on the one man who she’d worked to impress her whole life. Her father.
“How could you have arranged all this behind my back?”
“Easily!” Kingston’s gaze sliced into the heat of her anger like an arctic blast. “You will marry Adam Fordyce.”
But, for once, he didn’t freeze her into silence. Georgia had had enough. “I told you—I haven’t met this man, much less even been on a date with him.”
“I’ve already fixed that.” Kingston smirked with satisfaction. “Fordyce will escort you to the Bachelors for a Better Future Benefit on Friday night.”
“You’re joking!”
“I never joke about business. I’ve arranged the most important alliance you will ever be part of, Georgia.”
He sounded so proud...so confident that she would go along with it.
Why should she be surprised? He’d pulled this kind of stunt before. Except that time, she’d fallen head-over-heels into his manipulative scheme.
Never again.
Even as Georgia reeled from emotions she couldn’t find words to express, her youngest sister waded into the fray. “When did you and Adam get so cozy, Dad?”
Georgia finally found her voice. “Let me handle this, Charis. I’m the one he’s trying to marry off.”
“Not only you.” Kingston gave Charis a fond smile. “I’ve found suitable husbands for all three of you.”
A stunned hush followed his pronouncement.
“That’s preposterous!” Charis was on her feet.
Her father’s face softened. “Charis, the man I’ve chosen for you is the man I’ve come to regard as a son over the past two years.”
Shock filled Georgia and her attention snapped back to Jay. “You...you are going to marry Charis?”
Jay’s face was frozen.
Jay and...Charis?
Her sometimes ally, full-time rival...was marrying her sister?
Georgia’s stomach churned.
Since Jay had come to work at Kingdom, they’d sparred and argued—or at least she’d argued, while more often than not, he’d simply needled her, provoked her...then laughed at her irritation. He’d unerringly turn up at her office with the take-out coffees she craved, arriving just in time for her to bounce strategies off him. He might excel at pushing her buttons, but Jay was insightful and very, very clever, and all too often his opinions were right on the mark. Despite her distrust, she’d come to rely on his cool level-headedness.
And he’d betrayed her.
Stupid!
She should’ve known better than to trust one of her father’s sidekicks. At least this time, she wasn’t infatuated with Jay—or engaged to marry him. Like with Ridley.
Everyone was talking at once. Roberta had drawn herself up to her full height. She looked like some lush goddess. “There’s only one thing I want to know. To whom have you dared to barter me?”
But Kingston didn’t spare her or Georgia a glance.
Charis’s face was pale. She was saying something, but Georgia couldn’t concentrate. The sound of her heart pounded fast and furious in her ears and she felt completely incapable of the clear, analytic thought that usually came easily.
All she could think about was that today was supposed to be the best day of her life.
“Father—” Her voice sounded high and thin. Alien. Like someone else’s.
She hardly ever called him Father—and certainly never at work. It never helped to become emotional. Kingston detested tears, and she’d displayed enough weakness two years ago to last a lifetime.
And her father still held that against her.
She concentrated on the celebrity photos on the wall. Charis had designed most of those carefully crafted products. Roberta had dreamed up the advertising campaigns. And she herself knew the production process from start to finish—how to make sure they made millions from every product launch.
Did her father not understand how indispensable she was to the Kingdom brand? Did he never wonder why he and Norm could find time to play golf so often?
The only way to appeal to his sense of logic was to find a strategic or monetary angle that would make him pay attention.
She drew a breath. “Kingston—”
That sounded better. Stronger. But he didn’t even turn his head; all his attention was focused on Charis.
“So, let me get this totally clear. Adam Fordyce is going along with this?” Charis demanded.
As Jay had already gone along with it...
“Oh, yes.” Her father actually smiled. “Fordyce is a powerful man and he needs the right kind of wife. And Georgia will be perfect.”
Georgia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That’s what her father thought of all the years...her whole life...that she’d put into Kingdom? It qualified her to be...what?
The perfect wife?
It was the kind of label Jay, at his most provocative, might have used to needle her...but, tragically, her father was serious.
“And what if we’re not prepared to go along with this...madness?” Charis picked up her sketchpad and held it like a shield against her chest.
“If any of you refuses to put Kingdom first—and fails to show loyalty to me—you’ll forfeit the right to stock in Kingdom and immediately have to clear out your desk and be escorted off the premises by security.” Kingston’s eyes were colder than the ice that covered the Hudson River in mid-winter. “You will no longer be welcome in my business, in my home...or in my life. You will cease to exist.”
The air whooshed out of Georgia’s lungs, as terror blinded her.
“I’m not going to be a part of this insane scheme, Father.” Charis’s eyes burned great dark holes in her pale face.
Georgia was startled by the sudden urge to give her sister a hug. Neither of them had ever been the touchy-feely type.
“You can split
