Chapter 0012

When Kent walks into his office, he’s surprised to see Daniel standing there, staring out the window,

watching a car pull away.

“Who is in that car?” Daniel asks.

Kent crosses to his desk and sits down in his chair, folding his hands. He takes a moment to study his

son. Daniel is tall, handsome, clever; but he doesn’t yet have the grit that he needs to lead this family.

“If you already know,” Kent says softly. “Why don’t you just tell me what you’re thinking?”

“Fine,” Daniel says, and Kent is happy to hear some anger in his voice. Daniel turns to look Kent in the

eye. “That’s my girlfriend’s family, riding away in that car. What did you do to them?”

“I did nothing to them,” Kent says, “except a favor to Fay Thompson, this girlfriend you never told me

about. Tell me, how long have you been seeing her?”

“Cut the crap, dad,” Daniel says, angrily crossing to confront him. Kent smiles, pleased to see a little

fire in this studious boy. “You know I’ve only been seeing her for a few months – you know –“

“I know,” Kent interrupts, “that she is not who you thought she was. And I know that you’ve already

heard all about this from your gossip of a bodyguard. So why don’t you ask me your real question,”

Kent says, looking at his son coldly.

Daniel grits his teeth and puts his hands in his pockets, in so many ways the very picture of his father.

“Do I really have to marry her?”

“You have been engaged to Fay Alden since your childhood,” Kent says quietly. “It would be an

advantageous match. She’s got the connections, the family, the money you’d need to keep this family

afloat. The question is…do you want her?”

Daniel looks away from him, embarrassed. “She’s fine. She’s very nice. And funny.”

“What,” Kent says, his voice deliberately mocking. “Is that all? She doesn’t do it for you, Daniel?

Doesn’t raise your…heartrate?”

Daniel blushes and scowls. “No, it’s nothing like that – it’s just –“

“It’s just what, Daniel,” his father says, banging his hand on the desk, trying to shock the truth out of

him. “You’ve got other girls on the line?”

“No,” Daniel says quickly, glaring. “I have…I have lots of girlfriends, you know. Girls for different…

occasions…” he mumbles this, and his father subtly shakes his head.

Kent knows his son has…proclivities. Frankly, he doesn’t care, as long as Daniel does his duty by the

family.

“You will take a wife,” Kent says, his voice granite.

“I will.” Daniel says, his head hanging a little, acknowledging his obligation. “I just want to make sure

she’s the right one.”

Kent stands to put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, glad to see him acknowledge his responsibilities. “So,

what are the objections to a girl like Fay?”

Daniel shrugs, not knowing what to say, except the unthinkable: she knows I’m gay and she hates me

for it.

“What,” Kent presses, giving him a little shake. “Is she…impure? Does she fool around with other

guys?”

Daniel looks up at his father, frowning, a little pissed off at his implications. “Come on, Dad,” he snaps.

“You know she’s not.”

Kent laughs and shakes his son’s shoulder. “Good, it’s good to get angry sometimes, son. Let it feed

you. Take it, control it.”

Daniel sighs, sorry to have played into his father’s hand once again. “You know Fay is…pure. I’m the

only guy she’s ever dated, her first love. And I haven’t touched her.”

His father raises an eyebrow at that, silently asking why not, but Daniel frowns and shakes his father’s

hand off his shoulder. “We barely started dating, okay? There wasn’t…time.”

“She’s a good girl,” Kent confirms, looking over his son’s shoulder out the window. “She’s loyal, kind,

innocent. But brave, too.”

Kent’s mind wanders for just a moment as he considers his interactions with Fay. Her wide-eyed

innocence, her creamy ivory skin, that long red hair. He was impressed with her performance today,

too. She has grit, he thinks, that she doesn’t know she has.

She reminds him, suddenly, of the Sicilian girls he met when he would go back to Italy with his mother

as a boy – delicate by one turn, temperamental the next, at once a dove and a viper.