TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

21

Chapter 21

Jace

I sat in the small office I'd been allocated at work, staring at my screen as I thought about the events of the day before. Rayna and I had told Elena everything, right after we'd returned from giving our statements about Roy to the police.

It'd been heartbreaking to watch. Elena's face had crumpled, and she'd almost looked like she was about to have a heart attack, even though Rayna had told her about everything as gently as possible. I even thought Elena might slap me, seeing as I hadn't told her what I'd seen right away, but after a long silence, she sniffed, regained her composure and looked at me.

"Thank you," she said, her voice barely audible. "You did the right thing in telling Rayna first. There's no one else I'd have rather heard it from, because if my own daughter is telling me to leave, then I know I have to. Otherwise I might've....I wouldn't have wanted to believe it."

And with that, she'd crumpled into a ball on the sofa and cried for three hours. Rayna had sat there and gently rubbed her back as she cried, and I'd thought about the best way to reveal to Dad that he'd been caught out. Elena and Rayna had given up their lives in California and moved all the way here to live with him, and he'd completely fucked them over within the space of two months, so when Elena finally told him the marriage was over because of what he'd done, I wanted it to sting for him. A lot. I didn't think revenge was a particularly mature response in most cases, but fuck...he couldn't keep treating women like this.

Something needed to be done. Something that'd make him think twice before he screwed over yet another decent person.

After a few hours, I'd finally come up with a plan. Luckily, Elena and Rayna had agreed with me about it, and while it had taken more time than we'd hoped to sort it out-five days-we were finally ready, and it was all happening today at lunch. I'd invited my father to a restaurant in the city under the guise of a 'business' lunch to discuss where my career was heading at his friend's firm, knowing that was probably the only way to get him to meet up with me without seeming suspicious. After all, it wasn't like I'd ever invited him to lunch before, and vice versa.

He hadn't even asked what had happened the other night with the Roy incident, and I knew it was because he simply didn't care. He probably didn't even remember that I'd told him Rayna had been kidnapped, and why would he? All he cared about was money and getting laid by younger women. Everything else had just been an act; a weak attempt to paint himself as a perfect family man to the rest of London's so-called elite. I remembered my old attitude a couple of years ago, and a chill shot up my spine as I realized just how close I'd come to turning out exactly like him-nothing more than a sleazy liar.

I wasn't him, though. I was me, and even if I'd done some fucked up shit in my life, at least I was trying to better myself nowadays. That was enough for me to know I'd never be like him; not even close.

"Jace?"

I looked up to see him standing at the entrance to my cubicle, and I forced a smile. "Hey, thanks for picking me up, Dad."

He looked at his watch and then back at me. "I don't see why you couldn't just take your own car today and meet me there. I don't exactly have time to be driving you around everywhere. But we can always cut this lunch short, I suppose."

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. "Well, thanks for making some time for me," I said, keeping any hint of sarcasm out of my voice. "Like I said earlier, my car's been making weird sounds lately. I was a bit worried about driving it this far into the city from the manor without having it looked at first."

"You should've taken one of my other cars. Would've saved me the bother."

I could barely hold back a smirk at that. Oh, how he'd regret those words in about half an hour. "Really? Didn't even think of that."