Page 96 of Bargaining

What the fuck?Charlotte had gone? “But where was she going?”

“I don’t know, signore. All I know is that she returned her room card.”

The piped music pouring out of the speaker made my blood boil. Charlotte had taken a leaf out of Gabe’s book and wasn’t replying to my messages or answering my calls. Just a text.I want a divorce.My jaw tightened.Why would she forgo five million pounds? Surely life with me wasn’t that bad.

My teeth gritted. “Where the fuck is my wife? Did you call a car for her? Did she book a flight? I want to know. She can’t have just vanished from the lobby. Someone must have seen her leave.”

The man behind the desk shrugged. “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“Do you have a problem, Cole?”

My father’s imperious voice grated my ears. I turned to see him with Gabe Rivers at his side.Great.Why didn’t they just gettheir contract out here and sign it right in front of me? They were probably about to ask me to be a fucking witness to the signatures.

“If you’re looking for your wife, she left here with Reuben.” Philip’s face dripped smug superiority.

Oh, he fucking loved that. The golden boy. Now Charlotte’s choosing him, too.

“Reuben?”

“He was flying home today, so he offered her a lift.”

Of course.This just kept getting worse.

“Maybe you should have spent more time with your new wife, and less with your nose in my business.”

Don’t react. Don’t show your hand.I’d always prided myself on my composure, but a taut wire snapped inside of me. My anger spilled over and I barked the words out.

“Oh, fuck off, will you, Philip? Give it a rest.”

Gabe raised an unimpressed eyebrow. My father stared back at me with a glint of amusement in his eye. I’d lost control. He’d won. This was over. It had been over for so long, and I’d kept going, trying to force a meeting with a man who wouldn’t even take my calls. It was humiliating.

I moved in the other direction, back to my room, away from my father’s smug grin, but some reckless impulse made me swing back to him. He glared at me, and for the first time I noticed how old he looked. Gray, sallow skin. Age spots dotting his forehead. A slight tremor around his lips. Once, he’d been the most powerful man in my world, and now he was tired and fading. Was this what lay in store for me? A vengeful shell of a man. Petty and tragic.

“You call me pathetic, but look at you. I saw you with Reuben last night. The only son you have who can stand to be around you, and you talk to him like that. Let the poor kid go. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Gabe coughed awkwardly and averted his gaze. Charlotte had told me arguing with an old man in a hotel lobby wasn’t a good look, but fuck it.Chalk it up.Another couple of hateful lines for my Wikipedia page.

My father shook his head, feigning embarrassment. “I apologize, Gabe. Ignore my son. He’s never learned how to be gracious in defeat.”

Behind Philip, against the wall, stood a vast stone Roman urn with fluted sides. Green foliage with flat, broad leaves poked out of the top. The Romans had cremated their dead. Roy had taught me that. That urn would once have held the ashes of someone’s parent or sibling or child. Now it was a planter in a hotel lobby. I had the strangest urge to kick it over. To watch it smash all over the marble floor. The urge made me recoil. I didn’t want to be a destroyer. I hadn’t always been that way. Charlotte had known me before. She saw the boy I’d once been.

A sharp lump rose in my throat. “This hotel means something to me. It was always personal. But you know that, Philip. Good luck to both of you. I hope you’ll be happy doing business together.” I swung to look at Gabe. “You can kiss goodbye to La Dolce Vita.My father will turn this place into a faceless piece-of-shit motel, like he always does. He has a chronic lack of style. It can’t be helped. Apparently, good taste is the one thing money can’t buy.”

Gabe’s lips pressed flat. He raked a hand over his hair uneasily.

My father narrowed his eyes. “It’s over. You lost. Now you’re just embarrassing yourself.”

The piped music grew louder, grating my brain. “He’ll destroy it. Smash it to smithereens. He destroys everything. His staff. His wife. His kids. He breaks us all. It’s a damn shame, because this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever stayed. Although, you need to sort out your Wi-Fi. How can you have perfect reception in anunderground crypt and not in a penthouse suite? That’s a fucking shambles, but the rest? The food is the best I’ve ever had. The risotto was so good, we were wondering if you’d put drugs in it.

“Your gold-plated toilet seats are excessive. Tacky, actually. But everything else is worth it. The art. The sculptures. You can’t put a price on beauty. It should be cared for with the respect it deserves.”

A sudden ache speared my chest.I want a divorce.Charlotte had gone. I hadn’t given her the respect she deserved. The most beautiful person in my life. We should have been at the Trevi Fountain right now, but I’d chosen this. She’d walked out of here alone.

I drew a sharp breath. “But most importantly of all, my mother was happy here. That’s what mattered to me. I would have paid anything for this hotel, and I wouldn’t have changed a fucking thing. My father is a destroyer of beautiful things. I choose not to be. I would have protected every inch of it.”

Gabe frowned and eyed my father warily. “You’ve committed to keeping the staff. Preserving the building and the tunnels.”

My father inclined his head in a nod.