A Family For The Billionaire ✅

15.

Anger pushed Aston to drove mindlessly. He sped out of the Smith's long drive with a little more acceleration than was necessary. But the squeal of the tires on the asphalt face him a brief moment of satisfaction.

He remained silent, teeth clenched, because of bespoke, the rage of years past might spew out of someone who didn't deserve it. So he locked himself down tight, his fists clenched around the wheel. His gaze was narrowed, focused solely on the road before him.

Only when they got to the parking garage of his building and opened her car door did he tune in Aubrey. Her stillness. Her silence.

I'm not the only one involved.

He'd forgotten. It had been years since he'd had to worry about a woman's feelings, a woman's reactions. He remembered how his mother had internalized everything, taking the burden of whatever they'd endured into herself as if she simply deserves it.

Aubrey certainly hadn't taken anything his father had fished out passively, though she'd maintained her ladylike demeanor better than his father had deserved. Now she sat looking up at him from the passenger seat, but she made no move to exit. Her posture was almost expectant, but his mind wasn't in a place to comprehend was she was waiting for.

"What's wrong?" He asked

"I've been wondering if it was safe to ask you that." As if realizing he was losing patience, she got out of the car but lagged behind as he strode strode toward the elevator.

"What?" He winced when his voice echoed off the brick and concrete walls of the garage, and he heard just how impatient he sounded.

"Do you really want me here?" She asked.

Her confusions and the lost note in her voice were finally breaking through his self-absorption. He softened his tone.

"Unless you don't want to be here. I can't stop you from leaving, Aubrey."

"You already have."

Aston glances around in confusion. "What?"

"My car isn't here," She pointed little, exaggerating her enunciation, probably hoping he'd catch on.

That's when he remembered picking her at her house. He squeezed his eyes closed and cursed under his breath. How has he let that man get so far under his skin?

Aubrey.

Aston opened his eyes and looked at her expression, which was now slightly amused. Though he could still detect some concern lingering around the edges.

This was why he'd gotten so upset. So angry.

Aston has become inmune to his father's reprimands and insults throughout the years, though his conversations with his father were few and far between.

Just the way he liked it.

So his anger wasn't about him. More than anything, Aston didn't want Aubrey hurt bu his father. He didn't even want her touched by anything his father said or did.

Now he understood why his kin had t fought very hard. It wasn't like she's had a lot of options. Certainly no lawyer in town had been willing to let her set foot in their firm.

Officially, it had always been her word agosto his father's. Those close to the situation had known the truth. But his mother simply hadn't wanted to be in the same room with the man who would treat her so disrespectfully after she'd served her purpose. The man who would threaten her and her son so he didn't have to part with the paltry sum it would have taken to lift their lives above poverty level.