The Billionaire's Wedding Planner ✔

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

My father wasn't a big fan of insubordination, but I was powerful today.

I had the upper hand.

I threw open the door to his study and my father looked up, startled.

"Aiden," he said, confused.

I strode up to his desk, confidently.

I tossed the file on to his desk, towards him.

"If you think that Caroline and her mother will ever have the upper hand on your after you read this, you're sorely mistaken," I told him, firmly, feeling light with triumph.

My father looked up at me, confused.

"Read it," I told him.

He opened the file, like he wasn't intending to find anything interesting, but when he read the figures, his eyebrows raised.

"How did you find this?" he asked me.

"Elliot," I said, simply and my father nodded.

"So, the Baxter are broke and they were trying to piggyback off of you?" he grunted.

I nodded. "Caroline's mother took advantage of your weak spot. Caroline's clothing store has been 'under renovations' for weeks. Her online store, the same. Apparently no one wanted to buy her overpriced clothing, least of all her."

My father nodded, again. "I would have expected some financial difficulty, but this," he gestured to the figures in the file that Elliot had given me, "This is some clear lack of awareness. What have they been doing? Buying yachts every day of the year since Hugh died?"

I shrugged. "I guess they thought they could live the same way that they did when he was alive. Caroline's the last person to want to step away from her lavish lifestyle."

There was a silence as we both processed the information.

"I brought Rosalie here with me," I told him.

My Dad raised his head. "Rosalie?"

I nodded. "She's my girlfriend. She's the one I want to be with and I will make sure that Caroline stays the hell away from her."

"Rosalie," my Dad repeated, "Isn't that your wedding planner?"

I nodded, again. "And she is currently in our kitchen, having a glass of lemonade with Mom. I think you'll find her a much better addition to the family than Caroline would have ever been."

My father stood. "Aiden, I want to apologize. I realize that I was a fool to not have looked into their financial. I guess I was blinded by fear. I spent my entire life building this and the thought that I would have lost it for one mistake was too much. I was willing to risk my son for it and I am not proud of that. For that, I am sorry. It began to dawn on me after you left last time."

I sighed. "We'll work things out, Dad, but right now, we need to make sure that Caroline stays out of our business."

My father eyed me. "Your grandmother told me recently that when she saw you last, when you spoke to her while she was here, that you had a real spark in your eyes; the kind that you hadn't had since you were a child," he said. I was quiet. "She said it a lot, that you have the whole world at your fingertips, but you throw yourself into your work because that's the only thing that made you happy. She told us over dinner that you seemed happy, lighter than you had in years."

I sighed. "Does any of this have a point, Dad?" I asked.

"I'm going to venture a guess and say that it's not Caroline that made you happy," he said.