Page 27 of Thorns and Ashes
“I’d like to throw a piece of pie at his face,” I grumble, huffing as I wipe off sugary powder from my face that somehow always seems to wind up everywhere.
“Oh.” She nods her head, playing with one of the flowers in her hair like she’s not sure what to say before returning to mind her own tables.
As I wait for the cooked food to be ready, I make the turkey club and brew a fresh pot of coffee, because damn it, as much as I hate admitting it, I want to shut this man up with a good cup of coffee. I’ve gone through almost every blend we have here over the past month, and he’s had something negative to say aboutevery single one.He swears that the only good coffee comes from some fancy coffee shop back where he lives.
Good. Maybe he should go back there.
“I really think you should consider hiring an extra set of hands. At least for the summer. There’s no way we’re going to be able tohandle bigger rushes than this on our own,” I tell Ainsley when she comes back behind the counter.
“Funny you mention that. I asked that girl who’s been coming in every morning if she’d be interested.”
“The pink-haired girl?” I ask, skeptical that she’d be a good fit, although I never thought I would be, so maybe she’s perfect.
Ainsley shrugs. “She said she’d let me know.”
I’m helping Ainsley with her orders when I notice one of the locals, a cute little kid, eyeballing one of our fresh pastries. His face is smooshed up to the glass, eyes so wide they look comical. Instead of ignoring him, I decide to set my bad mood aside and do something nice. I make a show of looking around before sneaking one out and handing it to him. He beams up at me, and I hand himthe pastry. Smiling after him as he runs off.
“Uh, Tris,” Ainsley calls from the register. “You have a phone call.”
What the hell.
“Hello?” I drawl out, confused as to who would be callingme,let alone at my job.
“Miss Thorne. This is Harding, your father’s lawyer.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I snap, ready to hang up.
“Don’t hang up. Your father isn’t here. We need to discuss the importance of having you as a character witness for your father’s trial,” he says hurriedly, probably well aware of what little patience I have for this conversation.
“A character witness? You’re joking,” I bite out, loud enough for Ainsley to throw a pinched brow my way.
I wave her off, but I’m sure she sees the absolute rage rolling off me. How dare he call me at my job about this?
How dare he call me at all?
“Miss Thorne, I assure you, I’m not joking. With the new evidence being brought in against the Arias Oil Corporation, your father doesn’t stand a chance unless we can provide reasonable doubt and convince a jury of his innocence. You need to do your duty as his daughter and tell the court what a good man he is and how he has done nothing but provide for you and your mother.”
A sick and twisted laugh escapes me as I breathe in a rage that fills my lungs and leaves my body buzzing. “Let me make something perfectly clear to you.” I turn my back to the customers and take a deep, steadying breath. “The last thing I’m going to convince anyone of is my father’s innocence. I will not be sitting in front of a jury playing daddy’s little girl to a man who put his business and work before me my entire life. A man who, at every opportunity he had, spit on the chance of spending time with me, let alone getting to know me. Every birthday, every holiday, every cheerleading competition, and every possible big moment that I have had in my life, he was too busy to be bothered with, and thought throwing money at me would make it all better.”
Harding tries to say something, but I cut him off.
“Did I say I was done? No.”
A surprised gasp, covered up by a cough, sounds through the phone, telling me I have his attention.
“I’ve read the case files, Mr. Harding, and if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that my father had his greedy hands all over this mess without ever thinking about how it might blow up in his face. I spent twenty years of my life trying to make him proud of me, trying to win his affections, and realized that the only thing that man will ever love in this world is his money. So for the last seven years, I’ve done everything I can to spend it.”
“Miss Thorne, there’s no way you could have seen the case files. And no chance you could understand the information even if you did.”
The downfall of men will be their persistent underestimation of women.
This man should have taken the hint when I didn’t answer.
“No, Mr. Harding. You clearly don’t understand me. A smart woman has her ways, and when I set my mind to something, there isn’t anything that will stop me. For example, if I decided to dedicate all of my free time to filing a harassment suite against you for disturbing me at my place of work after receiving a tumultuous amount of unanswered phone calls from yourpersonal number,how long do you think it would take for me to convince a judge to disbar you for intimidating a witness and coercing them to lie on the stand?”
Silence greets me from the other side of the line. A solid beat passes before he clears his throat.
“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Miss Thorne. It won’t happen again.”
