Scandalous

Is that all she would ever have? she wondered numbly. A career? What about love, a family, a man in her life who loved her for who she was? Was Justin the right man? Maybe her father was correct. Hadn’t he always been right? Hadn’t he always made everything right?

He reached across the table and patted her cold hands. “I know you’ll realize the truth in what I’m telling you. Put an end to this, before it gets out of hand. I know you may not agree with me now. But if you think with your head and not with your heart, you’ll see that I’m right.”

Vaughn’s eyes trailed across the room to her desk and settled on the brilliant bouquet of flowers. Inhaling deeply, she nodded.

Elliott rose. “Then it’s settled.” He rounded the table and briefly touched his lips to her cheek. “You won’t regret this, sweetheart.”

Vaughn pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. Elliott collected his coat. His goodbye went unanswered.

Mechanically, Vaughn rose, crossed the room, and locked her office door. She turned and pressed her back against it. She squeezed her eyes shut and fought down the tremors that raced up and down her spine. What was she going to do? Her political career was already a daunting struggle, but now she would have to put her energies into fighting her father as well?

Slowly she recrossed the room and sank down onto the low couch that braced the far wall of the airy office. A part of her knew that her father was right. She didn’t know Justin Montgomery. Her past experiences had demonstrated time and time again that the men in her life had proved disastrous, on many levels. Was Justin any different?

Her father was one of those men as well. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, she at times found it almost impossible to get from under his spell. Her father had dictated every aspect of her life for so long, that she felt incapable of making an independent decision.

Vaughn sucked on her bottom lip. She’d always succumbed to her father’s demands and expectations. She stood up and took a deep breath, her face resolute, her eyes glowing with rebellion. Until now. This time she would prove her father wrong. Justin would prove him wrong.