Chapter 35
[ 486 words ]
Chapter 35:
He turned his head, his sharp gray eyes locking onto Jarrod with the weight of an incoming airstrike.
“I did not summon you here to bicker with your mother,” Augustus said, his voice echoing in the cavernous room. “I brought you here because there is a matter concerning the future of this family that needs to be settled. Tonight.”
The dining room fell so silent that Jarrod could hear the faint, frantic ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the hallway.
Every ounce of oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the room. Harper stopped breathing, her eyes darting nervously between the men. Cornelia sat up straighter, a triumphant, malicious gleam replacing the humiliation in her eyes.
Jarrod didn’t flinch. He leaned back in his heavy wooden chair, his broad shoulders resting against the carved mahogany. He kept his left hand resting casually on the table, his fingers loosely curled around the stem of his water glass. He stared at his grandfather, his face a mask of absolute, terrifying indifference.
Augustus cleared his throat, a harsh, grating sound. He didn’t look at Jarrod. Instead, he gave a sharp, commanding nod toward Cornelia.
“Proceed,” Augustus ordered.
Cornelia’s posture instantly shifted. The venomous politician’s wife vanished, replaced by the sickeningly sweet, concerned matriarch. She reached into the pocket of her tailored jacket and pulled out a glossy, high-resolution photograph.
She placed it on the polished wood and slid it across the vast expanse of the table until it stopped right next to Jarrod’s plate.
“Jarrod, darling,” Cornelia began, her voice dripping with artificial warmth. “You are thirty-two years old. You have dedicated your life to the military, which we all respect. But you are the heir to the Romero legacy. It is past time you settled down and started a family.”
ѕ𝗵𝖺𝘳𝗲 𝘆𝘰𝗎𝗿 f𝘢𝘃o𝘳𝗶𝘁𝘦s 𝖿𝗿𝗼𝗆 𝘨𝗮𝘭𝘯ov𝘦𝗹ѕ.𝖼𝘰𝗺
Jarrod’s fingers tightened slightly around his glass. A muscle ticked in his jaw. He didn’t look down at the photo. He kept his dead, gray eyes locked on her face.
Cornelia tapped a manicured fingernail against the edge of the picture. “This is Eleanor Vance. She is the youngest daughter of the senior Senator from Maryland. She is impeccably educated, comes from flawless lineage, and more importantly, her father sits on the Armed Services Committee. A union between our families would secure billions in defense contracts for the Romero aerospace division over the next decade.”
Jarrod slowly turned his head. He finally looked down at the photograph. It was a picture of a pretty, blonde woman with a vacant smile, wearing pearls and a country club dress.
He stared at it for exactly two seconds.
Then, the corner of his mouth twitched upward. It wasn’t a smile. It was a dark, vicious sneer that exposed his teeth.
He lifted his water glass with his left hand and took a slow, deliberate sip of the ice-cold water. He swallowed, the movement of his throat slow and pronounced.
He set the glass down. The heavy crystal clinked against the wood.
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