How was that possible, when he’d been holding this secret the entire time? He hadn’t deviated from his revenge, even after she’d told him what her grandmother’s house meant to her. What sort of a man does that?

One who doesn’t care a whit about you, that’s for certain.

The back of her throat burned and she feared she might cry in front of her father.

The nymph was playful and wicked, the spark of joy his lonely life had been missing.

Lies, all lies.

Before long they were pulling under the portico alongside the Greene residence. Anxious for solitude, Florence didn’t wait for the groom to open the door and set the step. She got down on her own and hurried to the entrance.

The house was quiet at this hour and she could hear her father right behind her. “Florence, a word.” He didn’t wait for a reply, merely turned and started toward his office.

Stomach sinking, she followed. Situated in the back of the house, the office was used exclusively by their father. He liked his solitude while working and was notoriously irritable when interrupted. Florence had spent the most amount of time there, however, seeing as he preferred to dole out lectures and reprimands from this male sanctuary.

Sigh.

The room was a tomb, dark and quiet, the ticker-tape machine frozen until the morning. A stream of white paper had collected on the floor, unchecked. She sat in one of the chairs facing the desk, while her father went around and lowered his muscular frame into the seat behind it. “In case I wasn’t clear earlier, you are to stay away from Clayton Madden and the Bronze House.”

She opened her mouth—and her father held up his hand. “Do not argue with me, young lady. You had no business visiting a casino in the first place, let alone getting involved with that man. Your mother would have heart failure if she knew.”

“Are you planning to tell her?”

“No. It would break her heart, which is why I am ordering you to drop this business. No more sneaking around with Madden. No visiting casinos. Are we clear?”

“What happened between you and Madden twenty years ago?”

“It’s none of your concern. Suffice it to say that I’ve found a way to thwart Madden’s plans. He won’t get his hands on your grandmother’s home.”

Well, that was a relief. “How did you manage that?”

“Those papers your grandmother gave you the other day?” When Florence nodded, her father continued. “It turns out the city wishes to build a school on that block. They will claim eminent domain on the house and the surrounding land. In fact, Mr. Crain is coming with the papers for me to sign in the morning. Madden will get nothing—and I cannot wait to see his face when I tell him.”