Daddy Issues

Veronica's POV:

I flinch as I stand up, looking at him and feeling embarrassed. "I didn't mean to, Dad. You know what happened with Chase. I texted you everything."

But my father never gives me the warmth and empathy I expect from him.

"So what? Is this really grounds for breaking up with someone like Chase Pemberton?" His tone is very clipped, businesslike, as if we're discussing a failed merger rather than my relationship.

I'm stunned. Literally stunned.

"But he was planning to spike my drinks with drugs," I continue, my voice growing stronger with desperation. "Why aren't you taking this seriously?"

He adjusts his cufflinks... a gesture I recognize as his way of dismissing something he finds tedious. "He could have been joking, and you took it too seriously. Listen, Veronica, Chase explained everything to me. He was planning a surprise party for you. That's what all of it was about."

That gaslighting bastard. I grit my teeth to control the fury I feel toward Chase, who's manipulated the entire narrative for my father.

"Are you seriously believing him over me? Your own daughter?"

"Stop being hysterical," he snaps, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. "You're too naive, too sheltered to understand how the real world operates. Men like Chase Pemberton don't come along every day, Veronica. He's ambitious, he's connected, and he comes from one of the most influential families in Manhattan."

He moves to the window, hands clasped behind his back in that authoritative pose I've seen him use in boardrooms.

"Do you have any idea what our combined net worth would be?

Sterling-Pemberton Holdings could dominate the entire East Coast market. You're thinking with your emotions instead of your head."

Tears blur my vision. "So this is all about business to you."

"Of course it's about business!" He whirls around to face me. "Everything worthwhile is about business. Your sense of idealism doesn't pay for this penthouse, Veronica. They don't maintain our family's standing in society."

Slowly, I recall how it was my father who encouraged me to play the perfect wife... to cook for Chase, do his laundry, cater to his every need. He told me it would make Chase love me more, and I, hopeless romantic that I was, believed him.

"I understand where you come from... Dad. But if our goal is to strengthen Sterling Holdings, why don't you let me join the company instead? I could learn the business myself. I'm smart, I'm dedicated—"

"Enough!" His voice booms through the penthouse. "You're not capable of running a Fortune 500 company, Veronica. You don't have the backbone for it. Your only value is in this marriage."

I feel like my Dad just punched me in the gut with his words.

He turns back to the window, his reflection cold in the glass. “My lucky stars, you know how I wished your mother had given me a son. Someone with real ambition, real strength. Instead, I got a daughter with emotions and weakness."

The words continue to hit me like physical blows. 

I'm speechless, shocked that this is really my father speaking.

He faces me again, his gray eyes hard as steel. "You will not embarrass me further than this... You've already disappointed me by being born female... You will not compound that failure. You will marry Chase Pemberton, and you will be the wife he needs you to be. End of discussion."

I feel like my whole body gets ice water in my veins as the reality of my father crashes over me like a tidal wave.

I've always known my father was business-minded, that he approached life with the calculating precision of a Wall Street titan. 

But I never understood... never wanted to understand... that he would apply that same cold logic to his own daughter's happiness.

He doesn't care whether Chase is a decent person. He doesn't care about my well-being, my safety, or even my basic dignity. All he cares about is profit, about the potential financial gains from merging our family with Chase's empire.

And worse... he doesn't believe in me or want me in the first place. Doesn't think I'm capable of anything beyond being someone's wife.

This is my father. 

The man who raised me, who I've spent my entire life trying to please, who I thought would always protect and love me. 

Instead, he's standing here telling me I should stay with a man who was planning to exploit me... just because that man happens to be a successful businessman.

The realization is devastating, but also illuminating in the most horrible way.

This is the man my mother has been enduring for twenty-five years... the cold calculation, the reduction of human relationships to their monetary value, the complete inability to prioritize love and happiness over financial gain.

This is what Mom has been living with, and I failed to see it because I was too busy seeking his approval to notice how transactional his affection really is.

I think about all the times Mom tried to have deeper conversations with him, only to watch him change the subject to work. All the family vacations that were really business trips in disguise.

All the dinner parties where she played the perfect hostess while he networked and made deals.

I always thought she was just supporting his career, but now I see she was disappearing into it, losing herself piece by piece, just like I almost did with Chase.

No wonder I spent three years disappearing into Chase's life. 

No wonder I thought that was what love looked like. I learned it from watching my parents, from seeing my mother smile and nod while my father reduced her to an accessory in his grand financial plans.

Until now, I thought Chase was the only toxic man in my life. But my father is no different.

"If you disobey me again, you'll discover just how unpleasant the consequences can be." His threat hangs in the air like smoke before he strides out of my penthouse. “Your weakness can only be balanced out by Chase Pemberton, and you will not fail me.”

I spend the entire day in bed, sleeping, hoping that when I wake up, this will all feel like a nightmare. 

But reality remains unchanged.

No matter how hard I try, I can't accept that my own father sees me as nothing more than a weakling. 

That he doesn't believe I'm capable of anything beyond marriage.

That to him, I'm not a daughter... but a big mistake that he never wanted.