Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(107)

He stood, too restless to stay in the chair. In front of him the ocean churned. “I don’t know what to say.” Except that, yes, Julia had found him in the waiting room. But he was too embarrassed to say it.

“I’m sorry. This is a lot to dump on you, and I know how horribly selfish what I did was. But you should also know that I regret it every day.”

He paced toward the beach. How is this your fault? he wanted to ask her. But he understood exactly how she had convinced herself that it was. That moment when Mum had collapsed when the detectives had picked him up for questioning blazed to life in his head. Her brother was running for governor. Julia could ruin that.

Of course her family would fire him if they found out. And she’d warned him over and over again. God, what had it cost her? “What about the dinner?” he asked. As soon as he said it he realized how self-serving it sounded. He was about to clarify that he wouldn’t blame her if her family decided not to let him do it when he heard a loud knocking on her side of the line.

“I’m so sorry; I have to go,” she said, sounding alarmed, and before he could finish asking what the matter was, she hung up.

JUST AS TRISHA disconnected the phone her office door flew open.

“I’m having a hard time believing how your mother and I raised someone as irresponsible as you.” HRH in all his HRH glory stormed into her office. For the first time in her life.

“Hi, Dad. Come on in,” she mumbled as he shut the door behind him, making it feel like he’d slammed it even though he hadn’t.

“Everything’s a joke to you. That’s the problem.”

Right, that was definitely her problem, when her father had called her irresponsible loud enough that everyone up and down the hallway might have heard. Ha ha, Dad.

He walked straight to her desk, placed both hands on it, and leaned forward, rage and disappointment spilling from him. Trisha shrank back into her chair. She had never in her life shrunk away from her father. But then, she’d never in her life seen him like this.

“You knew that the chef catering Yash’s fund-raiser is going out with that woman, and you did not bother to inform me!”

DJ was dating Julia? What the hell?

“He’s not . . . I don’t . . .”

“And you go running to your brother? After barely giving a damn about what he’s been up to for fifteen years, you go to him and tell him to look the other way? What the hell is wrong with you? And you’re letting your patients do video documentaries with her? Would you also like to invite her into our home so she can drug and screw us all?”

Trisha winced. She had seen her father angry a lot, but she’d never heard him swear and she’d certainly never heard him be crass.

“You will drop that patient. You will recuse yourself of the case and pass it on to Entoff. I’ve spoken to him.”

Trisha stood. Her hands slammed on the desk, exactly the way HRH’s had. “You spoke to my boss about my work?”

They were eye to eye. “I don’t care about your work. I care that you do not mess up your brother’s life yet again because you can’t think about anyone but yourself. How many times did I warn you?” He gave her another incredulous glare, then finally he turned away, as though looking at her was no longer bearable. Then he spun back around. “You’re not seventeen anymore. Getting involved with the wrong people and then letting the rest of the family suffer the brunt is no longer acceptable. No more, Trisha. You will not work with this patient and that’s that.”

“Dad! You know I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”

He pressed his hand into his forehead, and she found herself mirroring the action. “Entoff is fully capable of doing the surgery. He has twenty years on you. And much as you don’t see it, experience counts. Some of us choose to learn from it.”

She met his eyes squarely. “You are right; experience does count. I made a mistake when I was seventeen years old. I am no longer seventeen. I know what I’m doing. She is my patient. She has nothing to do with any of this. I will be the one operating on her.”

His face darkened. The very room seemed to darken. “You will not work with a patient who is working with that woman. It’s too dangerous, it’s too close to the campaign. I won’t argue this with you. This is not a choice. It’s too late for that. You will listen to me or you will not set foot in my home ever again.”

Her knees buckled and her hands tightened on the desk. But she couldn’t move, couldn’t sit back in her chair. “You don’t mean that.”

“Do I look like I don’t mean it? The Chronicle is already trying to make the fact that Naina and he haven’t married after being together for so long an issue; they’re digging around for something sordid in his past. And now this woman is back, and her work depends on getting attention, and speaking about Yash and our family will give her all the attention she needs. Did I teach you nothing? Do the right thing, for God’s sake.” With that he headed for the door. “I’m not making empty threats, Trisha. The Anchorage is my home, this is my family. If you choose to continue to be callous, you can do it where I don’t have to watch you do it.”

And just like that he was gone, the soft click of the door behind him feeling like another slam.

She collapsed into her chair. Could any more shit possibly blow up?