Once they were back stateside at her father’s mansion in New York, she was scheduled for a meeting with him.
“How do we stand for going forward with the merger...uh, marriage to the Teddy Bear King?”
“I will marry Kurt, father.”
“Good. You are dismissed.”
She had stayed awake on the plane back to the states, trying to figure out if there was any way around it. If only she had been brave enough to stay in Clovelly and not succumb to her father’s wishes. She realized that when it came to dealing with him, God forbid, confronting him or responding to his commands with the word ‘no’, she was a polite people-pleaser and a pawn.
She did not have the luxury to grieve the loss of relationship, job, home, and community. The meeting with her father reinforced that things were moving forward as planned and any attempts to change or escape the plan would be frowned upon.