Free StrokeofMidnight by Naima Simone Page A

too much to his new wife. He didn’t catch on to
her seemingly guileless comparisons of her mother and Pamela, until finally he
found himself married to an embittered woman who hadn’t been able to compete
against her first husband’s family, and now couldn’t win the love of her
current husband from his dead wife.
    Cindy delighted in drama, unhappiness and
confusion—especially if she was the maestro behind the discord.
    Her stepsister met her stare and a tiny smile lifted a
corner of the younger woman’s mouth.
    “Well?” Pamela demanded. “Do you deny it?”
    “No,” Rowyn answered, voice steady. “I don’t.”
    “You slut,” her mother spat. Rage contorted her features
and, for the first time, Rowyn recognized the hatred that ate at the older
woman like a cancer. Hatred for the daughter who was a constant reminder of her
failure as a woman and a wife. Hatred for the life that should have been happy
but instead had become a miserable prison where she abused alcohol to escape.
Hatred for herself.
    “I’m sorry, Daddy,” Cindy said, regret heavy in the soft
tone. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but I thought you should know. I wish I
hadn’t recognized Rowyn’s purse and keys. I wish…” Misery etched Cindy’s
features as if being the bearer of bad news tortured her.
    Rowyn’s palms itched to strangle the deceitful bitch.
    “I wish you had come to me with your suspicions, Cindy,”
Rowyn said. “Then I could have explained my being with Darius had nothing to do
with your father’s company or the merger. He and I met months ago.”
    “Liar,” her mother accused. “If that’s true, why didn’t you
say something Thursday night?”
    “Because it was, and is, our business,” she countered
coldly.
    “You are just like your father,” Pamela ranted. “Selfish. A
liar. I should have left you with him, you ungrateful—”
    “Be. Quiet.”
    Pamela gasped, eyes wide in shock over Rowyn’s boldness.
That made two of them. As often as she’d desired to, Rowyn had never
interrupted or outright contradicted her mother. No matter how nasty the woman
jabbed at her. But suddenly a lifetime of grief, resentment and hurt welled up
inside and swept free caution like debris dragged away by the waters of a
flood.
    No more. She refused to be her mother’s punching bag any
longer. Yes. She was like her father. Loyal. Fair. Loving. And she deserved to
be loved. Rowyn had given this family everything. And every one of them had
either rejected her affection and hard work or had taken it selfishly as if she should be thankful they deigned to accept it.
    No longer would she cast her heart before them. Rowyn had
worth, value. And if they were too blind to see it then…
    Then fuck them.
    Daniel cleared his throat and the sound seemed to
reverberate in the tomblike quiet.
    “Even if what you say is true, Rowyn,”—though his tone
suggested he didn’t believe it any more than her mother did—“I’m afraid the
damage has been done. Under the circumstances, I’m going to have to insist you
step down from your position while the merger is in process. We cannot afford
the hint of scandal. I hope you understand.”
    Yes, she did. All too well.
    “Oh I do,” Rowyn said. “I understand that I have lived as
your stepdaughter for twenty years. I worked for you, headed the most
productive department and led the company in profits for the past three years.
And I didn’t do it for the title or the money. I did it for you.” A short bark
of laughter burst from her throat at Daniel’s confused frown. Because he had
never offered her his affection, he didn’t comprehend how she had willingly
tried to give him hers. “I not only step down, Daniel, I quit. And not because
I have anything to be ashamed of, because I don’t.”
    Rowyn inhaled and met each pair of eyes that stared at her
in varying degrees of astonishment and anger.
    “I refuse to be part of a company that will accept rumor
over fact without even giving