Free Vice by Rosanna Leo Page B

having a casino owner as a dad isn’t exactly ideal, but I did my best. Even had a nursery set up in my last office so I could be with her while I was at work sometimes. I changed her diapers. I took her to the park on weekends. I bottle-fed her and held her in my arms. I did more for her than her own flesh and blood father ever did. Ever will. I love her. I can’t just turn that off.”
    He gazed into Kate’s eyes. Sympathy shone there, clear as day. Not that he wanted her sympathy, but it felt good to unburden himself. There was no judgment in Kate’s eyes, no comments that she thought him a gullible fool. Just warmth, something he didn’t feel too often these days.
    The pastries sat untouched before them, and they both stared at the tray. Liam had ordered them because strawberries were Michelle’s favorite. Were they still? How the hell would he know? He suddenly felt like tossing them across the room.
    “Of course you can’t turn it off,” Kate said. “But you have to understand you’ll need to cut Michelle out of your life. For your own sanity.”
    “To hell with sanity. I’m not cutting her out of my life. I’ve got the best law firm in the business backing me. They’ll help me get Michelle back.”
    “But she’s not yours. You said it yourself, and Bridget seems remorseful.”
    “I don’t care. I was a part of her life for three years. Michelle is mine and her idiot sperm donor father isn’t standing in my way. They think I’ll walk away from her? I will never abandon her.” He knew what that was like. No way he’d do that to his little girl.
    “You wouldn’t be abandoning her. You’d be just…moving on.”
    He felt his blood pressure ratchet up a notch. “I have no wish to ‘move on.’”
    “I don’t know if that’s helping the situation. It sounds, well, controlling.”
    “Since when is being in control a bad thing?”
    “There’s a difference between in control and being controlling .”
    “I don’t care. If that makes me a sore loser, so be it.”
    “But Liam, this battle is poisonous. It’ll hurt Michelle in the long run, and it’ll devastate everyone else involved.” Her soft voice sounded more logical than his own conscience had ever been. “I know it must hurt to turn away, but don’t you think it’s best?”
    Frustration sizzled like acid in his gut and he directed his annoyance squarely at Kate. “You don’t understand. I don’t care if the legal battle kills me. I just want what’s best for her. I can give her a better life than they can. I don’t want her to grow up and wonder why I left. Can’t you see that?”
    “Oh, Liam. This is not right. You have to end this, for your own sake. You have to let her go. I know it will hurt, but if you don’t hit rock bottom, you won’t move forward.”
    “I won’t lose my daughter!”
    “She’s not your daughter!”
    Their raised voices echoed throughout the room, but the ensuing silence felt louder.
    “Who asked you?” he said quietly, but with vehemence. “I think you should go.”
    “I think so too.” Still looking concerned, she stood and gathered her purse. Plain, sensible, just like her. Well, he was tired of being sensible. Sensible had lost him everything.
    Without another word, she headed to the elevator and pushed the button. She slipped inside, then turned to face him, as if wanting to say something.
    He watched as the door closed on Kate. And then, finally giving into his anger, he gathered up the tray of pastries and hurled them at the wall.
    As he watched the trail of expensive strawberry chunks slide down the wall, he felt his chest rise and fall with a few shaky breaths. He’d lost his cool, and all because a stranger called him out for ignoring the pitiful truth in his life. He had no daughter. He might as well have been Michelle’s former babysitter. He had no claim to her.
    Kate Callender had seen right through him. Unimpressed by his wealth and influence, she’d seen him for the mess he