The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark watched as her father slowly turned to face Charlotte and picked her fingers off his forearm with disgust. She wondered how her father was going to deal with the woman who was playing the victim. She still couldn't see what it was which ever attracted her father to this woman. She seemed like a poisoned viper from the inside out.

"Do not touch me." His tone was cryptic as he stepped backwards.

"Grady, you look good. I mean bald but good."

Lark wondered why her father being bald was so shocking. She'd seen plenty of photos of her dad with hair when he was younger, and he looked way better with no hair.

Her father scowled at Charlotte, "and you smell like body odor and are in desperate need of a shower," Grady shot back." Now the pleasantries are out of the way, do you want to know what is happening with Gracie or not?"

"She needs surgery and it's risky." Charlotte said with a shrug. "Nothing I can do about it."

His mouth opened and closed, and he inhaled sharply "Then why are you still here?"

"I want to talk." Charlotte tried to step closer again, but he stepped backwards.

"What do you want?"

"You called me here." She said batting her lashes. "Were you hoping to reconnect?"

"No, actually I didn't call you here. The hospital's legal team felt it was important you were here in the event Gracie passed away. My family paid your plane ticket because we thought, maybe there might be a sliver of decency in your body which would be concerned for her." He looked her over, "and reconnect is the last thing I would ever do with you. You're vile."

"You sound like Sawyer," she gave a bitter grin which exposed her nasty teeth.

Lark was sure she could smell the woman's breath from across the room.

"Sawyer was a smart man, for the most part."

"Is Sawyer really dead?"

"Yes."

"He owes me alimony."

"Actually, he and I discussed at length how he doesn't owe you shit." Grady smirked at her somehow colder than Lark ever saw him before. He wasn't even lawyer mode. Her father was in 'f**k around and find out' mode and Charlotte was about to find out how brutal her dad could be. "In fact, he told me how he paid you out a lump sum when Gracie was twelve for you to sign over your rights and how you got remarried three years after you moved to Florida. The marriage lasted less than six months but it was long enough for Sawyer not to need to pay you any further alimony. The judge sided with him because he gained full custody of Gracie, and you were not paying him anything in child support. He didn't owe you a thing."

"I," she stammered, "you really reconnected with him?"

"I did. The biggest mistake he ever made is the woman standing in front of me. You know," Grady cleared his throat, "in high school and college you were a sweet, kind-hearted woman everyone loved. Then you started drinking. I tried to help you but the more I helped, the more you called me a nag. You and Sawyer would close the bars down while I was working long hours trying to make a life for us. Alcohol changed you, Charlotte. It made you mean, bitter and cold. Sawyer the moment he realized he was going to be a dad, changed his life and turned it around. He did everything for Gracie. Everything. I will never be able to take his place in her life," he wiped a tear off his cheek as he thought of the man, he'd reconnected with over the past several days, "but I am sure as hell going to make sure everything he did wasn't in vain. I will be here with Gracie. I might not have been with her when she was born, but if she passes away, I'll be right here, standing in for her dad."

"Sawyer was a liar." Charlotte hissed. "The minute you walked out on us, and I had the miscarriage, he dumped me. He was a cold bastard and he just walked away. When I found out I still carried the other baby in my belly, I considered an abortion. He begged me to keep the baby. My father was done with me because I was such an embarrassment," she sneered, "and so he fudged the DNA Sawyer demanded to make sure I was his problem and not my dad's. Sawyer would work hours upon hours and leave me home all alone with a crying baby. It was his fault I got so messed up on drugs and alcohol. I couldn't cope with being alone all the time!"

"He was building a life for his child."

"I hated him."

"He hated you too," Grady said bluntly.

Lark watched as her mother suddenly stood up and put her hand on her father's forearm.

"Grady, it's enough. This isn't helping anyone. This isn't going to bring Sawyer back. It's not going to help Gracie in surgery. We need to clear all this negative energy from this room and focus on being positive, for her, for your daughter. For yours and Sawyer's daughter," Everly cupped his cheek.

"You're right," he said quietly. "I'm sorry, Everly. I'm angry and it's not fair to you and the girls."

"I know and I'm angry too, but she isn't worth it."

Lark looked between her parents and once again felt the strong connection and love they shared. It was amazing to see after thirty-plus years how close they were. When her mom pulled her dad backwards and wrapped her arms around him and he hugged her tight, burying his face in her hair, she smiled. Ollie nudged her, "they're cute."

"They are," she smiled, "almost as cute as your parents."

"My parents aren't cute. Mine are gross. They have s*x in my treehouse," Ollie shuddered and then held

up her phone, "I've let my parents and siblings and well, the whole family know what's going on. They are

on their way down from Max's room. Max is going to sleep." She looked at Lark, "he apparently asked if he could get a double bed down there because he wants to cuddle with you."

Charlotte tried to reach for Grady again, but Fallon was suddenly on her feet, and she grabbed the woman and shoved her away.

"Dad, she needs to go, or I need to go," Fallon said bluntly. "I'm too stressed to deal with this. She hurt my sister and having her standing here acting like she's an innocent victim of her own bullshit is making me angry, and I can't deal with it.

Ollie held up her phone, "I'm on it. Santiago and Heriberto are arranging for Charlotte to go back to a hotel and get cleaned up. If she wants to come back and wait for Gracie's surgery to be completed, they will deal with her. Otherwise, none of us will deal with her again." Ollie stepped up to Charlotte, her eyes cold and menacing, "usually I throw fists to protect my family but this time I'm using a bigger weapon. You will go with my fiancé and his security team. You will not speak to the Hoffman's again, including Gracie. If by a horrible, tragic outcome, Gracie passes away, you will be permitted to attend the funeral, but you will be closely guarded and unable to be anywhere near my friends."

"Who do you think you are?" Charlotte asked stepping up to Ollie.

"Olivia Rosamunde Villeneuve, CEO of Moreno Oil and Gas, and best friend to Lark Hoffman who is the younger sister to Gracie. It makes Gracie my family."

"Moreno?" Charlotte's eyes bugged, "as in the oil tycoon?"

"Yeah," Ollie's voice was a harsh whisper, "and you can get those dollar signs out of your eyes. The only money I will throw to you will be following your body down one of my oil wells. Do not cross paths with my family again, or you'll live to regret it."

"I never asked to come here."

"A mistake we all recognize," Ollie said bluntly.

Lark was stunned at how cold and brutal Ollie was being. This was the CEO Gael Moreno trained from the age of eight to be a ruthless b***h in and out of the boardroom.

When Santiago and Heriberto stepped into the room, Ollie waved at Charlotte, "take her somewhere to wait until we get the results of Gracie's surgery. I don't particularly care if it's comfortable."

"She is her mother," Santiago said quietly as if questioning Ollie's directions.

"Yet, after nearly fifty minutes of being in this waiting room, she has shown no inclination to ask about or to see Gracie. Áll she's done is eyeball Grady's Rolex and talk about trying to get money from Sawyer." Santiago grimaced, "disgusting. I will personally escort her off the premises. I will be back shortly. I believe there is a motel up the road where the cockroaches aren't too big. She can wait there under the watchful eye of my security team." "Lovely."

"Wait!" Charlotte held her hands up as Santiago waved at her to start walking. "Look, I'm Gracie's mom and Sawyer was my husband. I'm sure I'm entitled to some kind of compensation. Can I sue whoever it was who shot them? Grady, you're still a lawyer, right? You and I can work together, and we can take on the case and get paid for our heartbreak. I mean, if you're friends with the Moreno family you probably have clout now, right? You could help and we could make a lot of money!"

Santiago looked around at the group in disbelief and shook his head, "perhaps I will find a room with bigger cockroaches?

"Please do," Grady grunted. "I wouldn't be opposed to a snake or two either."

"I'll sue them!" Charlotte yelled excitedly. "You have to help me, Grady."

Lark considered this was the first real emotion Charlotte showed which genuinely reflected her character. Charlotte was talking animatedly, her hands wringing, and her mouth pursed, the lines deep. "Yes. I will sue them."

"You can't sue dead people," Santiago griped suddenly as he grabbed Charlotte by the arm.

"The shooter is dead?" Charlotte asked and then groaned, "well that's not good. How did he die?" "Painfully," Santiago leaned over Charlotte, "much the way you will if you don't get moving right now." As the two men dragged the protesting woman out of the room, Lark looked at Ollie in surprise and then moved to sit down.

Doug was dead.