Maximus Flashback PT. 2

"Your only appeal is that you’re a Hennessy. Can’t you see that?”

She tried not to show any reaction to his verbal blows, but despite her best efforts, her eyes filled with tears.

“He saw how useful you were at the party and thinks ruining you will force me to accept him.” His eyes glinted with malice. “He should have accepted the deal with Don Langdon and stopped reaching higher. I’m going to teach him a lesson.”

She lurched forward. “No, please don’t!”

Maximus eyed her with such potent contempt that she couldn’t hold his gaze.

“I've given you every resource I possess. The best education, opportunities people would beg for and this is what you choose to do with your life? Tarnish my name and humiliate yourself? Have you no self-respect? No honor? You really are your mother’s daughter. Desperate, impulsive, selfish, disloyal. I shouldn’t have wasted my time, trying to make something of you. The other half of your genetic makeup was always going to lead us here.”

She was crying openly now and her chest was quaking with the sobs she was trying her best to keep contained. “I-I’m sorry. I never meant to—”

“I tried to rectify a mistake twenty-three years ago and I’m still being punished for it,” he spat. “Even dead, Elena’s having the last laugh. Do you think Ford will take you now that you’re soiled goods? He has every right to walk away. I would. Who wants to be tied to a loose woman with no morals? You’re a disgrace. I can barely look at you.”

She was bent at the waist, arms around her middle as if that would protect her from his words that were worse than a physical beating.

“You think James Roth cares for you? That he’d risk everything he’s worked for, for you?” Dad taunted. “Let’s see how fast he drops you once I start destroying his little businesses.”

She went cold all over. She knew how vindictive her father was. Roth didn’t stand a chance against him and he’d worked his ass off.

“Don’t! I’ll do anything,” she begged.

“You break it off with him or I ruin his deal with Don Langdon,” Dad ordered.

She swallowed and nodded.

“You never see him again.”

The thought of never seeing Roth again made her chest ache, but it was for the best. He didn’t deserve to be tortured by her father when he’d given her so much.

“I don’t know if any of this can be salvaged. There’s millions on the line. Business deals and a partnership that has been in place for nearly thirty years that you jeopardized. It’s only a matter of time before news of this spreads. You won’t be able to keep it quiet, but that’s what you wanted, right? Attention. Well, you got it. Everyone’s going to know exactly what you are. Worthless. Now, get out of my sight before I do something to you I regret.”

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Sins. Please do not share or distribute.

Copyright © 2025 Mia Knight. All Rights Reserved.