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struck at her heart, but it was too late to back down. She
     had made her stand, just as her grandfather had now done.
    “Is this how you feel as well, Dad?” she asked bitterly. “Would you cut me out of
     your life so easily?”
    His jaw tightened as he refused to speak.
    As far as Anna was concerned, that was answer enough.
    “I’ll get my things and leave.”
    “No you won’t.” The fury in her grandfather’s voice made her pause. “You haven’t bought
     a damned thing you call your own. Everything you have someone else has bought for
     you. You can leave this house the same way you came into it, with nothing. You should
     be thankful I let you have the clothes on your back,” he reminded her. “That’s all
     you leave with and you can count yourself lucky that I’m allowing you that much.”
    Her chest tightened, her heart constricting until she was certain she would die from
     the agony tearing through her.
    This was her grandfather.
    She’d loved him all her life.
    He’d spoiled her when she was a child, swore he would protect and love her, then he
     had sent her away, swearing it was for her own good.
    He’d lied to her, cheated her out of a childhood, and now, he was attempting to cheat
     her out of the rest of her life.
    “Daddy?” she asked. “Are you going to let him do this?”
    Not even her purse? Or the car they had bought her for her sixteenth birthday?
    The one she had so rarely gotten to drive?
    None of her clothes, or her shoes?
    Nothing of the mementos bought for her through the years that she treasured so much,
     not even a picture of her parents?
    “And don’t fool yourself into thinking I’m not well aware of what you were up to with
     that damned sheriff in town when you slipped off to the social weekend before last,
     either,” her grandfather informed her then, his tone brutal. “The reason you want
     to be back here so bad has nothing to do with your family and everything to do with
     whoring around with that son of a bitch. Stay the hell away from him.”
    Shaking in fury, outrage, and the shattering of her heart, Anna didn’t bother to fight
     back her tears.
    “Go to hell!” she cried out. “I’ll whore with whoever the hell I please. It would
     be a far sight better than trying to be perfect enough to be a part of this family.
     It’s pretty damned evident that no matter how anyone tries to love you, or hold onto
     you, the only thing you know how to do is turn on them.”
    “I turn on enemies,” he told her with a cold smile as he finally rose from his seat.
     “Now make up your mind, little girl. Take your ass to France or get out.”
    “Ah, least you’re allowing me a choice,” she sneered. “It’s more than you allowed
     Crowe, isn’t it?”
    “At least I’m prepared to give you a choice,” he snarled back at her from the table,
     his arms crossing over his chest imperiously. “I don’t recall giving him one.”
    The callous disregard in his tone was at odds with the look in his eyes, the turmoil
     and pain she could have sworn glowed within them.
    She turned to her father again.
    He was at the table, his palms flat against the top of it as he stared down at the
     circular glass top rather than at her or his father.
    He wouldn’t look at her, refused to acknowledge her.
    “Why, Daddy?” she asked. “Why are you letting him do this?”
    Slowly, his head lifted. His gray eyes looked tortured, his face drawn and years older
     than it had been minutes before.
    “It’s the only way I know how to protect you.” He turned and left the room.
    “Make your choice, Anna,” her grandfather demanded.
    She didn’t see anger in his gaze, though; rather, she saw a resigned misery, as though
     he had known this day would come, and still, he hadn’t been prepared for it.
    Tears were soaking her face, she realized, running from her cheeks and dripping onto
     the silk cami she wore with her jeans and sneakers.
    “I’ve made my choice.” She could barely