The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

"Get out of bed," Grady grabbed his daughter's exposed foot and yanked it. "You're coming into the office with me today."

"Dad," Lark whined into her pillow.

"No. You've been home five days and you've barely left this room since Sunday. You've ignored all of Ollie's calls to apologize and refused to let her into this room. You've been sulking. It's Wednesday Lark. Your mother and I didn't raise you to let your troubles bog you down like this. Get your ass up and let's go."

"Dad, I don't want to."

"I don't recall asking what you wanted Lark Hoffman. Get up, get showered and get dressed. If you are not in my car and ready to go in thirty minutes, I'm coming back in here and I'm bringing your grandmother in. ***k," fallen

she swore angrily. "I'm not fifteen anymore Dad. I'm nearly thirty years old and my life feels like it's apart and if I want to sulk about it, I can! Do you not get it? I lost my job, one I worked really hard at to do well in. The man I thought was going to propose to me last Thursday cheated on me with his secretary in a weird, twisted cliché and you know what's worse?" She stomped her feet as she sat up and planted them on the floor, "I miss him. I miss him despite him putting his d**k inside another woman. I hate sleeping alone and I hate not being in our condo. I hate not going for a run in the mornings with him or hiking on the weekend or being lazy with him. I hate not talking through my cases with him. I f*****g miss him and he's a cheating prick."

"Lark," his father whispered her name.

"No. You want me up? I'm up. You make out I'm weak or incapable because I'm taking time to mourn a relationship, I've been in for three years. hurts. I hurt. My heart is f*****g broken and none of you get it. Ollie is in my face all the time and I'm not ready to accept her apology for Sunday because I've had enough of having one person I love hurting me, and I'm trying to deal with that. I can't deal with the pain of him and the bullshit of her at the same time. I don't understand why it hurts so much or why I miss him so much when I saw with my own eyes what he was doing. It bloody well hurts and I'm tired of it hurting. Nobody gets it! You and mom have this perfect relationship so you wouldn't get it. You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand? Are you kidding me? My wife cheated on me with my best friend, and it went ******g viral, Lark! I understand you better than anyone."

She blinked at him, "Mom cheated on you?"

"No. Charlotte. My first wife." He frowned at her. "Your mom wouldn't cheat on me."

"You were married before?" What the hell alternate universe did she wake up into? How did she not know her father was married before?

"Yes. Before I met your mom. I was practicing in Houston. I married my high school sweetheart. We were together through college. I'd been practicing in Houston for several years. You know I grew up better off than most. Not as rich as Olivier but my father did well. Your grandfather was famous in the city. You know how he is with his publicity. He wouldn't squeeze out a fart in an elevator in case it made him look bad. A video of Charlotte and my best friend Sawyer hit the internet. My father called me right before it was released saying he wanted me to get it pulled. I could have stopped it. I could have kept it from exploding and I let it go. Then when Sawyer did a publicity stunt to try to offer a public apology because he was getting trolled mercilessly, I walked up to him at his podium and knocked him out cold. One punch. I then packed my s**t and moved to Dallas."

She was dumbfounded. "How did I not know this? You were married to someone other than mom and she cheated?" "Yeah. It sucks, doesn't it?" his blue eyes stared into hers.

A flare of familiarity in his emotions forced Lark to step closer to her dad and she wrinkled her nose, "why did we not know this?"

"Because once I met your mom, no other woman, past or otherwise, mattered. Your mom, from the minute I laid eyes on her was all I ever wanted. I cherish her love every single day. I work hard to make sure she is loved and never, ever needs to go looking elsewhere for affection."

"Dad, it's not your fault she cheated. This Charlotte one looking for affection elsewhere tells me she was stupid." Lark grunted with a shake of her head.

"How do you know? I could have been a grade A prick."

"Oh, it's a given," she grinned at her father's offended expression and rose on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "I just know though, based on how well you love mom, Fallon, and me, it wasn't because you didn't love this Charlotte person well. There are some people in this world who don't know how to be decent human beings and I'm guessing she is one of them."

"Well, you and I now belong to a very exclusive group of Hoffman's who've been f****d over by our significant others. I know what you're going through, Lark. I know how much it hurts. It's also why I know laying in bed, crying day in and day out, alienating your friends and snapping at your mom and sister," he gave her a warning glance at the way she opened her mouth to protest, "is not the best way to move forward. Can I give you a piece of advice a very smart woman once told me?"

"Sure."

"Each tear you cry over his cheating ass is a check in his win column. Don't let the fucker win." She smiled, "Nana Prue, huh?"

"Yup. See, as much as it hurt for Charlotte to cheat, I lost my best friend. We'd been friends from the time

we were in kindergarten until the day the video was released. Losing him broke my heart more than losing her. It hurt a lot, Lark. However, the best way for me to move forward was to not let them win."

"It's not a competition though Dad. I'm not competing against Doug. He's not out trying to win at a perverse contest where he tries to count my tears over his hurtful behavior."

"No. However each day you allow him to affect your heart and your mind, is more time he has in your head. I stood downstairs listening in on the s**t he spouted on Saturday Lark. The guy actually thought you would go to counselling and forgive him this betrayal. He was told to stay away from you, but I know he texted you last night during dinner from yet another new number. Didn't he?"

She shrugged one shoulder carelessly, "I didn't answer."

"Yet, after dinner you came back up here, curled into a ball and cried yourself to sleep. He won the round, Lark by getting into your head."

"Dad, I'm trying. It's hard."

"It wouldn't be so hard if you weren't pushing your friends away."

"Well, in my defence, my friend is Ollie. She doesn't do emotions well. Her response to emotions is to throw fists or get into screaming matches. I needed space and she needed to be right in my face pushing. She's also so bloody defensive all the time. She certainly wasn't trying to make me feel better on Sunday." "I think her behavior was more her defending Max than not caring about how you are hurting over Doug." "Why does everyone defend him?"

"Look, I'll be the first to say he wasn't on his best behavior in school. Most teenagers aren't and before you say you were, you were not a typical teenager, Lark. You had your career path mapped out in sixth grade. He was a teenage boy, with a brain far superior to everyone else in his school, trying to balance his popularity with his sister's notoriety and his best friend's expectations."

"I didn't have expectations," she protested.

"You did, Lark. Whether you realize it or not, in your heart you expected him to see you the way you saw him. He didn't know you were interested in him, Lark. You can't blame him for not making a move when you hid it so carefully from him." "You knew! Mom knew. His parents knew. Nana knew. Hell, Johan, and Ollie knew. Everyone knew but him!"

"How can you hold him to a standard you're not holding yourself to? You dated boys in school. Not often and usually from a different school because nobody wanted to cross the Villeneuve twins in your school, but you dated too. We all knew how he felt about you. Yet you didn't know. How is it any different him not knowing versus you not knowing?"

"What? You knew?"

"Me, your mom, Nana, his parents, his entire adult family. We all knew he had a thing for you. You didn't see it."

She looked away. "There were times I thought I did see it, Dad and then when I wanted to act on it, he'd act like an ass.'"

"Perhaps. All I'm saying is, you didn't tell him. You can't blame him or hold him accountable for not acknowledging your feelings when he never knew about them."

"Well, it's moot now anyway. I'm done with him. In fact, I'm done with all men. I'm contemplating a move to

a convent." She frowned, "or maybe I'll be the first female monk in the Tibetan mountains. I'm capable." "Sure, you are," he snickered at her. "You are not meant to spend your life alone, Lark. Your heart is meant to love and be loved," he winked and kissed her forehead, "like your Dad."

She hugged him and sighed, "maybe but right now, I'm not ready."

"That's fair," he hugged her back before looking at his watch, "you're down to twenty minutes." "Dad!" she made wide eyes.

"Hey, I have to set an example for my employees. I can't show up late." He backed out of the room after releasing her, "you better hurry, Lark. Nana Prue was already in the kitchen talking about having you go on her next singles cruise with her."

She was revolted by the notion, "Dad. I am not going on a singles cruise with Nana."

"She was putting brochures on the counter. Said maybe you'd like to be a sugar baby for a while, and she could get you set up."

His laugh mocked her as she screeched and raced to her bathroom slamming the door shut. She couldn't stop the smile on her face though as his laugh carried through the house. Leave it to her dad to give her life lessons before seven in the morning.